Before we knew what was happening, I was hanging by my fingertips over about a billion miles of empty sky, my buddy and his parachute were dwindling into an invisible speck somewhere below me, and the chicks were whooping like banshees.
What’s wrong with being boring? I LIKE being boring!
This story was based on the prompt “before we knew” at TypeTrigger.
Like before every job interview, he could feel the sweat staining the armpits of his blue shirt. He buttoned the top two buttons of his suit, then decided to unbutton the first. “Don’t stutter, don’t mumble. Be confident,” he whispered to himself quaveringly. “Okay, Shirley, send in the next candidate.”
Grey Joyner is a Brown University student who often has contests with his father on who can come up with the best 50-word story.
“What are your plans for the future?” Grandma asked me during dinner one evening.
“Er,” I said. “Um. Uh. I guess…”
“You should become a lawyer,” she declared, “and find yourself a wife.”
So I went straight home, fired up PhotoShop, and started putting together some grad and wedding photos.
“Mr. Chang, your program has come a long way. What gave your team such motivation to work with folded paper?”
“Origami has been our lifelong passion. We’re just thrilled to push it to its limits.”
“So what’s next?”
“Now that we’ve achieved a paper-based, human-bearing aircraft, we’re looking towards space!”
This story was based on the prompt “folded paper” at TypeTrigger.
Joey was super great at bouncing on his trampoline. He bounced so high that he flew all the way to Mars, but they didn’t have trampolines there, because Martians are boring, so he had to build a giant slingshot to fling himself back home.
That’s what he told me, anyways.
You ripped out my heart. That wasn’t very nice.
I do appreciate your thoughtfulness in replacing it and stitching me up afterwards, and my new eyeballs work great, thanks, but would it have been too much trouble to remove these huge bolts from my neck, while you were at it?
This story was based on the prompt “ripped out” at TypeTrigger.
Glenda sashayed into the house pulling an overflowing shopping cart.
Trevor nearly fell off his chair. “What in the world? Where’d you get all that butter!?”
“I was couponing,” explained Glenda, “and I got on a roll…”
“What are we supposed to do with it!?”
“…Put it on some rolls?”
Death is an unsettling experience. The sudden weight-loss, poor circulation and depression has been known to drive many victims of death into suicidal states and impractical levels of homesickness.
Experts on the often fatal condition recommend emergency surgical obliteration of the brain as the most effective and efficient known cure.
Since his last submissions, Gavin has been writing for his local University and upholding a (mostly) weekly blog of his writings. He is quietly contented with life.
“When I was much younger, I could bench press a fat man!”
“Oooh!” said my granddaughter, eyes twinkling.
“Yep, your grandpa’s pretty strong! And even though I’m getting older, I bet I could still do it, if you gave me a chance.”
My granddaughter said, “I can do push-ups, too!”
This story was based on the prompt “much younger” at TypeTrigger.
He had the eyebrows of a Greek god.
He kept them in a vacuum-sealed glass display case, mounted onto a simple plaster bust, and reluctantly loaned them to museums for a few months every year.
Few people noticed that these months always coincided with The Olympian’s annual vacation from superheroism.
This story was based on the prompt “the eyebrows” at TypeTrigger.