Wheel’s 10 Thread

Appetite                                                                                                                 freak & shadow

Dragged out into the light for the amusement of the throne, I did not like the taste of my existence. The sweet laughter and the honeyed wines sickened me even as I waddled and cavorted for the mindless elite. Prying at my soul, they gave me no refuge, leering at my deformity, shoving me out again and again to perform. So in the gloom of my chamber, as my tears wandered down to my lips, I learned the taste of bitterness and found it preferable.

As they had eviscerated me with light, I in turn gave them over to merciless illumination. Carefully, as they slept—as the guard studied the outer darkness, I mapped out the corridors with oil and powders, limping throughout the recesses, unseen. I started it all with a single candle.

I am not a fiend; I simply prefer the taste of tears and shadows. But I have grown tired of my own. Instead, I will drink the sorrow of the world and I will quench myself even if I have to drain it to the dregs.

Brob’s 10 Thread

A Measure of Desolation                                                                                               notebook & alone

As Henry and the others crossed the last crevasse, the sun peered over the rim of the artic horizon, gazing for an hour, and then withdrawing in weakness. But it wasn’t the indestructible darkness that was getting to Henry. It was the vast distances that whittled down his spirit, the myth of a flat earth seeming more and more plausible; he imagined a mantle of rock stretching out forever on which he could reach the next galaxy on foot.

Gordon broke the frozen seam of the cabin door with his shoulder and they clumped inside, Henry letting his pack fall next to the stack of firewood. Wallace helped Gordon nurture some heat from the stove, while Henry scrounged together a meal of jerky, water, beans, and corn—also discovering a small notebook crammed in among the canned goods.

Right after dinner, Henry brooded at the slab of pine that served as the table, while the other two men wormed their way into their sleeping bags. Within a minute they were both dozing, but Henry could not stop thinking about the gaping universe. Opening the notebook, Henry expected to find only recipes or an inventory of meals for men long dead, but it was a journal that began, 1935 April 7, ALL ALONE.

It felt a little like blasphemy; it felt a little like desecration, but Henry found a pencil and wrote in the margin, I’M HERE. And even though time was impervious to such efforts of penetrating the past, Henry found comfort.

Scott Carter’s 10 thread

notebook/along

“The death of technology”

1. This new technology was fantastic in what it made possible in the middle of nowhere.
2. Here he was – sitting on a deserted island, and still able to continue a conversation via his notebook, the internet, satellites and solar technology.
3. “What have you been able to eat today?” the notebook emailed him in question.
4. He typed his reply with four fingers – slower than a secretary, but still pretty fast – “Not much – I found some coconut and a small fish.”
5. It was important to keep in touch and keep his spirits up, to keep from despairing from the loneliness.
6. That was why he was so thankful for this technology – even though he knew that it might not last.
7. He had noticed that his battery, despite being solar-powered, was starting to give up and he expected it to stop very soon.
8. “This may be my last message, so I think I will say goodbye and good luck,” he tapped onto the belly of the notebook, ending with a firm poke to the right.
9. Within a few seconds, as expected, his notebook closed down, the energy needed to run it seeping away through the battery that refused to work any more.
10. As he turned away to leave the failed technology dead in the sand, he heard his colleague get up from under the only tree that provided shade, shifting his notebook carefully off his lap, “What do you mean you found a fish – you didn’t say you found a fish! Why didn’t you share any?”

Raven’s 10 thread

shadow/freak

“Five o’clock shadow”

1. “Hey, Stevie – how ya doin’?”
2. “Not too bad today, Jerry,” Stevie answered, swiping the blade along the stubborn stubble.
3. “Today’s another day, you know,” as the blade pushed, but not too hard, balancing between blunting a hair and slicing a jugular – but that was the necessary risk for the situation.
4. “Yeah – you never know what tomorrow will bring, eh?”
5. “I do,” Stevie replied, “but I’m not letting that get me down, that’s for sure.”
6. “How can you always stay so positive,” Jerry asked, “with this bunch of freaks? I mean, I know it’s our lot in life to be looked at and laughed at, pointed at and goggled, but I don’t know how to be positive about it.”
7. “Well, Jer, you just keep your eye on what really matters – and that’s definitely not what you see in the mirror,” Stevie smiled broadly as the last edges were cleaned and the rest of the beard was revealed.
8. Stevie loved it when the five o’clock shadow that smudged the reality of the fantastic beard was swept away with the clean strokes of the blade and the cleansing water.
9. “Time to go, Jerry – time to give ‘em what they want and keep the real secret for those who deserve it.”
10. Jerry watched Stevie leave the bathroom and marveled – now that was a girl after his heart!

DECA Threads

Here we go – Scott will present his threads with words sent for Bret under “Scott Carter” and the words sent for him under “Raven”. Bret will write his stories with the words sent for Scott under “Brob” and the other under “Wheel” (unless I have turned those around.)

The first two words sent to Bret were: notebook/alone

The first two words sent to Scott were: shadow/freak

Oh no!

I just remembered that I need TWO sets of 10 words! No worries – I’m on it. Although I have to admit that I used Shirley’s help with the second set.

Ten ready to go!

I have my ten ready to go (numbered 1-10, if I remember correctly – I mean, I remember that I numbered them 1-10, but I mean if that is what I remember that we are supposed to do – that is what I remember, I think?). Let’s flash!

Flash Ten

Hey Raven! I’ve finally arrived! How about a ten-story series, starting with a fresh list of words?

The next thread

Not very realistic, but an interesting idea. Maybe on a different planet?

(samba-diamond) Dance til you drop
1. Yes, he was very good, but he was getting tired all the same.
2. There were only two left out of the group of 400 or so dancers, all still moving passionately to the beat of the samba band, stamping their feet and twisting their hands above their heads, intertwining their arms and circling around one another.
3. If only he could hold out long enough, he would be the winner; he would be able to take it all home!
4. He would build a huge house, be able to drive any car he wanted, and lounge around in the sun – they had promised that it would all be worth it; the winner would go home with the diamonds.
5. The sun – he could feel it now, perhaps too much.
6. The heat was getting to him, both the heat from the sun above beating down on their glistening, twirling bodies and the heat generated by all of the dancing on this stretch of sand.
7. As the last two dancers fell to the ground, the winning organizers of the “Diamond Samba” entered the dance ring and collected their brand-new, danced-from-the-sand diamonds.

Another flash in the pen

Here is the next bit I wrote with the threads. Haven’t gotten down to 5 sentences yet. Just 2 must be really hard!

(thread-shovel) A real man
1. Jordan was practically bursting out of his overalls with pride.
2. His dad had given him the shovel and asked him to go take care of the ditch by the driveway.
3. They were connecting to the new city sewage line and had to have a ditch dug all the way up to the house.
4. Most of the work had already been done by his father and three older brothers while he had to sit waiting and watching, chafing at the words flung at him by his brothers, “This is a job for a real man.”
5. Now he had his chance and he went at it with all the strength he could press out of his sinewy, lithe ten-year-old body; he’d show them who was a real man.
6. That evening after supper and a good cleaning all the boys were bragging to their mom about their strength and exploits when she said quietly, “But I’m glad I have a real man” and handed a needle and thread to her husband with a wink and a grin.
7. Jordan watched as his dad used a firm, steady and patient hand to thread the needle through what looked like an impossibly tiny hole and lovingly place it back in his wife’s hand.
8. Jordan vowed then and there to start the very next day learning how to be a real man.