Tanya Archives

October 15, 2007

Tanya: Untitled

“You can ask any sailor, and the keys from the jailor,” she sang quietly, applying her mascara.

This outpost was so far beneath her, but they’d scraped up the cash for one show. Naturally, she resisted, until her agent threatened to fire her. Bitch. This joint always gave her nightmares. And they never had champagne. Not even the synthesized crap.

“And the old men in wheelchairs know… God, I hate that song.” She glared at herself in the mirror. “You’re already here, Lex. Just get it over with.” She slipped a knife into her garter and headed for the bar.

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October 18, 2007

Tanya: Untitled

Bernard kept his eyes on the terrain, white-knuckled. “It’s just like driving in the Gunbarrel. Nothing to get freaked about.”

He hated this trip in the best of conditions, and now the enclosed crawler was bouncing like a jackhammer. He’d check out the suspension later. The spikes digging into the rocky, barren surface should keep the ride much smoother.

“I’m in for a thrashing if I don’t get the transmitter fixed fast,” he muttered. More likely a deep six, really, and he knew it. The boss was closing the trap on Ed, and needed the data sent out, like, yesterday.

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October 19, 2007

Tanya: Untitled

Theresa pushed the cart past him, scarcely hearing the words as he spoke to her.

“I never meant to hurt you, but she was so beautiful, so exciting, I couldn’t resist.”

She silently reshelved the books, winding her way through the stacks, as he continued trying to explain.

“It was meant to be a one-night thing, but now she’s pregnant, and I can’t just leave her.”

Theresa’s vision blurred, as she thought of their struggle, the years and tears and money they’d spent on doctors, trying to conceive. She barely remembered smashing in his temple with the forty pound dictionary.

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January 31, 2008

Tanya: Untitled

“Sam. Sam, look.”

“Let me be. It’s nothing. Another mirage.”

“No. It’s real,” he rasped.

Sam raised his burning head, and glanced at the horizon. Mac was right. A ship.

They had drifted for ages, it must have been months, after the boat’s engine had failed in a storm. Subsisting on whatever fish they could catch, and collecting rainwater in coolers, they had waited and prayed. They were malnourished, dehydrated, and blistered by the blazing sun. And now they were rescued.

Without speaking, they tied the anchor to Rick’s gnawed body, and pushed it overboard. Then they fired the flares.

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February 1, 2008

Tanya: Untitled

“I told you to have my dinner ready, you stupid…

BITCH!”

The corner of the nightstand sliced open her temple as she fell. Too numb to feel the cut, she sensed only the blood trickling down her cheek.

The next kick, perfectly aimed at her right kidney, knocked her blissfully out cold. When she came to, he had turned away.

She stayed silently on the floor, curled up, afraid to be seen, remembered. When she finally opened her eyes, the aluminum baseball bat, tucked behind the shoeboxes under the bed, was just inches from her bloody face. And she smiled.

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