Monday, September 29, 2014

12 stories

by nick nelson

illustrations supplied by pete palomine studios and penmarq studios






excuses

terry was tired of jerry's excuses.

it was time to settle their accounts, mark a clean break and move on.

terry sat down and drew up a list of their resources, and wrote a prospectus on the best way to split them.

jerry didn't see it that way.

*

horticulture

maria liked to plant flowers. her garden was her life.

bud, her boy friend, was a mean drunk and grew jealous of maria's flowers.

one day when maria went to pick up some chinese food, bud pulled up all her flowers.

then he disappeared.

*

variety

rick was a guy who grew bored very easily.

as a child he had been diagnosed with some kind of symptom or syndrome.

he was particularly given to eating combinations of foods that his fellow humans found disgusting.

eventually all his friends drifted away.

*

don't get me started

nate used to watch a lot of television, but after cindy left him he got more interested in politics.

he developed strong opinions, especially on immigration and the second amendment.

but nobody cared what he thought.

*

emptiness

sometimes, when the sun went down, and the last siren died away in the lonely streets, sid would just sit in the dark and look out his window (he only had one) at nothing.

*

defeat

"that was your last warning."

*

gratitude

when barry was down and out, leon came through for him big time.

and never let him forget it.

*

obsolescence

"i'm sorry, jonathon, i can't use these."

"not one? not a single one out of fourteen?"

"not a single one. sorry."

*

world of tomorrow

mona walked slowly down the steps from the door of the spacecraft.

her breath was taken away by her first sight of the intergalactic capital, and its magnificent dome.

she felt someone nudge her from behind.

"come on, lady, time is money."

*

undertow

"helpless?"

*

appropriate attire

"i do not think that is appropriate attire for the theater, raymond. please change into something less proletarian."

"but i don't have have time."

"you do have time."

"we'll be late."

"if we are late, when we return i shall have you flogged."

"might we still have ice cream after the show?"

"why not?"

*

beauty and the beast

"walter, do you think i am still beautiful?"

"good lord, what a question to ask a man before he has finished his first drink."

"your first drink of the evening, you mean."

"don't provoke me, my dear. it won't do."

*



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