100 Word Story #004 – The Map
The best I can figure, he was a gift. That really can be the only explanation she’s kept him around for so long. Like the tie your great grandmother gives you that you bury in your sock drawer and only wear when she’s around. Yet, he’s with her 24/7. Offering his “adviceâ€. Inane advice in that voice. That voice! That horrible, horrible voice. She doesn’t need him. She’d get to where she’s going faster without him. But there he is. Always. There. With her. If I were Dora, that fuckin’ map would be at the bottom of the river.
100 Word Story #003 – Champ
Tears. She was no stranger to tears. She was five after all and tears were a regular occurrence at five. She wiped her nose on the sleeve of her Gi. She trudged towards the door of the convention center. The trophy in her other hand dragged on the floor. Being half her size she couldn’t lift it. First place. It meant nothing.
The afternoon sun got brighter as she approached the door, the tears increased. The youngest Tae Kwon Do champion had injured opponents before sure, but she’d never killed one. There would be no charges, but it still hurt.
100 Word Story #002 – Dream
Jaffe held his breath and jumped down onto the track, carefully avoiding the third rail as he ran. He didn’t live this long to die that way. Behind him, their labored breathing, louder than his, could be heard. In moments, they were on him. Everything faded to black.
When he woke, he was on the ground in the middle of an amusement park. Japanese tourists walked by him, not noticing at the man in bloodied clothes lying on the floor. He sat up and looked at his watch. It was 2 days previous.
He still had time to warn everyone.
100 Word Story #001 – The News
Jason got the paper, but he didn’t “get†the paper. He was 8 and besides skimming the comics, which 99% of the time were painfully unfunny, it offered him nothing. Wars. Stocks. Underwear ads. Adult stuff. But daily, for his father, he retrieved the latest copy from the lawn before the sprinklers began their morning soaking.
Today’s headline caught his eye immediately. Now, he couldn’t understand all the words he read, but he got the gist. This was news. Important kid news. What they knew all along, confirmed. In print. He smiled and raced inside.
Spinach was bad for you.
©2006 Grant Baciocco