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FridayFiction-ToiBoxEdition

Friday Fiction: ToiBox Edition No. 006 #fridayreads (luck, office, couple, whistle)

So, I’m a little late. It’s still technically Friday where I am, so here goes noth’n.

fridayfiction

Prompt # Prompt #343693121
Topic/Theme: luck | Location/Setting: office
Character(s): couple(s) | Object(s): whistle | Action: NA | Random Additive: NA

F5

I think I want … a … candy bar. Yeah, let’s try … F5.

Ben looked up and noticed Sam staring at him from around the corner. “Hey Sam, what’s up?”

“I don’t think you ought to be using that machine, Ben,” stated Sam while looking around nervously.

“Why not? It’s here and I’m hungry.”

“Ben, I’m telling you, that machine isn’t normal. You don’t want anything out of it. Just go down to the second floor like everyone else.”

“Sam, why exactly is this machine here, if everyone uses the one downstairs? What’s wrong with this one? Eats everyone’s money and never puts out?”

Sam stepped forward slightly, waving his hand for Ben to move towards him. “You don’t know the half of it. Please, don’t put any money in that.”

“Too late, it already has my money.”

Sam stomped his foot. “Let it go. Leave it behind. I’ll buy you something downstairs.”

Two weeks later Ben was pulling a late shift trying to complete a special project that would be presented to the managers the next day. Ben was glad the floor manager’s assistant had taken pity on him and stayed to help him out. He was still the new guy on the cube block and everyone was waiting to see if he really had ‘what it takes’ to make it at the firm.

Shirley yawned and stretched as she returned from the copy room. “Man, we have at least another hour of this and I’ve already burn off my dinner.”

Ben jumped up, “I got you covered. Anything you want out of the vending machine is yours?”

“Wow you really know how to thrill a girl, don’t you?” Ben slumped his shoulders and Shirley sighed. “Oh, Ben. I was just kidding. Something from the vending machine would be great.”

He perked up. “Great, what would you like?”

“Feel like making two stops?”

“Sure, but why?”

“There are no drinks on the second floor and the one on this floor is on the other side of the block.”

“It might be a little bit more walking, but I wouldn’t call it two stops. I’ll get your drink them come back get your snack around the corner.”

Shirley’s mouth dropped open and she stared at him for a moment. “You’re not going down to the second floor vending machine?”

“I wasn’t going to unless what you want isn’t available in the one here.”

Shirley took a few steps back. “You haven’t been using that machine, have you?”

Ben sighed. “Not yet, but what’s the big deal … If it’s that crappy, why keep it around.”

“No one told you about the vending machine? It’s bad luck.”

It was Ben’s turn to drop his mouth open. “Are you serious? No one uses that vending machine because it’s bad luck?”

Shirley fidgeted. “Well, not all the time. Every now and then, it grants someone good luck, but it’s an awful big risk to take.”

Ben started to walk away towards the aisle. “Fine, I’ll go down to the second floor.”

“Maybe I should come with you.”

“Seriously, I’m not going to try to trick you and give you ‘bad luck’.” Ben’s use of finger quotes didn’t ease Shirley’s mind. It was clear that he didn’t believe her, but she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Two weeks later Ben was moving into his new office. He was the first cubie to be promoted to an Assistant Manager’s position in only a month. Now he even had legitimate access to the managerial assistants and often had lunch with Shirley. Though they tried to remain low-key, everyone knew they were a couple. As long as he wasn’t her manager it wasn’t a problem, but they often discussed her transferring to another department in case he got promoted again.

One late evening, Sam returned to the office to pick up a file he meant to work on over the weekend and noticed Ben’s office light on. He went in to say hi, but Ben wasn’t there. He heard a strange sound around the corner and followed it. As he approached the lounge he recognized the sound of a vending machine taking money and ran. “Noooo!”

Ben jumped back and shouted. “What’s the matter with you, scaring me like that?”

“You’ve been using the machine haven’t you? That’s how you got that promotion…It won’t last you know.”

Ben caught his breath. “I’m not using it, I’m just feeding it. I thought you all were crazy at first but then my life started getting so good, I couldn’t risk it all going bad.”

Sam stepped into the lounge but kept his distance from the machine. “What do you mean, you’re just feeding it.”

“I never make a selection. I just put in the money and think about what I want. I’ve actually lost about eight pounds not eating the stuff I want. Add to that my new promotion, my sweet lady, and the reduction in my rent, I’ll keep feeding this thing as long as it’ll take my money.”

Sam smiled, “So you cracked it. You figured out a way to beat it or maybe you figured out a way to please it.”

Ben shook his head. “Yeah I guess, but I still feel like I’m treading on thin ice. Anyway, you want to give it a try?”

Sam backed up. “No, I’m good. I don’t believe in messing around with luck. I’ll just keep my life simple and predictable.”

Two weeks later, Shirley can down from the director’s office to meet Ben for lunch. He was breaking in his new office and assistant. After showing her around and introducing her to Shirley, he bid her farewell to go off to lunch.

Having just started a few hours ago, Margie wasn’t really hungry but was eager to dive into her new duties. After about a half hour, she became restless. There was plenty to do, but most of the managers and assistants had gone off to lunch and she wasn’t feeling motivated. She decided to visit the lounge to seek out a simple snack.

She walked up to the vending machine and almost pressed her face against the glass since she’s left her glasses at her desk. Leaning forward, she extended her hand to brace herself and accidently pressed a few buttons, unknowingly making a selection. Just then the rack on row F5 begin to turn moving a chocolate bar forward. When the bar dropped to the bottom of the tray, Margie looked around and considered whether or not she should take it. She hadn’t paid for it; heck she hadn’t even selected it, but there it was.

A few moments later, Annie, the file clerk came into the lounge to get a cup of coffee. In the middle of the floor lay some woman she’d never seen with a candy bar in her hands. Annie dropped her coffee cup, pulled out her whistle, and began to blow. She ran up and down the aisles of the cube block blowing her whistle. People were scattering about, jumping into action as though this drill had been practiced before.

When Ben arrived back to his office five minutes late another manager was waiting for him. Ben pulled at his tie and approached with caution. “Say Norman, what’s going on? Did I miss a meeting? Parking was terrible out there today.”

Norman approached Ben and extended his hand. The two men shook and then Norman spoke. “Ben I hate to be the one to lay this on you, but you’re being transferred. I know how much you like it here; don’t worry, it’s not a demotion in anyway. The guys upstairs just feel like an up and comer like you needs to be in a division with some real growth potential.”

Ben sighed with relief. “Well that’s fine, that’s great. I was afraid it was bad news.”

“Oh no, not at all. You’re solid as a rock around here Ben.”

“Great, but what about my new assistant? Is she coming with me?”

“No, she’s already been informed of the blunder. She never should have started here today. She’s also being reassigned.”

“Oh, well. Seems like a lot went down while I was away to lunch.”

Norman patted Ben on the back and looked over his shoulder out the window, facing the cube block and winked. “You don’t know the half of it son.”

1,407 words

September ?, 2015 – Prompt #1563136199
Topic/Theme: fashion | Location/Setting: jungle
Character(s): NA| Object(s): bug | Action: NA | Random Additive: ink/paint

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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Excerpts Fun Hops

Spectacular Settings #WEPFF Challenge No. 1 featuring All Souls Trilogy & Eternal Curse Series #amwriting #amreading

Since I’m new to this group and challenge I hope it’s okay to break the rules just a bit. For the first part of this challenge, I’m sharing a bit more than a paragraph and at the end I’ll offer my explanation. A scene with a spectacular setting that takes my breath away from, Shadow of Night: All Souls Trilogy Book 2 by Deborah Harkness.

From Amazon.com; click to shop.

“My attempts to reach the Old Lodge’s future from its past were unsuccessful. I focused on the look and smell of the place and saw the threads that bound Matthew and me to the house- brown and green and gold. But they slipped out of my fingers repeatedly.”

Obviously there is a sense of magic here-
time travel and colored threads connected to
locations future and past. There is also a sense
of searching or discovery.

“I tried for Set-Tours instead. The threads that linked us there were tinged with Matthew’s idiosyncratic blend of red and black shot through with silver. I imagined the house full of familiar faces-Sarah and Em, Ysabeau and Marthe, Marcus and Miriam, Sophie and Nathaniel. But I couldn’t reach that safe port either.”

I see the speaker, a woman, and her companion Matthew,
in a blur of colored threads passing by familiar places
that never quite come into focus. There is a dark element,
but it’s not menacing.

“…My fingers kept returning to the same strand in the warp and weft of time that was not silky and smooth but hard and rough. I inched along its twisting length and discovered that it was not a thread but a root connected to some unseen tree. With that realization I tripped, as over an invisible threshold, and fell into the keeping room of the Bishop House.”

In the midst of green and gold, red and black silky threads,
the speaker finds a brown, rough, and twisted
one that turns out to be a root; anchoring her to a place she
knows, the Bishop house, which already has
an old and rustic comfort to it, even though it’s not described.

There are so many elements at play in this passage, but the setting is key. They way she describes her effort to return to another time sets the tone of the action and events, which in turn sets the mood and atmosphere of her final destination. We don’t know exactly what the Bishop House is just from reading this passage, but we get a sense that it is a place more important and special to these characters than the others already mentioned.

~

For the second part of this challenge, I will share an excerpt from one of my published works which will be re-released soon. I chose this scene for two reasons. I think the setting is crucial to the action of the story and I feel it sets the tone for the overall story/book.  A scene with a hopefully spectacular setting that may take your breath away from, Eternal Curse: Battleground by Toi Thomas.

 

ECB coverI was almost in tears thinking about the first time I held his hand with the full understanding of the differences between boys and girls. I was innocent, but not naïve and very curious. I had just turned fifteen, he was about to turn nineteen, and his grandfather had just died. It seems that tragedy was our matchmaker. After Grandpa Leo’s funeral, he’d wandered off from the reception and everyone was looking for him. I remember finding him in the Secret Cave, an underground catacomb he, Sheldon, and I had found when I was much younger and smaller.

I remembered that Michael and Sheldon had gone off to explore, as boys like to do, and that I tagged along. At that time, Sheldon and Michael were close in age, at least physically, and I was the ten-year-old tag-along little sister. I stumbled into a crevice in the ground, but Michael caught me before I fell in. Even though I was small, Michael wasn’t much bigger than I was, so we both began to slip down into the hole. Sheldon leaped over Michael and pulled him back, bringing me up along the way. Then he jumped down into the hole and shouted back that we’d discovered a hidden cave.

Later we made a rope ladder and tied it down to some nearby trees, to be used as a safe entrance to our new secret hiding place. We would go there to play for hours at a time, and sometimes we’d go so we could hide from the adults whenever we needed to. It was Sheldon who suggested that’s where he’d probably be after Leo’s funeral, but he wasn’t interested in going to look for him. I decided to go into the wilderness on my own to find Michael. For some reason, I knew he needed me, but I didn’t know why. Looking back on it now, I think maybe Sheldon thought the same and that’s why he didn’t want to go.

Eternal Curse: BATTLEGROUND © 2015 Toinette Thomas

Be sure to check out the other entries in this challenge and be dazzled by spectacular settings.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Categories
FridayFiction-ToiBoxEdition

Friday Fiction: ToiBox Edition No. 005 #fridayreads (quest, inside, weapon, confuse)

fridayfiction

Prompt #0269138167

Topic/Theme: quest | Location/Setting: inside

Character(s): NA | Object(s): weapon | Action: confuse | Random Additive: NA

From the Inside

Eric’s head swooned as he tried to stand, bouncing translucent orbs circled him. “Where, where are we?”

“Inside,” Victor replied, his voice booming in Eric’s ear.

Blinking through the pain and weight of lifting one’s own body to a standing position, the bouncing orbs slowing down and fading away, Eric looked around. “Inside where?”

“That’s a good question kid. Wish I had an answer for you.”

Eric followed Victor’s voice, finally locating him this vast void. Victor looked strong as usual; whatever had overcome Eric must have eluded Victor. Victor stood erect, wearing a black loincloth, staring at a blank wall of sorts. His bulging muscles were for once at rest though his demeanor expressed alert. Victor was waiting for something.

Eric looked down, still regaining his balance and focus, as the bouncing orbs faded completely allowing him to take in the stark brightness of his surroundings. He too wore a black loincloth, but his body looked thin and pale. Was I this thin before the incident? What was the incident? What’s happening here?

Finally Eric approached Victor. “What’s going on? Where are we?”

Victor was unmoving. Speaking in a low calm voice he reiterated. “We are inside. As to the where, why, or how I do not know.”

Eric spun around slow, fully taking in his surroundings. He and Victor were in a bright void that went on as far as his eyes could see, but within the void was a large transparent box. He and Victor were inside the box. Eric’s head ached from some unknown physical impact, but trying understand what had happened to him and where he was, made it throb.

puzzlebox

“The Mittiens and their weapon- we were on a quest to find it. I remember.”

“Good kid; glad you remember, but it doesn’t help us understand what’s happening now.”

“We must have been caught by the Mittiens. They are holding us here.”

“Perhaps, but to what end. Where exactly are they holding us?”

Eric opened his mouth to say something and then quickly shut it realizing he had no response to offer. Pacing back and forth the length of the clear box, Eric interrogated himself, searching to find answers hidden beneath the right questions. Suddenly Eric stopped and stared at Victor. He had not left his spot, nor altered his position, and barely breathed. Taking a few steps toward his mentor, Eric noticed for the first time the sound of… Buzzing? No, the minute hum of vibration. With each step he took the humming skidded passed his ear- mmm, mmm. Now the vibration tickled the hairs on the back of his neck.

“You figured out the vibration didn’t you, Victor?”

“I did.”

“That’s why you’re not moving.”

“That’s part of it.”

“What does the vibration mean?”

“What does any of it mean Eric? I don’t know. I can only assume that whatever is holding us up, within whatever this brightness is, it’s as stable as I would like.”

Eyes fighting to stay closed, head swaying, and perspiration beading his forehead, Eric tried to recall his lessons on mediation to aid him in and effort to achieve his mentor’s stillness, but brightness and aches distracted him.

“Victor, were you injured or damaged when you came to? Did you feel the aches, as I do, before working through them?”

Victor’s eyes blinked and his shoulders twitched- mmm. “No,” he answered.

Eric sighed. Maybe I’m asking the wrong questions. “What’s the last thing you remember of our quest? How far did we get?”

Another blink and twitching of the shoulders- mmm.

“Victor, are you alright? Do you remember anything?”

Victor finally tuned his head to face Eric – mmm. His eyes blinked rapidly. Pulses of micro vibrations began to crash into one another, almost to the point where the box shifted. Still unmoving, eyes blinking, and facing his protégé, Victor spoke. “We didn’t get far, but you made it into their vault. After you cracked their code, you stepped in.”

Everything went dark.

Mmm, mmm. Mmm, mmm.

Footsteps approach in the darkness. Clunk, mmm, mmm. Cluck, mmm, mmm.

Eric braced his body against a wave of cool air. He felt like he was falling and then he wasn’t.

Clunck, mmm, mmm. Clunck, mmm, mmm. Clunck, mmm, mmm. Clunck, mmm, mmm.

His ears twitched, and he fought the urge to lean into the sound of the steps. Now the floor beneath him buzzed and his body shook. The void was bigger around him now, he could feel it. He knew the box was gone, but that the floor remained. The blackness, oddly enough, was much more comforting to him than the light. His training was coming back to him and his meditation techniques helped him to keep calm. Buzz, mmm, buzz, mmmm.

Nothing, at least that’s what they want me to think. I’m not floating around in nothing. I wouldn’t be able to breathe if I was. Why are they doing this? What did I find in that vault- a weapon, something worse?

Buzz, mmm, mmm. Buzz, mmm, mmm.

****

Gamma Don. Rowe stood and saluted Beta Don. Xett before delivering his report. “Sir it seems that we may have a problem in the Confusion Chamber.”

“What sort of problem Gamma?”

“The latest p.o.w. seems to have figured out how it works, or at least he’s on the verge of figuring it out.”

“Gamma Don. Rowe, please elaborate. What has the human been able to decipher?”

“Well sir, it seems that his memory is returning, he’s locked in on the vibrational pattern of the box, so we now have him in the spatial quadrant, but his not going for the bait. Then there’s the matter of the second pulse.”

“Second pulse? Explain Gamma; I don’t have time to keep up with all the technology to youngers implement these days.”

“Sir, unfortunately, the second pulse isn’t one of ours. We’re not even sure what it is. All we know is that the human entered the Confuse Chamber alone, but periodically, we register two heart beats in the room with him. It is as if someone is helping him defeat our weapon from the inside.”

1,021 words

July 17 #, 2015 – Prompt #343693121

Topic/Theme: luck | Location/Setting: office

Character(s): couple(s) | Object(s): whistle | Action: NA | Random Additive: NA

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords