After being married for thirty years he thought he’d pretty much figured her out, but when she came home with a baby crocodile for Christmas he realized she was as beautifully, wonderfully mysterious to him now as she always had been, which wasn’t much consolation when it ate the dog.
Category Archives: Odd
Monkey Bar Highway
The virus targeted only medical professionals and civil engineers.
No one was left who knew how to figure out why the plague had targeted such a specific population. But that wasn’t the biggest problem: city planning failed, crooked minds prevailed, and before long, the streets were made of monkey bars.
Context and Description: The Core Ingredients of Engaging Narrative
LaRoche leaned over the edge and gazed down on the street below.
There wasn’t even a single car.
That wasn’t unusual, because it was 1723. Louis XV had just attained his majority, and it wouldn’t be long before the Treaty of St. Petersburg was signed.
Then he jumped.
Then he landed.
Today’s fifty-word story was partially inspired by reading Les Miserables, which is a very description-heavy, context-heavy book. Lord of the Rings is another. I love them both.
TIM SEVENHUYSEN: The Door at the End of the Hall
There was a door at the end of the hall.
No one knew where it led. Some said a bathroom. Some said a secret cellar. Some said France.
Only one man claimed to know the secret.
He died in a car accident. No one asked very many questions after that.
This story was based on a title suggested by @C_h_a_s_e_y.
BRUCE RYTEL: The Battlegrid
I never understood checkers.
When you leap over another piece, it’s captured? What, do they all have gigantic nets or something?
And why flat discs? Why not something more representative, like in chess?
When the UFOs began to descend, I realized the truth: they had been preparing us for war.
Soon to be a student of culinary arts and therefore thrilled that he can call himself an “art student” and act pretentious on a technicality, Bruce Rytel’s hobbies include writing, gaming, and going by a pseudonym.
Rolling Hills
“Freezabunga, dude! Let’s go snow surfing!”
“You mean snowboarding?”
“Yeah, man, surfing on giant waves of snow!”
“I don’t think that’s actually… You know what? Never mind. It sounds awesome! Let’s do it!”
The newly installed wave machine on the ski hill made it super wicked gnarly tubular rad.
TIM SEVENHUYSEN: The Magical Cup and a Terrifying Beast
There once was a terrifying beast with shaggy hair and pointed teeth.
A pure-hearted village child possessed a magical cup. It always flowed with water, no matter how much you drank from it.
The child gave the cup to the beast, which devoured it.
Now the beast can’t stop peeing.
This story was based on a title provided by @DewMan001.
Correlation Does Not Imply Causation
When he got his Visa bill, his eyes popped out of his skull.
They literally fell right out. We aren’t sure if something on the bill caused it, or if the two events were unrelated. All we know is that his eyeballs ended up on the floor.
It was gross.
JOHN BARNES: It’s Story Time
I think I will write a story today.
Words to paint glowing meanings in which I’ll revel,
Using verbs and nouns, adjectives as well,
Fiction or truth, a story of many words I’ll tell,
To keep me happy, as hours to days will swell.
Oh, there is no ink! No stories today.
She Didn’t Know What It Was
Gloria was a performer. She’d known it since the day she’d somersaulted out of the egg and into the fish tank with a brilliant smile and a saucy wink.
Now she performed synchronized swimming routines for the world-famous aquatic circus. With fame came fortune: she dined on caviar most evenings.