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October 11, 2006

10.11.06

Look! Up in the sky! It's... What the heck is that thing?

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Jim: It's A Bird

When the weather’s nice, the orderlies take us down to the yard. We walk on the grass, touch the trees and smell the flowers, all comfy and secure within the high wire fence.

“Aliens!” screamed Ms. Simms, pointing at the sky. Again.

As an orderly rushed over to sedate her, I followed the path of her finger.

A winged shape circled in the crystal blue sky, wheeling larger and larger.

It bounced a few times on landing, waddling to a stop at my feet.

“Nice bathrobe, Fred,” quacked the green-headed duck.

“I thought I was done with you,” I sighed.

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David: Able To Leap...

Sure, in his public identity he was a hero to billions, a paragon of virtue. He’d saved the world countless times and put innumerable supervillains behind bars for the rest of their lives.

However, every now and again, he couldn’t resist the urge to go in disguise to some random city, jump off a tall building in his civvies, and smash face first into the pavement in front of a crowd of aghast onlookers. He’d get up, dust himself off, and walk away calmly before anyone could get a good look at him.

Clark Kent loved messing with people’s heads.

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Ted: Ego

He had been diligent to the point of collapse. Day after day he ground down his soul for no real sense of accomplishment or financial gain. It had become a bitter thing, really, to sit and shave little pieces of himself off and then let others judge the quality of the cut of meat.

He finally reached his personal event horizon: nothing else would escape. He held himself in, away from the voyeurs and scavengers.

Eventually, his head exploded, as we all know.

His spirit refused to stop thinking, however, thus creating the myth of the floating advertising exec's brain.

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Stacy: Black Ops

The project had been under development for over a decade. It had suffered budget cuts, administration changes, complete reversals in direction, yet it had endured. It might not look exactly as it did when first proposed, but it was still in development. Then one day, out of the blue, it was fast-tracked to production.

There were small mutterings at first… did we move too fast? Did we know exactly what we were doing? Speeches were made, palms were greased, and the mutterings went away. Finally, the big day came and the project was deployed.

We never saw the sun again.

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