Thursday January 30th, 2014

The exercise:

Write something that has to do with: the rumble.

Picked up my last shift of the month this evening, working a 3 to 9 shift for someone who needed the night off. It was pretty quiet, with nothing going on in the bowling alley and only slightly more action in the gym.

This Saturday I get to do a very partial shift, as Kat is going to be assisting an online course for most of the day. So the plan is for me to go in to the gym in the morning to open up and do whatever basics are required, then come home and watch Max. Once he's had his nap and has been safely dropped off with his grandparents for the afternoon, I go back to work to finish things up for the day.

All this is the result of the recent departure of one of my coworkers, whose replacement has yet to be found, and another coworker being up in Penticton until the evening. Oh, and also: my manager already working far too much. Thankfully she had the sense to not help out with this.

Max may or may not be coming with me in the morning. I think it could be fun, but also a severe pain in the butt. We'll see which side wins out in a couple days.

Mine:

He allowed the car to idle for a long time, feeling the dark rumble of the impatient engine in his bones and in his belly. Around him the parking lot emptied slowly, like an automotive hourglass marking the time until the scrapheap beckons. The air grew colder, the skies blacker.

Still he remained, unmoving behind the wheel.

Without the occasional twitch of his right eye he might have been mistaken for dead. Ambulances would have been called, police cars adorned with swirling red crowns would have screamed into the spaces around him.

But passersby found enough evidence of his continued survival, so he was left alone.

After more minutes had passed than he seemed aware of, he shifted from park to drive. The truck seemed to hum with relief, eager to be on the move at last. Then, with only a moment's hesitation, he shifted the vehicle into reverse instead and slammed on the gas.

The crash of glass and shudder of collapsing bookshelves as he returned to his former girlfriend's thrift shop was so satisfying it almost brought a smile to his lips.

Almost.

3 comments:

Greg said...

I'd take Max to the gym with you; you can always tie him to some of the weight equipment with the stack on max so he can't move it :) Still, it sounds like it could be a busy day for you, so good luck with it all!

Hmm, that's a dark little piece today, though it was fun to read and I wasn't expecting the ending. I knew it wouldn't be exactly happy though :-D I think I particularly like the descriptions of the police cars, if they'd been called, that's particularly evocative.

The rumble
When the Gods play Scrabble, it changes the face of the world....
"Paleozoic," said Athena brightly, laying the marble tiles down on the board. As she clicked them into place they seemed to sparkle slightly.
"How many letters is that?" asked Quetzalcoatl, rattling his feathers in agitation. Light bounced off the iridescent blue and purple, patterning the ceiling in an oddly disturbing manner. "You're only allowed seven!"
"I just used the letters on my rack," said Athena, pouting. "That's how we play, isn't it?"
"You've still got letters on your rack," said Horus. He snapped his jaws, a drool-line of saliva spindling down from a sharp canine. "That means you got lots more than seven letters."
Athena picked her tiles up and sighed, and went to discard some from her rack, but Horus laid a hand on hers. "We choose," he said. Quetalcoatl swept a wing along the rack, and tiles disappeared in tiny silver starbursts, until there were only seven left.
Athena tapped a finger on the rack, and then smiled brightly.
"Rumbles", she said, laying her tiles down. Somewhere below them, in the world, an earthquake shuddered to life.
"Did you have any of those letters in your last word?" asked Horus, feeling suspicious, but Athena wasn't listening. She was looking down through the clouds at the result of her play.
"Oh dear," she said insincerely. "Whose Amazonian rain-forest culture was that?"

morganna said...

Rrrr
Uuuu
Mmmm
Big trucks get ready to
Leap: The
Extravaganza Mud Dash begins!

Marc said...

Greg - that's not a bad idea, though I imagine he'd have found a way to climb the stack and jump off of it...

Ah, you've chosen a game close to my heart. Love the way you've used it, particularly with the second word played having so few letters in common with the first attempt :)

Morganna - hah, like how you worked some onomatopoeia into your acrostic :)