• Richard


• Lisa


• Lizzie


• Tom


• Serendipidy


• Norval Joe


• Planet Z

The next topic is PICK TWO

Street life

Pox

Behind

That old classic…

Standard lamp

RICHARD

Random Words

Every week I go through the same process.

I retrieve the old cardboard box from its place under my desk, give it a good hard shake, remove the lid and close my eyes.

Reaching into the box, I rifle around its contents and pull out a selection of folded postcards, and then I can open my eyes.

The postcards have a selection of random words written on them. I lay them out on the desk and rearrange them thoughtfully.

When I have what I’m looking for, I add some filler words.

And, hopefully, end up with a hundred word story.

LISA

The One That Got Away

She was delirious when I entered the woodcutter’s cottage. As ever I was amazed how cramped the space was with so many living in it. I clasped my scarf to my face; burned rosemary to try to cleanse the air.

She lay there, wet from the sweats, rambling random words. I couldn’t feel any lumps under her armpits so felt perhaps this time there was still hope.

I stayed just long enough to give her a draught to bring the fever down but made my decision to answer the King and to live at the palace ‘til this pestilence passed.

LIZZIE

‘I don’t… you… me’. This could mean anything, said the detective, where’s the rest of it? No one knew. Is this blood? No one knew that either. Did you search the rest of the house? That they did know. And? Nothing? Nope. How about the garden? Silence. OK, forget it. Send this to the lab. They all nodded, relieved. By the way, said the detective, I don’t care what you think about me. I’d fire the lot of you. Amateurs, thought the detective. Wait a second, what I just said… Perhaps these words are not as random as they look.

TOM

Without Merit

I have found no matter how vacuous two individual might be, if one passes by during any random collection of words that flow in the public space, those random words will sound pretty cogent. Lingering for additional context will help one to understand the form and purpose of the discourse, but nearly always leds one to question why matters so banal, merits the level and length of inquiry. Chalk-it up the mind-numbing list of stuff one needs to get done in the average day. Little time to ponder the deeper questions of life. As why isn’t any more penny candy?

SERENDIPIDY

They may sound like random words to you.

You may think I’ve made some of them up, or perhaps I’m speaking a foreign language.

What could they possibly mean?

Nobody really knows.

I certainly have no idea!

I found them in an old leather bound book, hidden away in my grandmother’s attic.

Many thought grandmother was a witch, and if the book is anything to go by, she quite definitely was.

You’ll see.

As I chant the mysterious words, you’ll start to feel very strange.

Until, with a poof of smoke… All of a sudden, you’ll turn into a frog!

—

NORVAL JOE

Mandi and Bobbie sat in the back while Mrs. Weinerheimer drove north out of Eureka.

A small gray-haired lady with dark glasses held both hands flat on top of her head and muttered random words, “Kelp, wind, stinkweed, bottlebrush, cardboard box, thunderhead.”

After passing windy beaches littered with piles of kelp, Mandi glanced out of the window, and shouted, “Over there.”

A single cloud rose above the low hills.

They quickly turned onto Bottlebrush Lane and drove until they came to a broken down cabin, the front yard crowded with weeds, and a tattered cardboard box rotting on the porch.

PLANET Z

If you stir alphabet soup enough, you’ll see words.

Usually short words, but the longer you stir, a few longer words will appear.

I imagine the noodles sloshing around in my stomach, forming words and sentences and poems nobody will know about.

Dissolving into goo as I digest them.

Maybe they’re not gone?

And somehow, subconsciously I absorb them.

And they make their way on to the page.

For me to read to you.

Or perhaps, if I stick my finger down my throat, they will appear on the page faster.

Stand back. I feel a masterpiece coming out now.