“Is it on?” Darkness was all he saw, silence was all he heard. “Is it on?” he asked again. A small particle of light could be seen in the distance, there was a “bzzrp” electrical sound. Suddenly light and color filled the air a second before an immersion of sound. “It works! It works!” he shouted excitedly as he looked around at his new surroundings. Huntington Park was alive with life. Birds sang in trees, people walked past him. Food vendors called out looking for hungry patrons. He rushed to the hot dog vendor and ordered a hot dog with everything on it. When the food was handed to him he took a big bite expecting to taste the sweetness of ketchup, tart of mustard, and savory of a roasted weenie. Daniel’s delight faded as he tasted nothing in his mouth. He tossed the meal into a nearby garbage can. He set his mind on the path that winded through the park. A sign in front of him seemed to glow instantly. He walked toward it and read the writing, “Park Trail 6”. Glancing to his right he saw the path he was looking for. His joy returned to him as he started jogging down the path. Roller skaters whizzed past him, people on bicycles rode past. Some waved, others were more interested in where they were going than who was on the path. Soon he reached the sprawling lake that was at the center of Huntington Park. There was a rental booth, decked out in yellow aluminum siding. You could rent paddle boats, fishing equipment, and storage lockers, among other things. He watched a man teaching a boy how to fish at the bank of the water. Far in the distance he could see a young couple in a paddle boat doing circles as fast as they could. Probably trying to create a current, or waves, or some other nonsense. “It’s nice isn’t it?” a voice next to him asked. Daniel was quite shaken by the experience as he looked over to see who had snuck up unexpectedly. It was a teenage male, dressed in a logo t-shirt and jeans. He smiled at Daniel causing his monolid eyes make creases in his bronze skin. “It really is the Utopia they market it to be.” he waved his bronze hand around. Daniel said nothing and glanced again at the man teaching the boy to fish. “Well if you get bored in here, my name is Austin Greeves.” the teenager offered out his hand. “You can find me any time.” “Don’t you sleep?” Austin laughed and then walked away. He tossed his skateboard to the ground and skated off in the opposite direction. Daniel hadn’t notice the skateboard earlier. Maybe he just wasn’t paying attention.
Category Archives: Fiction
Kate
The cursor blinked on the command line. It waited for its command. It did not judge if you did right or wrong, it only obeyed. It did not question. It did not feel. It did not willingly tell your secrets. It only did what you told it to do, nothing more nothing less.
The letters were quickly typed on the screen.
The only the sound in the room was of the clicking keys.
rpm -i peek_a_boo.bld0024.i8.rpm
The screen flooded with words and numbers as the program installed on the machine.
After a few minutes the whirlwind of letter of and numbers stopped and the command waited again.
The cursor blinked.
cd PaB
./peek
The computer screen flashed to life. A large dark screen came up with a single box. A series of asterisks appeared as the password was typed in.
The program opened up. The mouse moved quickly over the toolbar and a box popped up mid screen. An ip address was typed in.
The entire contents of the hard drive were opened in a file explorer interface. The /pics/ directory was clicked on.
The command line stood ready, the cursor blinked awaiting orders. rpm -e PaB The screen spring to life on command, it whirred with letters and numbers. Then stillness, the cursor blinked.
Pictures of cats, kittens, a few dogs were intermingled with selfies. Nothing sexy. A few selfies were copied to a directory.
All the files were looked over on the hard drive. Movies, music, emails that had been saved to the hard drive. Everything there was to know about her was here. Where she lived, who she was. It held all her secrets. A few mp3s were copied. The program disengaged from the ip address. A phone number was entered into the box. The contents of the phone were laid out in the same manner as the computer. The pictures of the same female with her friends, at her work. All her destinations, all her check ins. All the information off the phone was transferred to separate directory named Kate. The mouse hovered over the X and the programs warm glow ceased.The command line stood ready, the cursor blinked awaiting orders. rpm -e PaB The screen spring to life on command, it whirred with letters and numbers. Then stillness, the cursor blinked.
Lottery 1
William Barrett had never been a lucky man. In all his 42 years he’d never met Lady Luck, though it never stopped him from looking.
Card games, slot machines, online poker, even horses… William Barrett was always looking for Lady Luck in all the wrong places.
It would suffice to say William Barrett was down on his luck, though he never let on how far down.
His wife of thirteen years has taken their two children back to “Mothers” two weeks ago. She’d had enough of his get rich quick dreams. She was done going hungry over Love. She deserved better.
The notice on the rent read, 30 days extended period denied, eviction if not paid in full by tomorrow. His wife had argued the lights on for the last time six weeks ago. The water had been off for two months.
Sure, William Barrett tried to work. He’d been a waiter, a short order cook, a mover, and too many salesmen jobs to name. He just wasn’t successful at maintaining a job.
The Tri-State Lottery was the highest it’d ever been, it was William’s last chance.
The balls came up and the beautiful dark skinned woman pulled them out one by one. William stood mouth open as each number came up his. It was surreal.
The next morning the eviction crew was at his door. They entered and began taking what few furnishings were left in the house. William woke up on the couch still holding his ticket.
Without argument he left the house, to the local café. Jenny would put it on his Tab, his long running tab. The news blared over the breakfast crowd. The coffee was stale, and William noticed the lottery numbers come up on the screen.
William reached in his pocket and pulled out the ticket, the numbers matched. The news anchor announced there was but one winning ticket sold. William met Lady Luck, but his joy never came. Gears clicked in his mind, who he owed, back tabs, bar tabs, food tabs… loan sharks.
He looked at his salvation, his curse.
He walked out of the café, ticket in hand. He walked down the street, under the freeway. There he saw a slender woman with medium length brown hair. He glanced at her, she was in her thirties. He walked up to her and handed her the ticket. He held up his right hand to her, motioning for her to stay back. He took a few steps backwards. Then slowly with his left hand he pulled out a revolver and stuck it to his temple. In one loud bang his luck had run out….