Thursday, June 23, 2005


Albert saw the glaring lights of a 747 jumbo jet careening towards him, brakes squealing uselessly. It looked like it would roll right over him. "How do they keep finding me?" he puzzled while his cold sweat slapped him with a horrible chill. He closed his eyes and ran blindly, anywhere, just away from that machine. He stumbled into a ditch and opened his eyes. The lights came now out of a new direction, bearing right down on him. He rose and bolted away with all the energy his sudden shot of adrenaline gave him, then finally collapsed, turning his head hesitantly to see that the lights were still on top of him. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed. "Hello, is this the secretary.....good.....Look, could you tell the chief, I won't be taking that sick day after all.....That's right. I'm feeling better. I'll be at the control tower in twenty minutes.

Story #242

Note from Indeterminacy: this story was originally posted at Michael's Blogin Idiot Blog. Check out the other story contributions!

14 comments:

Sar said...

I just voted for you on Battle of The Blogs (hope you win!) and came back to have a better look around. I didn't realize you're the same gifted writer I bump into over at Doug's. Great site. :)

Indeterminacy said...

HI Sar, Thanks for voting for me. I lost that one, though :-) I seem to win about 50%. And you need at least two thirds to just break even. But each time I play, usually for 10 credits, that's 9+ people who stop by. It's probably no less superficial than the 30 second surfing. If someone is really looking for blogs that interest them, they'll find me that way, too.

Indeterminacy said...

P.S. The gifted writer over at Doug's is Doug.

atomicvelvetsigh said...

hehe.. ive always been voting for your blog whenever i see you at BOtB... so i was surprised at your lovely comment at mine... *ha.. still making me smile. thanks for dropping by 8)

Tom & Icy said...

I felt like Albert sometimes when I didn't feel like going in to work. Better off just going on in.

Sar said...

Bummer you lost. Of course I'll vote for you whenever I see your site up again. I never seem to have enough unused credits to partipate. What's your assignment %? I have 75% / 25%. I've been sticking to sufing, voting, & Blog Rocket (I've gotten as little as 3 hits and as many as 33 in one shot on BR).

Agreed, Doug is a very gifted writer. Sometimes it's a challenge to come up with something worthy of a comment in response to his genius definitions. But, you are certainly a gifted writer as well. :)

TLP said...

Laughing too hard to comment. You caught me off guard. This story is not your usual style.

Cooper said...

It is unlike most of what you have wrtten. At least the ones I have read.

I'd vote for you if I knew how but I am not real big on voting for blogs as I think people should just read what they want and connect with who they connect with.

Indeterminacy said...

Thanks again everyone who voted for me. I think a lot of the votes are arbitrary, and you win depending on who stops by there and other factors indepedent of content. I have my automatic assignment at %25/%75 which means I save the maximum amount. I still have 3k of that 5k windfall I got last month. Altogether I lost about 400 credits on the battle thing. You have to win two for every one you loose because each time you only win 3/4th of the pot. Winning is probably based partly on how elaborate the template design is, and how many of one's friends happen to be around to vote. Also, blogs you voted against may start to hate you and always vote against you. I went up against what looked like a spam blog and lost 2 to 7. Then I checked who voted for it, and they were almost all spam blogs.

I swear I wrote this story. Is it really that different? Only thing I can think of that's different is that I haven't had a nightmare pursuit stories yet, and there's no sex.

Cori said...

I think Freud would beg to differ! :)

I don't know how many times I've been roped into a job where the guilt of calling in sick was as heavy as a 747!

Indeterminacy said...

Cori: That's the story more or less how I posted it at Michael's blog. But I considered changing the ending to have Albert pursued by jets on his vacation. It was a weigh-off between: is he pursued by his guilt for calling in sick, or is he pursued by his work in his spare time. I really couldn't decide which was better so I left it the way it was. If you all would like I'll go in and change the ending.

Announcement: I may post today's story much later. I'm not completely satisfied with it.

Helen said...

Hey, it could happen! My first husband worked for the airlines. Amazing what goes on "behind the scenes" but I guess that's true in most businesses (and homes!)
Peace..........

Indeterminacy said...

I wanted to get across with this story an air traffic controller who sees airplanes flying at him in his spare time. He sees the same airplanes at work, but there it's not a problem. Only when he's off work is he tormented. But I don't think it comes across well in the story.

Cori said...

I think it's perfect Indie! I think what you were trying for comes through really clear as well as shifting reality a bit. It always could go both ways in the end- and that is what's so perfect about your shorts!
(hehehe... get it? short stories... hehe)