Sore Loser - #FridayFlash

This is a continuation of last week's story "Time's Faux Pas."


Chronos stumbled into his house after a long visit with Nyx and collapsed on the sofa. Perhaps he should stop time for a week or two and get some sleep. Death sauntered in from the kitchen just then, a bowl of peanuts balanced in one skeletal hand.

"You look like hell, old man."

Opening one eye, Chronos found Death peering at him closely.

"You have a peanut stuck…" Chronos motioned a finger to his nose, trying to stifle a laugh. Death dug the nut out of his nasal cavity with as much dignity as he could muster before chuckling himself.

"Wouldn’t do to make a collection with a peanut stuffed up my nose. It could hurt my credibility."

"With your cowl up they probably wouldn’t notice anyway."

Death studied the sand in the hourglass on the table.

"My collection is right outside Lucien’s, but I’ve got some time yet. Do you want to play a couple of racks?"

"Why do you want to play pool with Evil?"

Death shrugged. "Why not? I’m neutral. Besides, he’s got the best joint in town. I hear Clotho drops in there from time to time."

That got Chronos’ attention. "The Fates hang out in a pool hall?"

"Only the youngest one. She still likes to party."

"You go on without me," Chronos said. He gave in to a huge yawn and sank deeper into the sofa. "Turn the hourglass over for me on your way out, will you?"

Death shook his skull in amusement as Chronos started to snore. He set the bowl of peanuts down on the table, in case his friend woke up hungry, and faded out.

***

"Thanatos, it’s good of you to stop by," Lucien called out as Death materialized next to the bar. "Join me in a game?"

The bar patrons shrank back as Death ambled over to the table. Most people saw him as a nice looking young man, if they saw him at all. Only those whose time has come would see the skeletal visage. Of course, all in here were doomed so they saw him for who he was.

"What brings you here?" Lucien waved his cigar in the air, its smoke twirling around the woman standing next to him and intoxicating her with its unique aroma.

"I’ve got a pickup later on."

"Not in here I trust." Lucien smiled but his eyes narrowed and sparked with glints of red.

The floor next to Death opened, swallowing the person standing beside him in a belch of flames. He ignored the theatrics.

"No. It’s outside."

Lucien relaxed his stance and called for the bartender to bring over a bowl of peanuts.

"How about a game?"

The shriek of locked brakes and rend of metal came halfway through the second game.

"That’s my appointment." Death turned to go just as a car burst through the wall, lodging itself amongst the scattered bricks. Lucien chomped down on his cigar and grinned.

"He’s inside my establishment. That makes him mine."

"A soul in the hand, Lucien…" Death pointed to the customers starting to scramble over the hood on their way out.

"All right!"

He chuckled as Lucien’s fists balled in impotent fury. He really was a sore loser. Concentrating on Chronos, Death sent out the call that he was needed right away.

Chronos appeared, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"This better be life or death—" One look around convinced him. He shifted his hourglass to the side and time stopped for the mortals.

"Thanks for coming so quickly, old friend."

"You're lucky I heard you—"

Motion in the corner yanked both Chronos' and Death's attention. The bartender still moved as if nothing was amiss. Lucien followed their stares.

"He's not mortal, but demon." When they turned a questioning glance at him, Evil shrugged. "It's hard to find good help these days. Besides, he makes a damn fine martini. Now, can we get on with the problem of keeping my clientele penned in here?"

Chronos rewound time to just before the point of impact and they stopped the car from coming through the wall. Time flowed again as Death collected his soul.

"Lucien seemed a bit testy tonight," Chronos remarked.

"He's just mad that I beat him at a game. Evil hates to lose." Death chuckled, his jawbone dropping in a fair imitation of a smile. He put his bony arm around Chronos. "Let's get back home, shall we?"

©2010 Laura Eno

Awards Day

I've been honored with two different awards in the last few days. Now it's my turn to pass them on.



I received the You Are My Sunshine Award from Michelle D Evans. The purpose of it is to acknowledge those that have a blog and spend endless hours ensuring that other bloggers get feedback on their blogs by leaving comments, adding themselves as a follower or dropping by just to let you know there are people out there. Thank you, Michelle!

Now to pass it on.

Helen Ginger of Straight From Hel
Deanna Schrayer of The Other Side of Deanna
Anne Tyler Lord of Anne Tyler Lord
Eric Krause of Eric J Krause's Writing Spot
Alan Davidson of Conversations From Land's Edge




The Circle Of Friends Award came from both Christian Bell over at I'm Not Emilio Estevez and John Wiswell at The Bathroom Monologues. Thank you, Christian and John!

This one is to be passed along to five friends, which I always find difficult to limit the choices.

Lily Mulholland at Ten Seconds a Day
Maria Protopapadaki-Smith of Mazzz-in-Leeds
Sam at Future; Nostalgic
Karen Schindler at Miscellaneous Yammering
Michelle Evans at Michelle D Evans

Feel free to pass these on or not, but know that I am honored to pass them on to all of you.

Mirror, Mirror

I have a story up at Karen Schindler's new site, Pow Fast Flash Fiction. It's called

Mirror, Mirror.

I hope you'll drop by and give it a read. While you're there, browse through the other great stories.

Time's Faux Pas - #FridayFlash

“I’m bored.”

Chronos looked over to see if his companion heard him. Death sat in a recliner, flicking peanuts from a spoon and catching them in his eye sockets.

“Are you even listening to me?”

“I heard you. Why don’t you go visit Nyx?”

Chronos shuddered, remembering the last time he’d been in that wily woman’s clutches. The goddess of Night was not to be taken lightly. He wasn’t sure he was up to repeating that experience.

“No, I want to do something constructive. You know, help people.”

“You’ve got all the time in the world to do it.” Not getting a laugh at his little joke, Death stood up. “I have a collection to make. Let me know what you come up with. It might affect my schedule.”

Chronos nodded and scratched his beard. The longer it got the more it itched. It was all this cold, dry air—

That’s it, he thought. People complained about how long winter lasted. He could do something about that.

He paid a visit to Gaia but she wasn’t at home. Probably out fixing the latest tree blight. No matter. Chronos couldn’t see any flaw to his plan that would upset Mother Nature.

First, he sped up the earth’s orbit. Then he removed the month of February. Pleased with his solution, Chronos wasn’t prepared for the complaints that poured in.

Gaia pounded on his door, then blew in before he’d had a chance to answer it.

“You’ve disrupted the growing season.”

Chronos took a step backwards. If she started a tornado right now, he’d lose all the knickknacks off his shelves.

“I only wanted to ease the suffering that a long winter brings.”

“Did you think about the Southern Hemisphere? You shortened their summer.”

“Oh. That hadn’t occurred to me.” Before he could say more the doorbell rang. Eros stood on the doorstep, his bow pulled taut and an arrow aimed at Chronos’ head.

“You’ve removed the month of love, you blasted timepiece! How am I supposed to match people without Valentine’s Day? What will this do to the flower and chocolate industries? You bloody well better change it back before I skewer you.”

Death and War popped in together. War had his sword drawn but Death eased it aside.

“I’m afraid you’ve made a mess of things, old friend. War will have to intensify his efforts and I will no doubt be working overtime to keep up.”

“I understand.” Chronos raised his hands to forestall any more accusations. “I have changed it back.”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and left him at once. The sudden silence gnawed at him.

“I’m bored,” he said to the empty room. Maybe he’d go visit Nyx after all.

©2010 Laura Eno

You Are My Sunshine Award

I am honored to receive the You Are My Sunshine Award from fellow writer and FridayFlash enthusiast Michelle D Evans. I hope you will stop by and say hi to her.

The premise of this award is to acknowledge those that have a blog and spend endless hours ensuring that other bloggers get feedback on their blogs by leaving comments, adding themselves as a follower or dropping by just to let you know there are people out there.

I hope that I have lived up to that purpose, but I get so much more out of leaving comments and engaging in conversations. You see, Michelle lives in Australia and I live in the US. Chances are very slim that we would meet in person but, because of blogs, I have many wonderful friends like Michelle who live all over the world. It couldn't get any better than that.

Thank you so much, Michelle!

The Golden Demon

I have a story up on The New Flesh today called "The Golden Demon." I'd love for you to have a read!

The Golden Demon

Thanks!

Garden Fresh - #FridayFlash

Kelly worked the soil out from around the last carrots in the garden. While she was pleased with the harvest from her little patch of soil, she was also puzzled.

The wild rabbits normally made inroads on her plantings – up until about a week ago anyway. She hadn’t seen any evidence of nibbling for the last several days. Had something happened to the furry little menaces?

Just as Kelly was about to leave with her basket of fresh-picked vegetables, she heard a noise in the underbrush. Several rabbits appeared, moving in slow, jerky paces towards her. Their matted fur showed bald patches, their mouths hung slack as they fixed their reddened eyes on her.

Dropping the basket, Kelly backed away. Ignoring the bounty spilled on the ground, the rabbits advanced on her, chittering softly as their mouths began to clack in anticipation.

©2010 Laura Eno

Interview Today

Karen Schindler, over at Miscellaneous Yammering, is interviewing my writer persona today. I would be honored if you’d stop by and be a part of the live audience!

Interview with Laura Eno

Bits and Pieces - #FridayFlash

This is another segment of my Nano project

Ruth Mason walked into the dentist office fifteen minutes early, even though she dreaded the appointment. She was early for everything. Her husband joked that she’d be early for her own funeral, but Ruth liked to think that she was punctual.

The bland beige office with its bland beige sofa did nothing to relax her tension. Neither did the two-month-old magazines she now flipped through without really seeing. Soft elevator music played in the background, but it annoyed rather than helped.

When the assistant finally called her back, 20 minutes late, Ruth jumped at the sound of her name. She wouldn’t be here at all except her tooth had really been bothering her for the last several days. There was no getting around it. She needed it fixed.

The assistant carried in a tray that the dentist would need, setting it on the small table beside her. The sunlight glinted off the metal array, making them look like dangerous weapons. Ruth’s hands began to sweat and she closed her eyes.

“The doctor will be with you shortly,” the assistant said and left the room.

Ruth was glad to be left alone. The girl was excessively cheerful, blending with the elevator music to create a nauseating experience.

Ms. Chirpy came back to take x-rays and left again. After what seemed like an eternity, the doctor arrived.

“It’s a good thing you came in before the tooth became infected.” Dr. Jessop examined the upper molar in Ruth’s mouth, comparing it to the x-ray. It needed a root canal without any further delay. He injected the lidocaine in several spots.

“The upper teeth are very close to the sinus cavity, which is a direct pathway to the brain. We wouldn’t want an infection to work its way in there, now would we?”

Ruth grunted her assent, wondering why dentists always chose to ask questions when their patients couldn’t answer. Maybe they taught that in dental school. Still, overall he was a kind man. She’d been coming to him for years.

Left alone in the chair while the anesthetic took effect, Ruth studied the same plaques on the wall that she’d seen a dozen times before. She never remembered to bring something to read in with her, although it’d be a blur since her nerves were always on edge here. A visit to the dentist wasn’t on her list of favorite outings.

Dr. Jessop came back in with another tray, covered in a white cloth. He set it down on a table behind Ruth’s head. After inserting a bite block into her mouth, he asked if she was ready.

Ruth gargled a response that made no sense and squeezed her eyes shut, just as she always did. That was why she missed the power drill with the 1/2” bit.

“I’ve often wondered just how close the sinus cavity really is to the upper teeth so I brought my own tools in this morning to experiment.”

The doctor hummed along to the song of the drill, adjusting angles to compensate for the lolled head of his patient.

“Thank you for being such a quiet patient, Ms. Mason. It makes the job so much more pleasant.”

©2009 Laura Eno

WOOT!

I have a story up at 10Flash called WISH THE MOON. I would be most honored if you would stop by and give it a read.

There are several other familiar names amongst the ten stories. I promise your time spent there will be filled with thrills and chills.

10Flash - WISH THE MOON