Kreative Kue 201
Kreative Kue 200 asked for submissions based on this photograph:
I am grateful to John, Anjali and Kristian for making this a bumper week.
John W Howell is the author of the John Cannon trilogy of My GRL, His Revenge, Our Justice and Circumstances of Childhood, co-author of The Contract, and blogs at Fiction Favorites.
The Mistake by John W. Howell © 2018
“So who do you have on your list?”
“Looks like an old man named Tasker.”
“Anyone else?”
“Nope. He’s the last one today.”
“Man, Thank the Creator. I’m totally worn out.”
“Me too. We have been at it for thirty days straight without a break.”
“Well, that’s how the collection business goes sometimes. Too bad those other guys got to have a vacation this week. It has made it especially tough on you and me.”
“I’ll second that. What’s say we do this one and then stop for a couple of drinks?”
“You are talking my language. Okay, we are over the guy right now.”
“You being the bombardier, just give me the word and I’ll cut loose.”
“Steady. The guy is out in a field. Another three feet. Steady. Okay, now. Hit the beam.”
“Beam’s away. The guy should be here any second.”
“I hear him in the transport receptacle. Man, he is a noisy one.”
“Let me check it out on the observation screen. Uh-oh-oh.”
“What do you mean, ‘oh-oh?”‘
“If that is the old man Tasker he sure doesn’t look his age.”
“Let me look I have the facial recognition tool. Lucifer H. Beelzebub. We collected the right guy at the wrong time.”
“What do we do now?”
“I don’t know. I never had this problem before.”
“Are we in trouble?”
“For collecting someone who according to my tablet is not due for another seventy Earth years? You tell me.”
“Crap. We need to do something quick. Can’t we dump him?”
“No once collected, always collected.”
“We’ll just have to beg forgiveness.”
“Beg who, Tasker?”
“Naw. He knows nothing. We’ll have to beg the Creator.”
“No way. The last time I was meeting with the Creator I almost pooped my robes.”
“You don’t poop.”
“That’s what I wanted to do. I said almost. Besides you were the guy responsible for aiming. How did this happen?”
“I had my tablet open to the wrong year. Ever since that last download, this stupid thing reverts to a different year when you are sure you have set it right.”
“You better report that to IT. It may be the only way to save our butts.”
“Good plan. I feel better already.”
“What about Tasker? I wonder how he feels?”
“To be in heaven? I’m sure we can sell the advantages. Maybe we can tell him he was lucky we snatched him while he was in grace. Prevented a trip to the other place.”
“You well know he was in grace right up to the last minute or he would not have been on our list.”
“He doesn’t.”
“You want to lie to him?”
“You know, I think I have Post Collection Stress Disorder. I gotta ask for some time off.”
“Good luck with that. We will be lucky to see a vacation day in the next hundred Earth years.”
Anjali Sharma’s blog, Positive Side of the Coin, is one of the most positive and uplifting blogs I have encountered. I am grateful to Anjali for her response to this week’s Kreatuive Kue:
Life is like a Rainbow 🌈
Let’s make this life-like rainbow, full of beautiful experience.
If I burn in sun and get wet in rain, then only I will experience a rainbow in my life.
Take failures as learning and success as motivation to move on. Its failure that gives you the proper perspective on success.
As life is itself like a rainbow. You need both the sun and rain to make colour appear. Don’t give up on yourself just yet, your most amazing life is still ahead of you and become best version of yourself like rainbow.
Thank you for reading ❤️
And this from Kristian, who blogs regularly at Tales from the mind of Kristian.
More precious than Gold
A Rainbow had shown them the target as It shone on the hollow old tree.
“Come on,” said Jake to Tom “Let’s see if it’s true about finding gold at the end of a rainbow.”
They dug for hours.
It provided their Mother with something more precious than gold. A bit of peace and quiet.
Meanwhile, my effort was:
Not a crock of gold
“What is this thing called, Love?”
“Are we playing that game again?”
“What game?”
“You give me the first line of a song and I have to answer it with the start of another song.”
“No.”
“What then?”
“I want to know what this thing is called.”
“What thing?”
“That coloured thing coming out of the tree, Dumbo. What thing do you think I mean?”
“I don’t know. It would probably be easier if I could read your mind.”
“Yeah – what a tale my thoughts could tell.”
“Okay, we’ll do it your way. Red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue.”
“Why are there so many songs about rainbows?”
“Maybe it’s because…”
“Gotcha! You aren’t a Londoner.”
“That’s not what I was going to say. Maybe it’s because the colours of the rainbow will show the world to you.”
“Oh, very good. So you think I’m an ignorant savage and you’ve been so many places?”
“Is it true that at the end of a rainbow, you’ll find a pot of gold?”
“You’re not looking forward and you’re not looking back.”
“You’re right. We are going nowhere fast. It’s a rainbow.”
“What’s a rainbow?”
“Do you want a short answer or a proper one?”
“Yeah. I know your proper ones. Give me a short one.”
“What’s wrong with my proper answers?”
“They’re okay last thing at night; help me go to sleep, they do. Look. I don’t need detailed, scientific information. I just want to know what a rainbow is, how it’s formed and what it’s for.”
“And you want that in a couple of short, pithy sentences.”
“Of course.”
“Okay. What is it? It’s an arch of colours visible in the sky. How is it formed? It’s caused by the refraction and dispersion of the sun’s light by rain or other water droplets in the atmosphere.”
“See? It’s easy.”
“So now you know and understand it?”
“I didn’t say that, did I? But I don’t want you to tell me what refraction and dispersion are, either. So what’s it for?”
“Does it have to have a purpose?”
“Everything has to have a purpose, otherwise why’s it there?”
“Duh! It just is?”
“Don’t buy that. Nothing just happens.”
“Okay. Some people believe that there was once a great flood that was sent by God. When he stopped it, he put that bow in the sky as a sign that he’d never do it again.”
“So there haven’t been any floods since?”
“Of course there have. But not one covering the whole planet.”
“The whole planet? Is there even enough water for that?”
“Who knows? We’re talking about ancient beliefs that are based on stories that may, in some cases, be more illustrative than fact-based.”
“Best not get into religion, though, eh?”
“No. Best not.”
“So why don’t we have rainbows? Is it because we have a don’t have the same god?”
“Take a look around. How many suns can you see?”
“Oh! Where’s the other one?”
“That’s the thing. This world only has one—”
“Which is why everything only casts one shadow?”
“Precisely.”
“Thank Vrag for that. I thought I’d lost one of mine.”
“Come on, my lovely. Time to fly.”
On to this week’s challenge: Using this photo as inspiration, write a short story, flash fiction, scene, poem; anything, really; even just a caption for the photograph. Either put it (or a link to it) in a comment or email it to me at keithchanning@gmail.com before 6pm next Sunday (if you aren’t sure what the time is where I live, this link will tell you). If you post it on your own blog or site, a link to this page would be appreciated, but please do also mention it in a comment here.
Go on. You know you want to. Let your creativity and imagination soar. I shall display the entries, with links to your own blog or web site, next Monday.
I am away from home now until about 9th January. I should have WIFi and/or 4G available for most of the time, so as long as my ancient laptop holds out, Kreative Kues should continue almost as normal.
In the meantime (and in case I end up unable to keep going) I’d like to wish all my followers and readers the very best for Christmas and 2019.
