The Track

Lisa like to walk the track early in the morning but today was different.  There had been too much to do and by the time the shopping was done it was too hot.  Trevor helped her do a few chores around the apartment and grabbed them a couple of salads from the deli for supper.  When the sun started to get low in the sky, they headed to the track and parked in their usual spot.

“Looks like rain.”  Lisa said as she stretched next to the car.

“Yes, but probably not til late tonight.”  Trevor locked the car and looked back to the north.  The sky was dark far off on the horizon and the you could taste the rain in the air.  “Looks like on of those summer storms.  Lots of lightening and thunder but I bet it doesn’t last long.”

Lisa frowned. “I hate lightening at night.  It keeps me awake.

Trevor grinned.  “Come on you big baby. The walk will help you sleep.”

They started briskly around the track,  the air heavy with humidity but the breeze helped cool them.  “This place is so empty.  I guess everyone else did their walking this morning.” Trevor looked around at the deserted park. “Maybe we should come in the evening more often.”

As they rounded the south end of the track they neared a walking bridge that led to the ball field.  Lisa hated that bridge.  Even on the sunniest days she got a little shiver and walked a little faster as she passed it.  It led over a deep drainage ditch. Tall weeds grew around it so you couldn’t see the bottom.  The storm would wash dust from the track and debris from town down the gully and Lisa didn’t like to think about what might be down there.  As they passed they heard the sound of a guitar playing under the weathered wooden structure.  Trevor stopped.  “Do you hear that?”

“Probably some teenager. What are you doing? Trevor, don’t!”  Trevor climbed down the steep bank, next to the bridge, holding on to tall weeks to keep from slipping.

“I’ll be right back!  This guy is good – I just want to see who’s playing!”  Trevor disappeared behind the curtain of weeds and shadows under the bridge.  Lisa stood at the edge of the track, craning her neck to try to see.  She wasn’t going to follow him.  “Trevor?  Come on!”

The guitar stopped.  She heard rustling and grunting.  “Trevor?  Are you okay?  Come on, let’s go!”

Lisa heard the sound of laughter.  Not giggling cheerful someone told you a good joke laughter.  The sound made her stomach twist and and she shivered.  She backed away from the edge of the track.  “Trevor?”  She called quietly.

The guitar chords drifted up to her.  She backed up against a tree on the other side of the track, tears running down her face. She sunk down to the ground, leaning her head on her knees.  “He will come back. He will.  I’ll wait.”

Laughter Is The Best…

Three Word Wednesday CXC: dread grasp pacify

Dustin paced around the apartment, movements growing jerky as minutes ticked by.  He walked in erratic circles, closer to where she sat, knees pulled up, arms clasped tightly around her legs.

She learned months ago that there was no point in trying to pacify him.  The rage would run it’s course.

“What do you want me to do?” He grasped the tufts of hair on either side of his head and pulled it.  “What do you want me to do?”

She dreaded this part.  She knew it did no good to answer and knowing what was coming she should have been running instead of sitting here ticking off the steps like a shopping list.  The laughter sat in her belly, shaking her, as she tried to tamp it down, bury it.

“What do you want me to do?”  He walked faster and knocked the clock off the table as he cruised by, pulling his hair, elbows out like some kind of manic chicken. “See what you made me do?”

He walked toward her and the laughter sitting inside, burst out and she doubled over, tears streaming down her face, holding her sides.  She laughed so hard she barely felt the first blow.  After that she didn’t care.

Basic Black

one word, one minute, write

One Word: Dress

It was black and simple and she had saved for two months.  It was perfect.  She got her hair and nails done and knew this would be the night.  He picked her up and took her straight to his place without even buying her dinner.  The gun matched the dress.

Never Count On a Thelosian

Sunday Scribbling: Weird

Three Word Wednesday Fondle, Sumptuous, kick

something new

String of ten December 3: RUT CITY-BECKON-MARIONETTE-THIN WALLED-IRIDESCENT-CRYPTIC-CRACKLE-DARLING-HINDU-WARREN

Rand mashed buttons furiously on the thin-walled iridescent communicator.  Somebody needed to extricate him and send in a clean up crew NOW, dammit!  If they didn’t get here in the next few minutes they were gonna need the clean up crew for him!  He felt the familiar uncomfortable limb-jerking marionette feeling that told him someone had found the right code and frequency and finally pushed the correct sequence to get him out of this God forsaken rut of a city.  If he never came back here again he would be fine, thanks.  His limbs started to jerk and he watched his own fingers disappear and then fade back in as he was plopped down in the middle of who knew what planet. He heard a crackle coming from the chip embedded in his ear lobe.

He looked around, hoping the crackle wouldn’t turn into a full blown diatribe before he got his bearings.  Emergency extrication was not an exact science.  Last time Rand found himself in a warren of alleys that led nowhere and everywhere you don’t want to go.  Mutants huddled in corners beckon with their thoughts, wraiths with their pale skin and green eyes glowing in the dark.  The only thing that kept him from succumbing to their siren song stretching tendrils into his brain was Darling on the other end of the communicator singing ballads to him.  Rand had no idea how Darling got her name, but he’d been more than a little in love with her ever since that day.  As long as he worked for The Asylum, he wanted her on the other end of this tenuous connection.

“Rand? Where the hell are you?”  Rand looked around.  He had come maybe two blocks and there seemed to be no one around. Come to think of it, that was strange in itself.  It was some sort of city.  The hindu-temple like buildings towered hundreds of feet over him and looking up, he could see they had sky rails.  Now what.  After the mess on Thelos, he needed to get the artifact back to the office.  “I have no idea Darling.”
“Well visuals on and I’ll see what I can dig up.”
Rand described the buildings to her.  “No life forms yet. Oops, wait!” Rand squeezed into the shadows as two very large, very blue, somethings passed by.  There was communication but mostly a series of grunts and squeaks.  Nothing he could process or that his translator recognized.  He flipped his eye piece down and tracked them and a little of the skyline and clicked to send vid to Darling.  “Okay, I have you.  You’re in the capital city on Lumor and they do not take kindly to unregistered visitors from off planet.  Give me a few secs and I’ll have data and bring you in.”

Rand was more than ready to be back.  Thelos was supposed to be drop in, meet up, and bring a package out.  Unfortunately someone must have been eavesdropping on trans because when he arrived, not only was that slimy Arthen there with his nasty dreads and sulphurous body odor, but in burst members of a rival faction and he had to leave the extraction area on foot.  Arthen was shooting his way out and screaming at Rand for payment as Rand ducked out the back and yelled at Darling to get him out of there.

Now he was on a planet with nothing but unfriendly giant smurfs and an artifact that was wanted throughout this part of the galaxy.  The universe was getting entirely too small for Rand.  His face was known on at least a dozen planets and he was banned from a few.  He didn’t want to add another one to the list.  He fondled the chip in his pocket.  This would bring a pretty price and he was more than ready for a sumptuous dinner and time to kick back with all that the credits from this sale would bring him.  First he had to get home alive. “Darling, my love!  Come get me!”

“Oh man, now I’m in for it!”  The two blue giants must have heard something because they were rounding the corner with a device in their hands that did NOT look friendly.  One of them fired just as Rand felt himself fading.  Seconds later he was staring up into Darling’s green eyes.

“Rand, you look like hell.”

“Love you too, Darling.”