The 100 Word Stories Podcast
Laurence Simon
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Weekly Challenge #928 – Position
The 100 Word Stories Podcast
02/04/24 • 11 min
- Lisa (Audio coming later)
- Richard
- Serendipidy
- Tom
- Norval Joe
- Planet Z
LISA
A Chat
We talk seriously when we get back. I thought I’d smelled an open fire and I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I’d seen him watching behind the door. I wonder if I’m just enjoying recounting my adventure.
We all agree, we’re in an odd position. We’re prisoners, his prisoners but actually we’re all in an unlocked basement just because we don’t know what’ll happen if we leave.
I’m sure, at the start. He HAD locked the door. I want to talk about the other girls, the bodies that have been found, but I can’t.
A lot is left unsaid.
RICHARD
Seating plan
I always sit at the back of the plane.
Last row, aisle seat, no exceptions.
I think it’s the ideal position for surviving a crash.
Others disagree and tell me the seats next to the emergency exit are safer, better still, if they’re over the wing; but I disagree.
I prefer to have a solid bulkhead behind me, rather than bodies and debris flying through the air. And, let’s face it, if we’re going down, the tail is going to hit the ground last.
My employers disagree.
They think I should sit at the front... Like all the other pilots.
LIZZIE
The yacht was tired. The crew and the passengers were also tired. No radio signal.
The Captain looked at the First Officer. “Let’s rest here.”
Suddenly, something something “what’s your position?”.
“Captain, we need time to fix the hull.”
“We’ll stay here. Nice, tropical island. We’ll be fine.”
When the search party arrived, the locals snickered.
“Where are they? The yacht is right over there.”
The locals snickered some more.
No one was found.
However, there were some suspiciously fresh bones, hanging above the doors of the houses.
That’s when the search party decided to leave as quickly as possible!
TOM
By Grace Alone
When Timothy Cratchit graduated from Cambridge with honors in accounting, he was offered the position of junior partner by emeritus Chairman Scrooge. Along with his father CFO he became a strong supporter of the Abolitionist Movement in America. In 1878 he met Rev. John Parker and soon after set up an endowment in his adopted uncle’s name. There was a secret clause in the endowment as to the name of a future church. When Timothy died in 1890 he was buried in the graveyard of Ebenezer Baptist Church. On his marble stone is written the following: God bless us everyone.
Bleak Gadgets
John despite his creative output was a very convivial person. All the same his company produced Bleak Gadgets. Funeral parlors need products, John supplied them. The solar powered last words tombstone. The thermal lying In-wait body grid. Aurora Borealis Cremation Urns for Human Ashes Adult Female for Funeral, Burial or Home. Memorial Lantern Sympathy Gifts for Loss of Mom/Loved One Bereavement Gifts. Hydraulic Embalming Table High quality stainless steel, hydraulic foot pedals, locking wheels. The Viruserv VB Guardian electrostatic sprayer a workhorse that will help you disinfect your facility quickly, effectively, and with confidence The BioSeal Portable System fully contained
SERENDIPIDY
Put yourself in my position.
If I let you go, you’ll go straight to the cops, and I really can’t have that, can I?
So you may as well forget trying to persuade me otherwise, and focus instead on making things easier for yourself.
I may be callous and unfeeling, but I’m a reasonable person. Perhaps I can be persuaded to let you live?
And, if not, at least you can try to convince me that a quick, clean death is in everyone’s best interests.
If nothing else, you can say you gave it a shot.
Before I shoot you.
NORVAL JOE
From Billbert’s position above meadow he saw everything at once.
Sabrina lay with her leg off at an odd angle. Buhmilda knelt, bent over, clutching her stomach. The driver of the van swung his rifle upward and aimed at Billbert.
He flew toward town and punched 911 into his phone.
As soon as an operator answered, he shouted, “There’s an active shooter at Buhmilda’s meadow. Do you know where that is?”
“I do,” she replied.
Billbert said, “People have been shot. They need help. Send police and an ambulance.”
The operator scoffed. “Right. You’re probably just swatting the old lady.”
PLANET Z
There is nothing more dangerous than a dying animal.
What about two?
Lying in a pool of...
1 Listener
Knitting
The 100 Word Stories Podcast
01/27/24 • 1 min
Dana rode the bus to work and back, so to pass the time, she’d listen to music and she took up knitting.
She started small, knitting socks for the homeless people on the bus.
Then she knitted scarves.
And then she knitted them some warm hats.
After that, she knitted blankets and sweaters.
Then, she knitted homes for them.
Knitting furniture and appliances to put in the homes.
Some asked her to knit booze and drugs for them.
With some reservations, she did.
A few went too far into alcoholism or drug abuse and died.
For them, she’d knit coffins.
1 Listener
Weekly Challenge #874 – Diet
The 100 Word Stories Podcast
01/22/23 • 11 min
The next weekly challenge topic is: Point, Heat, Carrots, Rust, Wafer-thin, Creep
SCRIBBLING WREN
Mr Tibbles Special Diet
Paula had him from a kitten. His once luxurious coat was matted and shed hair as he limped by. He’d lost the leg while he was sat in the road washing.
Because of a kidney problem he could only eat expensive food from the vets. It was measured out twice daily. After his second 25g meal he sat meowing by the window until Paula opened it to let him out.
Outside he ate the remains of a KFC Bargain Bucket from the bin, drank from a brackish puddle while Paula watched, thinking it was probably time for a new cat.
LIZZIE
Diet is such a wonderful word, he thought. The thought of restraining yourself from eating what you want is delightful. Saying “no, thank you, I am full” when you’ve been eyeing that food for the past half hour is enchanting. And the taunting sneers... They think those “no, thank yous” are as fake as their boobs and their mustaches tinted black. And when, in a moment of sheer restraint, you stab just one of them in the eye, then all is well. You don’t have to worry anymore. You’ll eat what’s given to you. Diet is such a wonderful word.
RICHARD
Weighty matters
It was one of those loaded questions. You know the sort, the ones that come out of the blue from nowhere, leaving you no choice but to answer, and whatever answer you give, you’re damned!
“Should I go on a diet?”
I busied myself with my breakfast, hoping she’d let it pass, but knowing my fate was sealed.
“Well?” She gave me a steely look. “Am I overweight? Should I go on a diet?”
I sighed, and smiled at her.
“You don’t need to diet... You just need to buy bigger clothes!”
Well, it seems that was the wrong answer.
TOM
It’s All In The Deliver
The great theologian Rasmus of Tent had a flamboyant presentation style. When speaking of the great parting of the empire, he placed a larger glass bottle on the podium filled with an abundance of night-crawlers. He waited. The students look on in dark silence. Smiling he offered an eclectic hint. “Heylshof Garden.“ Silence. Then another: Charles V And yet another Frederick III. Walking to the front ring of chairs he whispered into the ear of his prized pupil. Beaming he announced: Diet of Worms. Ryely Rasmus stated “happily while Luther branded a hectic he wasn’t asked to dine on same.
SERENDIPIDY
I’m a very ordinary, average type of person: Not too short, nor too tall, fairly slim, not tending towards fat, and unremarkable when it comes to looks – I’m no supermodel, but then again, I’m not butt-ugly either.
If you happened to pass me in the street, you might spare me a second glance, but then again, you might simply pass me by, without even noticing.
They do say that a balanced diet is a good thing, and I can’t disagree.
Cannibalism needn’t be unhealthy, you just need to be choosy.
And, I’m living proof, you are what you eat!
NORVAL JOE
As if to prove her assertion that Billbert’s touch increased her magical powers, Sabrina reached out and put her hand on his. As she did her eyes went wide. “Oh no!” She gasped and looked at the door to the ice cream parlor.
Two hulking teenagers blocked the exit. With hair so greasy and their faces covered with pimples they must be living on a diet of potato chips and French fries, the girl of the two growled, “We are of the Dark Knights. We have your friend, Lanolin. If you want her to live, you must come with us.”
PLANET Z
It’s been a while since I last wrote a new story here.
I’ve been diagnosed with a lot of conditions, and they all overlap in their symptoms as well as their impact on each other.
An allergy to this, a sensitivity to that.
Medications for one aggravate the other.
Do this, change that, can’t eat anything on this list... or that list... but this list is... oh, wait... can’t eat that either.
Until it all becomes so much, my anxiety goes through the roof and into the stratosphere.
Here’s some pills for it.
Which cancel out all the other pills.
Weekly Challenge #878 Scroll
The 100 Word Stories Podcast
02/19/23 • 12 min
The next weekly challenge topic is: Style, Figure, Balance, Schism, Flower basket, Double
LISA
Lonely Hearts
His flat overlooks the city but Paul isn’t looking at the view.
Paul’s TV is on but he’s not watching it.
A pigeon flies into his window, dies instantly and leaves a dusty imprint that Paul barely notices.
He’s scrolling, scrolling a dating site, scrolling a long list of single women that are looking for a man.
Looks matter but that’s not what stops him. It’s something he can see in their eyes, imperceptible to you and me. He knows what he needs. He likes them damaged, desperate and downright sad.
He stops scrolling.
Clicks.
Paul’s next victim is chosen.
LIZZIE
“The scroll, please”
Amidst the perplexing disarray of intentions (everyone darted in different directions), one of the monks tripped.
“So?”
They said the turmoil was such that no one fetched the scroll.
“Considering the monk’s broken leg will stay broken for a while, someone, get the scroll.”
Everyone hurried.
After a while...
“There are two scrolls, Father. Which one...?”
He took a deep breath. There are two, they said... Two scrolls, one broken leg. And he felt like strangling someone and shoving a scroll down someone’s throat. Then, there would be only one.
Hell. That’s where he was heading, Hell.
RICHARD
Origami
The South Coast Regional Origami Learners List, otherwise known as SCROLL, seemed like a good idea at the time. An online community of people with a shared interest in origami, providing a forum for enthusiasts of all abilities and experience to share their knowledge, and show-off their creations.
Unfortunately, we’d over-estimated not only the number of origami fans on the South coast, but also the levels of enthusiasm, which – if I’m honest – was pretty much non-existent.
Frankly, the whole thing turned out to be a complete waste of time, money and effort.
In the end, inevitably, it folded.
SERENDIPIDY
They say there are great mysteries contained within the sacred scroll, and that profound truths about life, death and the universe can be found within its writings.
Some have even speculated that the nature of god can be divined from studying its hidden messages.
It’s been said that magical texts of great power are held within the scroll, and ancient secrets are woven throughout its passages.
But, nobody knows for sure.
Because nobody has ever read the sacred scroll.
They simply skip to the bottom, tick the box saying they agree, and click on the ‘Accept’ button.
Just like you.
TOM
Never knowing the moment
A few years ago some wicked publishing house print out the coolest run of Kerouac’s On The Road. Like the original, one long scroll of paper. Should have laid out the coin and bought it. I didn’t big mistake, along side not buying a wood cut copy of the The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. To honor the passing of my friend who actually met the man. I dragged out the old tractor feed Epson and printed the scroll out. He and it reduced to ash. Funny how a single book can change a whole generation. Forever on the road.
My Absence
In John Green’s the fault in our stars his hero reflects on the pivotal turning point in dying “There’s no way of knowing that your last good day is Your Last Good Day. At the time, it is just another good day.” That’s for someone on the inside. For we on the outside trying own damnest not to fill that last good day with the mundane needs of community management we wait too long. Which is why I didn’t ask my best friend what the passwords were while he lay with multiple tube pumping in and out of his body, because, he was coming home.
NORVAL JOE
The hunched old man scratched his head through his black hood. “Yellow teeth?” He took out his phone and scrolled through his photo gallery.
Billbert scooted up next to him. “Can I look at that? Sabrina said there were some dark knights in our homeroom class. I’d like to see who they are.”
“Right. I think not.” The old man put the phone away and turned to the youths. “Bring me the scroll.”
The girl brought him a yellowed tube of parchment.
He unrolled it and read, “Billbert Dimplepoker, for crimes against the magical realms, you are condemned to death.”
George’s coffee
The 100 Word Stories Podcast
03/02/23 • 1 min
George was a pirate, but he wasn’t a very good pirate.
He liked to stand out in the rain and listen to the rain hit the rails and decks.
He found it peaceful and calming.
But he also found it annoying that the rain got into his coffee mug, and would dilute his coffee.
George tried to use an umbrella, but he didn’t like the sound of the rain on it.
So, he gave up coffee, and he would tilt his head back and let his mouth fill with rainwater.
It was nice and refreshing, until the seagulls flew overhead.
Weekly Challenge #882 – BLOCK
The 100 Word Stories Podcast
03/19/23 • 9 min
NOTE: WordPress on this provider is having some issues with posting on a schedule. I’ll add Publish to my daily to-do list to see if I can get these up more reliably, okay?
LISA
He Just Wanted a Friend.
He’d been sat building a tower when his Mum noticed it wasn’t very tall. She asked where his other blocks were but he didn’t answer. She was used to that. He was a very quiet child.
Three decades later following a long police surveillance operation their garden was excavated. They found twenty five Duplo blocks with names scratched into them. In the same corner of the garden they revealed twenty five cat skeletons.
All the other remains they unearthed were human. The newspapers suggested that due to the high volume discovered the identification process was expected to take considerable time.
RICHARD
Adblock
I’m a big fan of ad blocking software. I can’t do much about the advertising drivel that I’m subjected to on TV, radio, junk mail and every available surface wherever I go outdoors, but when I surf the web, it’s a haven of commercial-free joy.
Well, mostly: Some manage to sneak through the net, it’s a constant battle trying to keep up with every new intrusion.
That’s why I think it’s high time to block those responsible for the ads... Web designers, advertising consultants, and the companies who pay for the damn things.
With bullets, and bombs, if necessary!
LIZZIE
The signal is blocked. We can’t get through. I’m leaving this note. There’s food for five days. After that... I don’t know. I’m in my bunker. Perhaps we won’t need food for five days. I go out at night to get my share from the warehouse. They hand it over through a small window. I never talk to anyone. I tried waving hello, but no one waved back. Now, when I see someone else, I cross the street and walk away. By the way, if I don’t make it, they’re all in the Mayor’s pool. And no, they’re not swimming.
TOM
Basically Flat and Straight
In Chicago, a “city block” has a very specific definition—660 feet. 8 “city blocks” equal one mile. The numbering reflects this in that at the beginning of each city block, the numbering increases by 100. Chicago Ave. is 800 and 8 city blocks (a mile north) of that is North Ave. at 1600 N. New York does not have a uniform system like this, thus New Yorks sucks. Tell me any two addresses in Chicago and I can tell you their distance apart in miles. Show me any two blocks in summer and I tell there is a Block Party.
SERENDIPIDY
It’s always tough being the new kid on the block: You have to be thick-skinned, hard-headed and prepared to fight.
Some might say I took it all a little too seriously, and fought a little too hard, but I’ve never been a pushover, and I don’t put up with any nonsense.
I wasn’t the new kid for long, I made sure of that and soon I was running, not just the block, but the whole neighbourhood.
I did it for all new kids on the block, everywhere.
Such a shame then, that there’s no kids left here, now.
NORVAL JOE
Billbert settled himself and Sabrina down in the firs and ferns a hundred yards away from the cabin. He turned to her. “Come on Sabrina, use your imagination. I’ve seen on the weather channel where a tornado comes down a city block and only takes the roof off of one house and left the others in tact.”
Sabrina scowled. “I’m not that good.”
Billbert took her by the shoulders and turned her toward the cabin. “You said that I increase your powers.” He squeezed gently. “Use my help for some surgical accuracy.”
Sabrina closed her eyes and raised her hands.
PLANET Z
We had everything we needed on our block.
The school, the grocer, the pharmacy with the soda fountain counter, and the general store.
Dr. Lefferts had his office in his house. The dentist had his office in his house.
City Hall and the courthouse were on the other side of the town square and park.
If you wanted to go to the city, the train stopped at the station four times a day.
The city grew, until it surrounded us.
Things changed, and they got worse. Department stores, and crime.
The fences and gates on the other street got tallers.
George the Snowman
The 100 Word Stories Podcast
04/15/23 • 3 min
George was a pirate, but he wasn’t a very good pirate.
He wasn’t very good at reading maps or compasses, so when he thought he was heading to Barbados, he was actually heading North.
“Is it getting cold or what?” said George, shivering.
The crew dodged ice floes as they attempted to steer South.
Sleet tore at the sails, and they barely survived a fierce blizzard.
Enough snow accumulated on the deck for a snowball fight and to make a snowman.
The crew bound and gagged George, and packed snow around him.
And they put George’s hat on its head.
Weekly Challenge #885 – Blinded
The 100 Word Stories Podcast
04/09/23 • 13 min
The next weekly challenge topic is: As far as the eye can see
SCRIBBLING WREN
The Blinding
In the beginning was the bird. One bird: a magpie, with an ‘oil in a puddle’ sheen across his outstretched wing. They had said a single magpie was bad luck, but then hordes arrived. A global power outage shut down all communication, if the internet still worked Hitchcock would almost certainly be trending on Twitter.
The first to be enucleated was a toddler playing on the swings. His whelps swept across the grass, met more chilling screams before horror filled the park.
With an iridescent flash, the attackers disappeared as quickly as they’d come.
But the darkness had already fallen.
RICHARD
School’s Out
I was never cut out to be a teacher, not just because I hated kids and – let’s be honest, kids tend to hate me too – but I was also horribly ill-suited to the job.
The school I taught at was so understaffed, we had to turn our hands to almost any subject. No problem for my more academically inclined colleagues, but when you’re a sports coach, teaching chemistry is, at best, hit and miss!
I made most of it up, scrawling incomprehensible, unintelligible formulae on the blackboard.
The class: blinded by pseudo-science!
Somehow, I got away with it.
TOM
Marleen Walker
Marleen Walker glided across the checked linoleum tiles towards the old brown easy-chair. A lingering hint of Old Spice and Luck Strikes brushed her cheek. She thought it was pretty funny how the scent of a person could with crystal clarity reconstruct her father’s presents. He lived the last six months in that ragged old chair. She could still mark out the decaying of his senses and towards the end the blinded of the light, both the inner and outer. Her body told her cry, but to so would be to cross a hard line. Later she said, always later.
As To the Reason for My Absence
Emuire was my cat. I taught her how to swear. And she did often. She did not care for the many other cats who would be abandon at out last house on the right below the tiny pump house on the hill. Emuire was a three legged cat and moved with a grace of motion you didn’t actually see you experienced it. Ask any owner of a three legged pet. Emuite lived to 15 and the day I had to force myself to the vet to end her pain all the stories in my head hide in a corner not available to me.
SERENDIPIDY
Do you know of anyone who actually has been blinded by looking directly at the sun? I’m pretty sure you don’t, and I’m equally sure that, at some point in your life, you’ve given it a go yourself, just for a moment, perhaps just through barely open eyelids? Right?
Did it blind you?
Maybe it hurt a little, and no doubt you were troubled by disorientating after images, but you weren’t blinded were you?
Nobody ever is.
Let me tell you why you really shouldn’t look at the sun.
Better still, take a look for yourself, a good long look!
LIZZIE
Dusk set in. The black panther remained seated on his pedestal, his back to the water, watching the humans getting ready to wrap up their day. It was that time again. They didn’t know. But that old witch had taught him well. She had showed him who to snatch and when. The next morning, they would wonder. How? Why? When? Who did this? As the morning approached, he’d go back to being a statue. A statue on his pedestal, the one they revered, the one they looked up to for protection. Dusk set in and he waited on his pedestal.
TURA
Blinded
————
Deprived of ordinary vision, the Blind Sage speaks with inner vision. Petitioners must make an arduous mountain ascent of many days to speak with him.
One asked, “How can I become rich?”
The sage answered, “Want what you have.”
He asked again, “No, I mean, how can I get lots of money?”
The sage answered, “Be of value to others.”
He protested in exasperation, “What wisdom is this? Why can’t you talk sense?” and tramped off back down the mountainside.
The sage replied to the empty air, “Because there are none so blind as those who will not see.”
————
NORVAL JOE
My twin brother was killed in a hit and run when he was riding his bicycle this morning. He ...
Weekly Challenge #897 – Old Videos
The 100 Word Stories Podcast
07/02/23 • 11 min
I blew up a bit in this one... leave a comment to let the writers know if you liked their stories.
The next topic is Riot Of Color
RICHARD
Old Videos
Tucked away at the back of the wardrobe, I’ve several boxes, stuffed full of old videos.
I’ve had them boxed up for around twenty years now, and they’ve followed me through at least three house moves, carefully packed up, transported, and put away in their new home.
Why have I kept them?
Through some vague sense, of ‘I might want to watch them, one day’? Not that I’ve anything to play them on anyway.
And the fact is, I’ve not watched any of them in the last twenty years, and probably never will.
But I keep them.
Just in case.
TURA
Old Videos
———
I have a stack of VHS tapes I’ve never got around to watching. I still have a VCR, but I never have the time. I could convert them to digital files, but my video to USB converter is so old it’s not compatible with my current OS. I could replace it, but when will I find time to do the conversion? Will I ever watch them anyway?
If I put this off too long, the tapes will degrade and won’t be playable at all. Then at last I’ll be able to dump them.
Maybe I should just dump them now.
LISA
Something Nasty in the Woodshed
Me and Simon had only gone round to help Fay next door clear the attic. Her husband had died a month ago, him and Dad had been as thick as thieves. She was moving somewhere smaller.
There were boxes of old video tapes up there with dates and girls names on. We’d seen the documentaries so joked about our serial killer neighbour.
After unearthing an old player we stopped for lunch and watched a video. It was much worse than we suspected. And it looked like he buried them in their garden.
“Fuck!” said Simon “is that your Dad digging?”
SERENDIPIDY
There are old videos of life in the village: Life before the calamity.
Grainy, blurred videos in washed out colour of picnics on the village green, laughing toddlers at the playground, couples, friends, families happy and relaxed, without a care in the world.
There’s even the odd wedding video.
Good times. Nobody could ever have imagined the horror that was to come.
It was a fine spring day, late in June. The sun was shining, and people were going about their business, blissfully unaware of what was coming their way.
For that was the day I arrived at the village.
LIZZIE
“Come on. It’s starting,” I said. Old videos and popcorn!
But... I had forgotten. Our old videos don’t go with popcorn. They go with sorrow.
“Say cheese for the camera,” they would say cheerfully.
We never did, no.
“Don’t be so grumpy all the time, you two.”
We were kids. We weren’t grumpy. We weren’t stupid. We weren’t shitheads. We were just kids.
Memory is such a trickster, isn’t it? It erases everything.
And here I was, in front of the TV, a bowl full of popcorn on my lap.
I wanted to cry, but I had no tears left.
NORVAL JOE
The woman seemed surprised by Billbert’s request for a back exit. Then she smiled and led them past a rack of dusty VHS movies for rent, through a door and into what appeared to be the woman’s home. A chunky man in a sleeveless t-shirt and gray slacks, sitting at a dining table didn’t look up from his newspaper as they traipsed past.
A back door led them to a wooden porch, forty feet above the placid Matole river.
The woman nodded to some stairs. “These will take you to a trail along the river, if that’s what you want.”
PLANET Z
Old Man Pinella sits in his home theatre, watching videos of the band.
Jason on guitar, Billy on bass, Joe on keyboards, and Wally on drums.
And then there was Vicky... oh, how she could sing.
The crowd was spellbound... after every song, silence.
And then the loudest applause and cheering and shouting.
The last video ends, and Pinella sits in the dark.
Remembering the band coming backstage, roadies packing up the equipment, and Pinella handing out plane tickets.
“I’ll see you in Chicago,” Pinella said to the dark screen.
He sips his coffee, and walks out of the theatre.
Weekly Challenge #876 – Superhero
The 100 Word Stories Podcast
02/05/23 • 11 min
The next weekly challenge topic is: Host
LISA
Death of a Super Hero
It was a Friday so we’d had fish for lunch, followed by double Maths. We were full of numbers and fish as the school doors slammed behind us.
Up the road at the petrol station a beige Ford Escort had filled up ready for a trip to the coast but we didn’t know that then, Dad read it out to Mum from the paper the next day.
Gary had put his parka hood on his head, held the arms up to the side like wings, we’d sung the batman theme as he ran out the gates straight into the car.
RICHARD
Not so super
What’s so special about superheroes?
Think about it: Every superhero has a nemesis – a force for evil they barely manage to keep in check, and it’s always touch and go whether good will win the day.
And, let’s not forget that every superhero also has a paralysing weakness. Superman has kryptonite, Green Lantern can’t cope with the colour yellow, and Aquaman loses his power away from the sea. As for Batman... Just mention his dead parents!
So, it seems that superheroes aren’t so super after all.
As for supervillains though, that’s a whole different story!
I’d be one, any day!
TOM
SuperHero
Lenny desperately wanted to be a superhero. His first foray into super-league status was days spent in the gym to build muscle mass. Didn’t work out well with that one. After get out of the hospital, he set his sights on a chemical super-power. The second stay in the hospital was a bit longer. Some say third is charmed, and it prove so for Lenny. Mind control was his ticket to the big league. Only problem is it just worked on sheep. What he could get a 1000 sheep to do, staggers the mind. And the cost of clean-up.
LIZZIE
Ding, ding, ding.
No one’s home, not even the one you’re looking for.
And who am I looking for, he thought. He didn’t know.
Ding, ding, ding.
Why isn’t anyone here? He didn’t know.
And he thought he was special.
Ding, ding, ding.
The harder he hit that bell, the angrier he got.
He was the one, he was THE one.
Ding, DING.
Anyone? Someone?
When they finally caught up with him, he was at the counter, hitting that bell with hatred in his eyes.
“Back home with you, mister.”
Ding...
Home? Superman never dresses in white. He hated home.
SERENDIPIDY
If I was a superhero, I wouldn’t work for the public good, and I’m betting you wouldn’t either.
If you had laser eyes, super strength, or the ability to fly, become invisible, or move at lightning speed, I’m sure as hell your first thoughts wouldn’t be how to use your powers to help those in distress.
Instead, you’d be figuring out schemes to rob banks, sneak unseen into people’s bedrooms and laser the shrubs in your annoying neighbour’s garden!
Just as well I’m an everyday person.
But all it takes is a radioactive insect bite... And then, you’re in trouble!
TURA
Superhero
———
Superhero Sidekick Examination: written part.
Question 1.
How can you riddle the Riddler?
Question 2.
Holy priceless collection of Etruscan snoods! Improvise three expressions of histrionic astonishment.
Question 3.
Your superhero is attempting to disarm the supervillain’s superweapon, when he exclaims, “Not only cunning, but fiendish! The entire assembly is behind a hypersensitive joggle trap! If only I had a 1N914 diode to redirect the electron field!”
How do you respond to this emergency in a way that demonstrates resourcefulness, creativity, elan, finesse, sprezzatura, and fourth wall knowingness?
The answer “I’ve not got one on me” will get zero points.
———
PLANET Z
Truth. Justice. The American Way.
Lex Luthor bought the copyright on the phrase.
“Doesn’t Superman own that?” said his attorney.
“Actually the narrator of news reels he’s in says that,” said Luthor. “The ones we just bought.”
When someone said the phrase or printed it on a shirt, Luthor demanded royalties.
Luthor tried to trademark the symbol on Superman’s chest, but that was covered by Kryptonian Law, the courts said.
Didn’t stop him from hiring fourth-world sweatshops to produce shirts for the fans of his nemesis.
It didn’t make a lot of money, but it was the principle that mattered.
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FAQ
How many episodes does The 100 Word Stories Podcast have?
The 100 Word Stories Podcast currently has 1232 episodes available.
What topics does The 100 Word Stories Podcast cover?
The podcast is about Fiction, Podcasts, Arts and Performing Arts.
What is the most popular episode on The 100 Word Stories Podcast?
The episode title 'Knitting' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on The 100 Word Stories Podcast?
The average episode length on The 100 Word Stories Podcast is 3 minutes.
How often are episodes of The 100 Word Stories Podcast released?
Episodes of The 100 Word Stories Podcast are typically released every day.
When was the first episode of The 100 Word Stories Podcast?
The first episode of The 100 Word Stories Podcast was released on Oct 9, 2021.
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