Red Sands by Request

Turns out I take requests: reasonable ones.  Don’t be asking me to write in the subjunctive on a lark and expecting me to snap to.  This one is from a friend wanting read my thoughts on these photos.  I’ve read up on micronations in the past and decided not to diverge to far from the concept below.  I’d like to to this as I didn’t get to the point before I had to start making money for the day instead of playing here.

“Stifu.  Just stifu Citizen.” President Jim impatiently demanded.  “And get back to your can.  It’s getting dark.”

Citizen Carl did, in fact, shut the fuck up.  And, with an apologetic nod, he got back to his can.  It was, after all, getting dark.

President Jim listened as Carl’s retreat creaked the fifty foot gang back to Tall Can and then faded with the ocean sounds further below.  He waited for the always loud zipola to carry Carl a few hundred feet over the swells to Can 5 where he bunked with 23 other men.  Privacy in Red Sands occurred as infrequently as rainbows even for it’s highest officer—especially even.

Staring into the sunset lit clouds on the horizon allowed Jim to keep some of his worst thoughts even from himself.  When solitude did come it came in the extreme.  Jim waited several more minutes before turning away from the expanse of water.  Then he spoke out loud.

“We’ve had no radio contact with London in two months.

“We’ve not seen contrails in the same time.

“Satellites are still flying; sunsets are the same.

“Henry swears he saw a cruise boat heading south a month back.  Before Dianna and Hamish took Little Boat and have not returned from their search in three weeks.

“Our six months of supplies looks to only be four months useful.  So.  Only two months left.

“Big Boat is leaking diesel and needs work on the prop and can only get less than half of us back to the UK.

“What else?  What else?

“Aaaand, Natty is 27 weeks pregnant.  Stupid girl.”

Days  289 and 290

Barely Two More Paragraphs on Xinshi

Today I’m going to do something I’ve implied I would do but haven’t yet.  I employ a ‘’ tag to indicate work I feel deserves to be revisited at a later date.  In most cases I have not come back to it.  Let’s see what we can find in there…

There was better stuff in there to choose from than I expected.

The Trouble with Xinshi

[Maestro] stabbed two fingers at Xinshi’s chest and crooked them like he was lifting a fish from a bucket. Across the room the old man staggered forward. Certainly all the Ones knew this to be the [maestro’s] magic. Nearly all of the Twos believed as well. I knew it to be nothing more than a trick of the mind. A false compulsion Xinshi had fallen for–again.

We all waited for the [maestro’s] next sign. Without dropping the finger-hook he waived his left hand back and forth like he was holding a placard and asking a question. :What are you doing?: I’d seen him sign this simple question a thousand times of hundreds of Ones over the years.

The thirteen red feathers of the [maestro’s]

Does this seem like I wasn’t finished?

I made up Xinshi as I wanted something with an X in it. I am told that in Mandarin it translates to ‘something you think in your heart‘. Fun.

This originated from a picture I can no longer find.  I’m tempted to go look for it now but I won’t since I’ve already messed around enough this morning.

The thirteen red feathers of the [maestro’s][clothing] stirred by his movement continued to undulate like motes in the lightly milling air between them.

Xinshi never answered [maestro] but he never broke eye-contact with [maestro] either.  Each time the [maestro] rose to anger with Xinshi I felt included with the pair.  Maybe the feeling grew from being at the [maestro’s] side day up and day down.  I never missed an encounter. Eventually the old man acquiesced.

Day 288

Back from Vacation

But don’t let that fool you.

I have a VB test this evening that I’ve not studied for enough.  I have an Oracle assignment due.  And Heroes premieres tonight.

I will leave this document open throughout the day in case I find more time to write more creatively, but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.

Day 287