Horses of the outside world. Not at the horse show today. The stars had aligned so that I would’ve had another chance to show the fancy horse from the TN show. Phooey. [Trip to Tennessee]
Update: Backstory for new visitors. Injury is keeping me out of the saddle. [Horsekeeping, Not & Wrist Wear]
~~~
#25 Road Trip, 213 words
Most folks can’t believe I am going on a road trip. I’ve even been asked if we still have roads. Yes, there are roads. You see them all the time. What people are asking is if we still have roads that are reserved for personal auto travel.
We have a lot fewer of those. The majority have fallen into disrepair from lack of use. Now that the Interstate system has been switched to public transport, any automobile driving has to be plotted out on the patchwork of roads that are still functional.
Some are heritage roads. Some designated scenic byways have stayed, such as the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Pacific Coast Highway. One lane of I-95 has been restored as a moving transportation museum complete with rest stops. Route 66 has been reestablished from Chicago to California.
Speaking of rest stops, that will be the determining factor for my route. The world is no longer set up for folks to stop every 50 miles. For food and hotels and whatnot, I’ll probably have to use train station malls.
The car I’m is a old school Jeep CJ-5. Or, at least the outside is. I’ve had it retrofitted for safety and to take it off of fossil fuel. I’m not a cretin.
~~~
Afterword
Previous Road Trip Posts
[Road Trip Rules, Fiction]
[How To Film A Road Trip Movie, Fiction Concept]
[We – The Unicorns … Go On A Road Trip, Guest Post]
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#26 Family Feast, 251 words
Holidays are a family feast.
The Appetizers. The cousins. So many cousins. It started with two brothers. Over three generations, my side devolved down to me. Them over there? They chose the exponential route. Which isn’t the main problem. The oldest cousin looks way more like this uncle than his father. Once I start with that false assumption, I never get the rest of them sorted onto the correct branches of the family tree.
Entree. The Questions. And the deceptions. I have to dodge talking about what I do. I suspect most of the family thinks I am a spy. Or a cryptographer in a spy shop. Not at all. The secrecy is a matter of corporate policy rather than national security. I am a reviewer for a restaurant guide. Oh sure, you’d never tell anyone who I am. But you’d mention the fact that you knew reviewer to someone. And they would mention it as a cute fact to someone else who would know a chef. And that chef would be very, very keen to put a face to the fork. So I prevaricate.
The Side Dish. That family friend who shows up halfway through the day. Just in time for another round of gifts. They seem close to the hosts but you never see them at this house except for that particular holiday. Why are they here rather than with their own family? You are a child. You never think to ask.
Dessert. Core memories of your relatives.
~~~
Afterword
Attribution, the idea of the family life of a restaurant reviewer is from French Lessons by Mayle mixed with a digression on how security is breached from one of the the Matthew Scudder books by Block.
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#27 Give Thanks, 200 words
A: “That’s all I have to give, thanks a lot.”
B: “It was a donation for a worthwhile cause. You have many, many multiples of that at home.”
A: “Yes, but that’s all I have with me now. The food truck I like only takes cash.”
B: “Really feeling the spirit of the holidays, aren’t you?”
A: “If I say it’s a poor excuse for picking my pockets, will I be visited by three ghosts?”
B: “Might do you some good.”
A: “C’mon. I donate to charity.”
B: “Your company donates to charity for tax deductions and marketing placement.”
A: “People benefit. What to they care why I do it?”
B: “They don’t care, but you should. A generous act is as much about the giver as the recipient.”
A: “You sound like end of an After School Special.”
B, touches collar around neck: “Hazard of the profession. Homilies are us.”
A: “Remind me, why are we still friends?”
B: “Because I remember what an After School Special is.”
A: (rolls eyes)
B: “Because we’ve known each other since we were kids and this point I’m the only one who is willing to call you a jerk to your face.”
~~~
Afterword
Sat down & 196 words rolled out, despite brain being empty, see Tuesday’s post. [Slowly Moving]
Found 4 more words & called it a night.
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#28 Winding Path, 255 words
Information retrieval is winding path. I know because it’s my job.
You would expect ferreting out the life stories of people to be a linear process, wouldn’t you? Fact A goes on the pile. Fact B goes on the pile. Gradually the pile grows.
Turns out to be an endless loop of offshoots that shift with each iteration. Fact A goes on the pile. Fact B is irrelevant and gets dismissed. Fact C confirms that fact B is correct and calls into question the validity of fact A. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Social media is less helpful that you might think. The most innocently transparent account only tells what the poster wants people to know. ‘Hey, look I saw/did/bought this thing.’ And then there are accounts that are less than transparent. They are even less help.
High volume is not helpful either. After establishing that the target has cats, another 50 cat photos do not add to my knowledge base.
In addition to what people are excited about, accounts talk about what people are excited about NOW. Maybe they are suppressing a dark past. Maybe they just don’t care about that life any more. It once took me three days to discover that a target had been in a Broadway play. I’d shout that shit from the rooftops.
Actually, I no longer shout anything from anywhere anymore. Professional paranoia. I’ve seen what’s out there. Both an amazing amount of info and not enough.
Ah, well. If it were easy, people wouldn’t hire me to do it.
~~~
Afterword
No idea if any of this is accurate. An homage to &/or blatant ripoff of the job description for the main character in Tuesday Mooney Talks To Ghosts by Kate Racculia (Mariner 2019). The book moved on to plot-related tasks, but I got to wondering how much one could find out. And then I made stuff up. Full disclosure. I did not finish the book, which is more about my attention span at the moment than the inherent merits of the book.
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#29 Game Day, words
At breakfast, my roommate announces, “Today is game day!”
Of course it is. Today is Thursday. Thursday is always game day.
“What,” I ask, “Will you two be doing for game day this week?”
She smiles. “He’s cooking venison.”
I don’t track. “As in deer? As in dinner? I thought you guys play board games, or video games.”
“Don’t forget role play games. Those are my favorite.”
“Well, yes, but what does cooking dinner have to do with playing games?”
“Not games. Game. As in, according to Merriam-Webster, an animal made legitimate quarry by state or other law.”
“Still not following you.”
“John pointed out that we should broaden our horizons for game day. Game can mean many things aside from something you play.”
“Such as?”
“Sports. We are planning to to go a football game, if we can find one. Maybe a hockey game. Anyway. An event of a sporting nature.”
“A sporting nature? You are going to fit in not at all.”
“The point is to do new things. We do have limits. We decided to pass on gamy, as in sweaty and stinky. Anyway, tonight’s game day is about eating game.
“You two have the weirdest relationship.”
~~~
Started with dialogue tags, as you can see. Stopped bc it seemed like padding if the two characters weren’t doing anything other than talking at each other. I tried to make the speaker obvious from context.
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#30 Lessons Learned, 290 words
Student: What are the lessons, Learnèd?
Mage: You must count the stars. You must name the birds of the air. You must speak to the beast of the field.
Student: (looks overwhelmed)
Mage: Or least spin plausible nonsense.
Student: (looks confused)
Mage: Being a court mage is all about authority. When people come to you, must have an answer.
Student: So I should lie?
Mage: No. Never lie. Your authority is based on your word and your word must always be good. That also means no elvish truths.
Student: Elvish truths?
Mage: Elves have a way of speaking were every word is the absolute truth, yet the impression created in the mind of the listener is exactly the opposite. Lawyers do the same. When you speak, your goal must be to create truth in the mind of your listener.
Student: But nonsense?
Mage: Think of it as poetry, or metaphor. Or maybe you are giving gentle hints couched in flowery language. Never underestimate the ability of courtly egos to take offense.
Student: Even when they come to us for the answer?
Mage: Especially when they come to us for answers. They know the right answer. They just want us to confirm it. Or deny it and give them a way out. That’s where it gets tricky.
Student: You mean court politics.
Mage: Yes. Nine times out of 10, you will already know the answer as well. The palace is a small place. What passes as prescience is mostly paying attention to what is going on around you. Listening. Everyone talks to the mage. You will have probably heard from both sides.
Student: And the 10th time?
Mage: That’s when you use a spell. But less often than you would think.
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General Afterword
Done! Thoughts about the project next week.
See Jane Write: 30 Writing Prompts for November
[November Writing Challenge Week 1, Fiction Fragments]
[November Writing Challenge Week 2, Fiction Fragments]
[November Writing Challenge Week 3, Fiction Fragments]
[Extended November Writing Challenge Part 1, Fiction Fragments]
Onwards!
Katherine
Virtual Brush Box 