One Last Detail

“It all there?” He lifted his chin, pointing at the tented magazine on the table. 

“Of course.” I snorted. 

He smirked and slid the envelope from under the magazine into his jacket. “Alright then.”  

He started to scoot his bulk out of the booth and I panicked realizing I had forgotten something. “Wait- " 

“We’re done here, Lady.” 

“No. I want something, uh... additional.” 

"Not my concern now.” 

“I’ll pay.” 

He frowned but remained standing at the end of the table.  

 “See, He- he’s got this great smile. Brilliant teeth. I want those to go first. Before everything else.” 

----

The above is my submission to this week's Flash Fiction Challenge at Chuck Wendig's terribleminds blog: Write a story in 100 words. 

I think I managed to do it in 99. I reworked something I wrote a few years ago.

Subject Uncooperative: Taking Notes

[Continued from: The Cross Walk] The little A/C unit in the window would sometimes shiver through its constant hum. I had it cranked up as far as it would go but it was laboring to keep the room in the eighties.

"Okay, so you were at your job…" I wrote in my notebook without looking up.

"Just got off work." Enjeru finished off her beer, slid the bottle into the crowd of empties gathering at her elbow and cracked open another. She had taken a shower and was sitting in a racer back tank and bike shorts. She was drinking through a twelve pack of Negra Modelo without breaking a sweat. I had barely finished one and Enzeru drank only water.

We sat the end of the table that had been cleared of the dinner's wrappers and bags. Enjeru had treated us to several entrées off the menu from the kitchen in the Super Mercado. Almost all of which were too spicy for me and meat heavy for Enzeru who was vegan. We ended up splitting a plate of chips and guacamole while Enjeru ate the rest. Though she complained loudy about having to take up the slack she finished practically everything.

"And you were…" I looked up at Enzeru. Having declined a shower she stripped down until she was in a dark camisole and pants. Her hair had been let down from its professional bun into a loose pony tail.

"I was about to rendezvous with my partners to investigate a triple L occurrence." Enzeru consulted her own notes in a device that looked like a semi-transparent card that constantly shifted between luminous diagrams and abstract lettering.

"A triple…?"

"A ley-line lesion." At my blank look she continued "An abnormality in a ley-line such that there are significant imbalances that may lead to a compromised dimensional integrity." I had stopped writing. She attempted to explain again. "Typically there is an acceptable amount of fluctuation within the laminar flow of a ley line but if certain tolerances are excee-"

"She was at work." Enjeru contributed as she picked her teeth.

"At work?" I started to write again tentatively.

"Yes. I was at work." Enzeru sighed and set down her pad. It became a blank opaque tile.

"There is nothing I can find that would indicate rifts, spikes or attenuations of any sort at my last location. And as soon as I found myself on the bus I made D-scan after D-scan. Each one came up negative. Before I was transported and after show the same results which can't be possible. According to this" she tapped the tile "I've not moved from where I was before I came here AND I was in this time and place –on the bus- since before I actually appeared on the bus.

"I contacted my partners and while we were able to communicate via my locator set." She tapped her temple where she had worn the shades. "They could not find me. If I could not be dimensionally located then there should be no way for me to communicate with my team. It makes no sense. It shouldn't work at all."

"So they are looking for you?"

"Not exactly. At least not yet."

"But you can contact them?"

"I shouldn't be able to but yes, I have been in contact with them since I came here. Once on the bus and then while we were at the market."

Enjeru swirled the bottom of the bottle as she made her suggestion "So just tell them where you are. Give them the address: The westbound bus stop at –what was it- Nellis and Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, North America, Earth, the Solar System, the Milky Way. "

"It's not that easy. That address you just gave is like taking someone to the beach and saying I'm somewhere on the beach when I am actually a single grain of sand on that beach. In order for my partners to find me they need my exact location. "

Enzeru looked at me "But you know this, already: how the DPC works right? I mean, this- rather, our worlds are worlds you created so…"

"No. Yes. I mean… I either I don't know or maybe at one time I did and then forgot...? I know I should know more about you and Enj but I just don't. I have this feeling like everything about you is very familiar in a vague way. Like someone I used to know a long time ago but whose name I forgot but it's right on the tip of my tongue bothering me. Like my mind is saying I know this. I know this. I know this –but nothing comes forward until it does and when it does it's all in flash. Everything. I know everything like I just remembered it all in single moment. And it's too much. Almost as fast as it comes it goes away again. I might know a little more than before but mostly I am kind of relying on you to tell me. And when you do tell me I'm like: Right, right. I knew that.

"I'm sorry. If I could access all of these things I could probably sort this out in no time at all. I mean, what if it's the fact that I can't remember anything that caused this? Like all these things, names and places and details got away from me and are… I dunno." I felt a dread starting to rise within me again.

"KaMu, don't worry." Enzeru had put her hand on my arm and it stilled my growing apprehension like turning off a tap. "If that's the case then we'll figure out how to get you clear again." She went to where she had draped her jacket over the sofa and pulled her shades –her locator set- out. Within the arc of motion she took to put them on they unfolded into their full configuration. "If you don't mind I'm going to use your room while I check in with the DPC and see if they have found out anything."

I scanned the notes we had made earlier about relative time frames. I thought I might be able to make the connection to their timelines in regards to their respective story lines but I needed more information.

"Can you contact your work?" I asked Enjeru.

"My mobile doesn't work but I checked my radio and it's still receiving from dispatch."

"So you talked to them?"

"Nope. I just checked: I can tune in to the other courier channels and the field-wide broadcasts, so I know it's receiving. Then I did a quick ping and they heard me. It works."

"Pinged them? What do they say?"

"Tsch. I told you I didn't talk to them."

"But –maybe they can-"

"Hah. Fuck those guys! I aint giving those assholes a minute more of my life. I'm off for the weekend, chica."

I set my pen down. I would try again when Enzeru was back. She was more adept at handling Enjeru than I was. I opted for small talk. "This probably wasn't the weekend you weren't hoping for."

She gave me a look before finishing her beer and then sliding it over with the others. "Got that right. I had a date tonight that I was looking forward to."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"So am I, so am I." chin resting on her palm, Enjeru looked out the window. "She's got this fantastic hair that's dyed at least four colors. Pinks n' purples and blue. I called her my little Twilight Sparkle and she kicked my ass."

"Oh."

"She literally kicked me in the ass and then hit me and then threw my own helmet at me. Bounced it right off my fuckin head." She tilted in her seat and pointed at her butt. "I can show you the bruises."

"No thank you."

"God, I love a woman that knows how to hit."

"And she still wants to date you, and you her?"

"Shit, we were laughing our asses off."

Enzeru sat down. She tapped the earblade of the locator set and it retracted itself. It went from black wrap around visor to lightly tinted shades. She looked less than pleased.

"What?"

"Now I can't get through."

"Well, fucknuts. Now what."

"They'll keep looking, right?" I asked.

"Yes."

"What is it, hermanita? I know you enough to know that look says shit aint right."

Enzeru stared at Enjeru a moment before she took the beer from her.

"One of the agents is my S.O."

"Superior Officer? Don't see a problem." Enjeru was bringing up another beer since hers had been snatched.

"My significant other. My fiancée." Enzeru took a good pull from the bottle.

"Oh." I suddenly remembered him. I remembered his name and why she would be worried.

"As long as I had contact with them, I could assure them that I was fine, --that I was in a special detachment and just having technical difficulties. It wont take him long to figure it out." She rubbed her forehead and sighed "There's no telling what he'll do to find me." After saying that she laughed half heartedly "Most of the time that would be some grand romantic proclamation, but where I am concerned he can be a bit… volatile." She shook her head and muttered "He can be such a fucking…" finishing the sentence with a slug from the bottle.

I knew 'a bit volatile' was the understatement of the year but I didn't say a thing.

"First of all…" Enjeru reached into a bag on the cluttered side of the table, pulled out a bottle, poured something clear into a small plastic cup from the same bag. She traded Enjeru's beer for the cup, setting it in front her.

"Where my sister is concerned aint no one more volatile than me. I'mma have to meet this sancho who would make my li'l sis use the fuck-word." She poured two more drinks setting one in front of me before authoritatively clunking the bottle of tequila in between the three of us.

"And second, we are going to make some goddamned toasts." She lifted her cup. "To Twilight Sparkle: May she always hit like a girl."

Subject Uncooperative: The Cross Walk

[Continued from: Seating Arrangements] I stood a block from my apartment waiting for the light to change before I could cross the street. The twins were a bit behind me talking. Arguing is a better word. Enjeru was agitated and sniping is an even better way to describe it. I was just grateful that their attention wasn’t on me.

Once the bus had disgorged us onto the sidewalk I started for home. When I saw that they had followed me off the bus I gave up the idea of trying to bid them a Good Day and a See You Later. They were following me. I just made sure I had enough of a head start that it would at least allow me the solitude that I had been expecting on the ride. As long as Enjeru didn’t jog up, fall in step with me and start talking I felt that I was doing well enough.

Beyond stepping out of the air controlled bus and sharing a unified reaction of dismay at the heat that radiated off the sidewalk to meet us I hadn’t said much to them and they let me be. Following half a minute behind, their quiet argument started not soon thereafter. Even with the privacy that our distance gave us I still couldn’t put things together. I could feel myself sinking back into my fog state.

As the adjacent crosswalk signal counted down to the point at which I could start to cross my street, I was realizing that I was leading two unknown quantities to my house. Did I want that? The signal across from me went from a red hand to a walking stickperson. I didn’t move. I was paralyzed by the fact that I didn’t know what to do.

I told myself just Go but my Chuck Taylors remained planted. I could hear the twin’s voices as they were catching up to me and I still couldn’t move. I watched the signal across the way count down to zero and the red hand came back up. Traffic started moving again. The twins had caught up by the time the signal showed the white walking figure. My body tipped forward with inertia but then rocked back again when my legs didn’t move. Still frozen. Enjeru started to cross the street but Enzeru stopped beside me. “Are you alright?”

I wasn’t about to tell her anything but heard myself say “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“You mean you don’t know what you are doing with us.”

“No, just… Yes.”

“I don’t suppose it would help you to know that we don’t know why we are here either.”

“Not much because somehow its my fault that you are here.” I fought the urge to cry. “It’s all my fault.” I was talking about the whole thing. My life, or lack thereof. My characters. My world and theirs. I wasn’t sure what was going on. It was out of control and I knew it had to be my fault.

“Oy! You coming!?” called Enjeru from across the street and her sister waved her off without taking her gaze from me.

Enzeru was wearing the wrap around shades again, but there was no sign of other tech sweeping off of it. They looked just like shades with a gradient tint so that I could actually see her eyes through the smoky glass. “KaMu, listen.” I felt her hand rest on my shoulder “I know this must be hard. I don’t envy your position but I think this is something that we need to sort out sooner rather than later. You may well be the anchor but Enjeru and I are here. We are at least a part of you and we can help. We’ll figure it out together somehow.”

I swallowed and nodded. The traffic started through another cycle.

“Why don’t we go to your house, have something to drink and see if we can start to piece this together?”

“Alright. Okay, but um…“ I started think about the state of my apartment and whether or not I had something edible at the house.

“How about we pick up something over there?” She indicated the Super Mercado that Enjeru was already walking into.

“Y-Yeah, we could I guess…“

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll make Enjeru pay for it.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry.” I mumbled. Her attempt at humor didn’t quite erase the growing embarrassment I was feeling.

“Never apologize for something like that.” She gently took the pack from my shoulder and slung it onto her own.

“C’mon.” She said as she guided me forward into the crosswalk, arm lightly across my shoulders. “I can’t wait to see what Enj is picking out for us.” She didn’t sound enthusiastic at all.

 [Next: Taking Notes]

Subject Uncooperative: Javelina

Though my headache was fading I could still feel how my eyelids were still tight and puffy. I shrugged further into my hoodie and concentrated on the screen in front of me and urged my fingers to fly faster over the keys. Keep focused, keep busy. People won't notice you've been crying. They'll just see another coffee shop blogger. On the heels of that I heard Adelle's voice "Is it that important to you what strangers think, KaMu?" Fuck. It hadn't even been an hour after I collected myself and pushed up out of the comfy loveseat in my therapist's office, leaving behind a handful of wadded up tissues like a nest of broken origami fledglings; I was still –still- hearing her questions. The damned therapy sessions. I hated them. Maybe I didn't hate them as much as I needed them and that, I hated more than anything. Brownies baking back in the kitchens distracted me as I tried to compose a fight scene. At the moment I was letting words spill out in a stream of consciousness block that I told myself I would organize later. My inner editor was glad of the interruption. I was just spewing keywords at that point. It might as well have been a pile of hashtags to accompany a square cropped, motion blurred image of a capuchin riding a javelina.

"Cute." A weathered bag with formidable buckles and webbing dropped in between me and the person that dropped, as heavily as her bag, into the chair opposite mine. "As long as I'm the capuchin and not the javelina." I grabbed the edges of the little pedestal table to settle it from its wobbling. My empty smoothie cup fell and rolled to rest near her foot. Thick armored motocross boots encroached my space as my new neighbor slouched back in her chair and kicked her legs out. "Wait. Maybe I want to be the javelina. Those little fuckers are pretty kickass in their own right." Her eyes seemed to study the light fixtures above as if they might provide insight into the question of monkey or peccary.

Something was eerily familiar about her. I started the mental back-scrolling trying to remember and found that my mind wouldn't lock on anything. Everything before my visit with the therapist was a haze; an almost remembered image or idea that would dissolve into the murky soup of my mind.

Setting the cup back on the table I managed, "Excuse me?"

Ignoring me she stretched out and yawned hugely before slumping back into her rag doll posture "Yeerg. Fucking cagers! Mmm… I smell brownies. Hey, buy me a brownie."

I hesitantly looked about the shop. Only a couple of people in line and another seated in a tall chair at the bar. Plenty of seating but this stranger wanted to share my tiny table. Fully intending to ask her to find somewhere else to sit I said "Excuse me?"

"Oh, don't even act like you don't know me, chica."

"Huh? Umm- I don't."

"Por favor, mujer. Don't act stupid." In response to my blank look she threw her arms open to encompass the space and raised her voice "You call the shots, right? Is this, or is this not your show?"

"I..."

"For the love of skunk pigs! Get with it!"

"I'm sorry but I'm lost. Or maybe you are. You're mistaking me for someone else."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shut up and listen: It's kind of lucky for you that I'm the first one you pulled in, but look: the others are going to show up eventually and they're not as nice as I am. Most likely they're not going to be happy. Matter of fact, some of them are going to be fucking livid. You get me?"

She was talking to me as if she knew me and a foggy nagging assured me that I knew her. I stopped trying to make sense of what she was saying and just really looked at her; the girl that sat in front of me, not the stranger that had interrupted my writing.

Though she was short her figure was impressive in a motley array of worn motorcycle gear. In varying degrees she was wrapped in leather, carbon fiber, mesh and armor attached with Velcro or Fastex clips. There was a line like a scar that ran across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose, the arcs matched the lower curve of the goggles that hung from a faded strap around her neck. That line was the demarcation of natural brown skin tone and a shade of dust that coated her face below the goggle-line. Her thumbs, index and middle fingers were exposed by cutoff gloves with Kevlar reinforced knuckles. These she drummed on the scuffed up helmet in her lap as she watched me from under short messy wisps of red ombre hair.

"Oh, shit! You're the courier." I whispered, partly thrilled, partly horrified as memory snapped into place and erased the fog.

"Glory-fucking-be. She remembers me. How sweet." She flashed a smile that was not at all a smile. I felt my face start to flush. It was the kind of embarrassment reserved for the moment you are about to introduce someone who's name you just up and forgot. It didn't seem to matter as much to her. Her gaze was fixed intently on me as if she was waiting for something. An arched brow urged me past my awkwardness onto the next thought.

"And the others…" I started to remember them. "Oh. Fuck."

"Yep. Now you get me. Welcome to your world, chica."

[Next: Bus Stop Waiting]

A little collaborative bit

Here's a taste of my contribution to a little tumblr project called Illustories. The objective is that an artist and writer pair off and trade a random bit of their respective craft; the artist produces an illustration and the writer a little story. After that first trade now they now produce something relevant based on the trade. Here is a little story Made In DNA sprung on me and my illustration for it.

"Invasion"

Hurtling toward the Earth at speeds unmatchable by defense jet fighters, the alien saucer dove into the atmosphere and set its sights on its primary target. It blasted incoming missiles from its path like a terrible god swatting flies. It blew by military personnel and equipment, scattering like rags dolls them in its plasma wake. It showed no mercy to lunch hour-rush patrons as it cut into line at the Burrito Bell drive-thru for a 2-for-1 deal.

There's also a random illo I sent to Made In DNA currently awaiting the story he will attach to it. You can keep your eye on the Illustories tumblr for it and I'll post/link here when that happens too.