Archive for the ‘David Kopaska-Merkel’ Category
Zoli Lends Himself Trouble
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
To celebrate our first anniversary, each of us here at the Cabal has come up with a story beginning with a line kindly provided to us by Jay Lake. Click the link at the bottom of the page to see how Alex and Dan have dealt with this Zoli person, and come back tomorrow to see what Edd Vick does…
Zoli liked to hang around psychiatrists’ waiting rooms to hit on the low self-esteem chicks. They would do just about anything for a little insincere praise. The only downside was that they bonded quickly and he was not interested in commitment. He got around that problem by dumping them in parallel worlds when they became tiresome.
Dr. Faro had a large waiting room. Zoli made eye contact with the brunette again over the top of his Field & Stream. She recrossed her legs, flashing an inviting view under her white cotton skirt. He got up, then slid into the seat next to her. “This seat taken?”
Everything was going fine until another brunette strode in the door.
“Hey baby, you got a sister?” he asked the one holding his hand.
“I’m not good enough for you?” She pulled away a little.
“Sure, but…”
The other woman (Brunette 2) stood in front of them, hands on her hips. “You! Here you are, picking up my twin in the waiting room, just like you did with me.” She turned to the other woman. “Don’t believe anything he says,” she warned, “he showed me a great time for a few weeks until he got bored, then he dumped me in this universe. I guess he never thought his twin’d be running the same game over here.” The woman sitting by Zoli (Brunette 1) took her hand out of his.
“Look baby, who you gonna believe? She’s acting crazy, which is maybe okay because she’s in a shrink’s office, but you and me, we oughta go someplace else where we can be alone together.” Brunette 1 stood up and took a step back. Zoli stood up too and held out an arm to plead with her. Then he dropped his arm. “You know what, that’s okay. Plenty more girls out there, you know what I mean.”
The door opened and two blondes came in. They looked like the doublemint girls. They made a beeline for Zoli, gave the two brunettes a once over, and then they grabbed his arms.
“You dumped my twin,” one of them said, inclining her head at the other. “We’ve got a whole club going, and they want to meet you.” Zoli gulped, and looked over at the brunettes.
“Can we join?” Brunette 1 asked.
The end
Doing Free Time
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
Will opened the letter from Stupendous Stories. He had just sent “Revenge of the Kudzu-Eaters” two days ago, and here was the reply. “Dear Mr. Stockton. It is with profound regret that I write to inform you…” A rejection! Well, he’d revise the story and send it to Daring Tales. He was pondering “which” vs “that”, when the phone rang.
“Hello.”
“Hi Will, want to go to the movies?”
“Aw, Mary Ann, I’m in the middle of a story…”
“But I didn’t see you at all last weekend. What’s the new story about?”
“I’m revising Kudzu-Eaters.”
“SS didn’t like it? That story was great!”
“Thank you. Look, I’ll call you when I get done. Promise.”
A new story. He did have an idea about a sequel to the classic “Mole Men” tale.
“The black needle ships descended in their thousands, disgorging the sinuous bodies of the Mustelid Marine. Ambush predators by nature, they made the ideal guerrilla warriors….”
He quit working on “Attack of the Space Weasels” when he got too hungry to think.
10:30. Too late to call Mary Ann now. He assembled a turkey sandwich. Then he made a second one.
In the morning, he kept his eye on the mailbox. As soon as the postman arrived, Will was out there to get the mail.
Not counting junk mail and bills there was a letter from Stupendous Stories and one from Daring Tales.
The envelope from Daring Tales contained “Kudzu-Eaters” – which he had only put in the mail that morning. Stupendous Stories had accepted “…Space Weasels.” He looked over at the computer, where the unfinished story showed on the screen.
“I wonder how it ends,” he thought.
He reached for the phone. “Mary Ann? I’ve got some time tonight; still want to see that movie?” Before they left he jotted down a note: “write something about an empire in an underground lake.”
The next day he received $350 payment for “Empire of Darkness,” and another $275 for the sequel.
Will quickly settled into the practice of coming up with story ideas and collecting checks for the unwritten stories.
Three months later he was arrested for the murder of his wife Mary Ann.
“I haven’t even married her,” he protested.
“You will,” Sheriff Sims said grimly.
The end