Between missions Agent Double D'Lemon dined at the Golden Dragon to receive his new instructions. He was the organization's most dedicated employee. The orders, as always, would be passed to him via fortune cookie. The last message "You will climb high mountains" directed him to a breathtaking deployment in the Himalayas, where he single handedly defeated a gang of goat rustlers. "An enemy will succumb to your persuasiveness" had been a coded order to arrest the dangerous Doktor Mabuse, a fictional character best described as an evil German incarnation of Professor Moriarty. That task had proven itself immensely difficult.
Now D'Lemon finished the final bite of nasi goring and awaited his instructions. Waiter Chang lay a plate with the cookie before him. But the Golden Dragon had a new kitchen boy, and he in turn had a sweet tooth. At a sudden impulse the boy had devoured a plateful of cookies meant for the guests, including the one for D'Lemon. Double D'Lemon broke the two halves of the wrong cookie away and read "You will discover happiness with a dark haired stranger." As he left the restaurant he scanned the faces. There she was: dark hair, dark eyes and stunning midnight complexion. He smiled. She winked. They talked. He lingered. They married. And lived happily ever after until the day they died. Mission accomplished.
Afterword: The message in the original fortune cookie, "The Aliens are among us," was a false alarm. The Aliens had been among us, but they took one look at "The Synchronicity of Indeterminacy" and left.
Story #398
Thanks everyone for making this a great round! More stories are welcome, of course! My comments and the next photo will be posted in a few hours...
If you can read Polish, check out this great translation of Story 396 by Joanna "Rotten" Banana
21 comments:
I just threw away several 'fortunes' I've had stored in my desk from the past few months. I've always sort of felt that throwing away your fortune is bad karma but... I also think throwing away things that have been sitting for a long time and not being used creates a fresh perspective on things. First time to your blog, I'm a big fan of Synchronocity. I think this girl is wondering if this will just be another fortune stored in her desk, waiting to be enchanted by a magical pen's ink and come to life.
Panic set in, "Do I use the small spoon or the large one?" she thought. This was not the way the date was supposed to go. Her mother was going to say "I told you so" when she got home. If she had only worn the white shirt instead of the dark cardigan this would all be different.
I'm hooked by the way.
Hi,
This is a slug race and the winner gets eaten. You cannot see the losers because this fat, juicy yellow fellow has outrun them all. Some of the participants started sliding backwards as they spied the spoons at the end of the racetrack. The person sitting at the table must put the winning slug onto the spoon and place it on the tongue and swallow the slug whole, without chucking up or spitting out or making any anti-peristaltic attempts at disposal.
Regards,
Coral
"The Chinese have run out of ideas," he thought, looking bemusedly at the golden dessert in front of him. Usually, the hard fortune cookie shell was the only redeeming part of the after dinner treat, because the "fortunes" inside were always merely platitudes such as, "A great way to end a meal is with friends and family," or "It takes more than good memory to have good memories." Just once, he'd like to get a fortune that predicted something. He wanted a fortune that tole him something amazing was about to happen in his life. He wanted to look inside his fortune cookie and find the answer to his life. Sadly, every time he cracked the crispy shell open he received a simple platitude telling him something along the lines of not to lose his sense of gratitude.
He clumsily opened up the fortune cookie, crumbles falling all over his lap, and his girlfriend, Jana, asked, her blue eyes gazing into his own, "So, what does it say?"
He took a breath and read aloud, "As the purse is emptied, the heart is filled." His heart fell a bit. He really had thought he would actually get a prediction this time. But how could he hope for such when he'd been let down every other time?
Just then, the server brought them their bill.
Well, there was always next time.
Just wanted to let you know that I thought this was a wonderful idea for a blog. I am glad I have been aware of it, I shall visit again soon :)
I'm having too much fun with this blog ;-) great break each day, to see what you've put up for a pict...
hmm, as the after dinner fortune cookie arrived at the table...she wondered, should I eat it, stare at it, or use my telepathic powers to predict what prediction lies there inside my fortune cookie. After 5 minutes of deliberation, she predicted she would just eat the cookie and that's what she did!
She cracked the cookie open, but the paper slip turned blank just as she tried read it. The fortune died, she now realized, when she pulled it from its shell.
Reaching here has never been easy.I have come a long way.I hope we are giving you enough work.Yeah we like to read what our eyes sees and likes.Here with me is my little 4yr daughter.She says;daddy,daddy look at the picture but pointing to "Indeterminacy 398,she is hungry.Can I give her some of my chocolate you bought yesterday.So i said yes,here she goes to the cupboard,pick up a pack of chocolate and now she says;daddy I am hungry too can I eat?Cracked me up really
Levitate.
Ahem. I command you to rise.
Levitate, damn you!
RISE! LEVITATE! HOVER!
Well, geez. Sorry, Mister Sullivan, it was cooperating during rehearsal... You saw it in the green room! It's camera shy!
Until today, the reconnaissance of this planet had been conducted from hidden locations. Until today, our holographic illusion projector had disguised our scout ship as a wall lamp, a dust bunny, a copy of the New Yorker and the giants who live on this world left us alone.
Then again, until today, I had been in charge of the holographic illusion projector. Today, I let my brother-in-law take his turn.
Until today, our ship had never been broken in half.
Until today.
At least we were crunchy.
Until today.
Tara stared at the familiar, folded shell of her fortune. Such a common thing. She had opened dozens of these, hundreds perhaps, without a second thought. But once this seal was broken, in this place, and on this day, her new life would begin. And that life would be extraordinary...
Just found this place through "Blogs of Note" and I LOVE IT!
Vicki
I'm so glad to be able to read these almost daily again.
A foreboding photo.
On what was maybe my third date with Dr. Weirsdo we went to a Chinese restaurant, and his fortune said, "Stop looking. Happiness is right beside you."
After opening seven cookies this one remained. "maybe this will say something different," she thought, for all the others said the same thing "eight is not your lucky number." takeing the large spoon she smashed the cookie over and over, and inside there was nothing.
Great stories here! Keep them coming! I've written up something which still needs a lot of polishing. I think that's a lady in the picture. I made her into a man in my story. Oops. :-)
"Crap," said Eddie. "Do I open the fortune cookie or don't I? My friend Phillip opened a fortune cookie. It told him he would find the perfect woman. Which he did. But then he turned into a horrible monster and swam out to see to find R'Lyeh, whatever the hell that is. Then again Leonard opened a fortune cookie and it told him he'd take over a large business and be insanely successful. Oh, what to do, what to do?"
"Place is closing," the owner called to Eddie. "You going to eat that fortune cookie or no?"
This could be it, he thought. This fortune could save my life.
He had been so down on his luck, and he was looking for something, anything, to lift his spirits.
He looked around the table at the expectant faces as he picked up the cookie anad cracked it open...
"You will buy new socks on Tuesday"
Maybe I will, he thought. Maybe I will.
"Fortune cookies? What a waste of time." she said.
"Just humour me." He said
"O.K." She said.
She snapped open the cookie and inside was a small piece of paper.
"Will you marry me?" She read aloud. "Oh how cheesey!"
"What a waste of time." He said.
Jeremiah was having a really awkward time during the dinner at his girlfriend's parents; trying to decide which spoon he should use to pick up the delicate bit of dessert when the mother of his girlfriend suddenly exclaimed: " Well Jonathan - what dear? Oh, sorry, Jeremiah - I see you're engrossed in the way I've folded the napkins. I am very artistic, I must say. Julia takes a lot after me."
Everyone: Thanks for a really great round. Also, I 'll be around all your blogs to say hi, but at the moment, I'm so swamped I probably won't make it until the weekend. In my story, as you see, I made the main character a man, but from the photo it seems to be a woman's head of hair. I'll just say that was D'Lemon's disguise!
Justin: I can't bring myself to throw away things either. Usually I keep so much stuff around that I wind up losing whatever has seniority. Nice impression. There's always a moment of expectation before opening the fortune cookie.
Grocer: I think it's bad manners to break the fortune cookie with a spoon. You have to use a knife. Don't worry about getting hooked. A few more of my stories will cure that!
CoralPoetry: I'm glad you made this something other than a fortune cookie. Who could have guessed it was a slug? But I had escargot once and it actually tasted pretty good. BUt I think I'd rather have my slugs fried.
SteflHoew: I know what you mean. I always want my fortune to actually say something - but they are always so vague. And afterwards they always bring the check, too.
Sarah: Thank you for visiting - oh and I really like your blogs.
April's Place: I'm happy you like it here. I hope I'll be able to keep going - I gave up daily posts a long time ago because it was becoming so difficult to think of new stories so fast. By the way, did she eat the fortune too!?!?
Nora: I love the idea. I think I will leave all my fortunes unread - or maybe look at them years later and see if they came true.
Love and Immigration Crier: That's such a sweet story. When my son was around 4 we always wrote down the sweet things he said. I'm glad we did.
Mush: So funny! If only I could think of stories like that I wouldn't have to write these really long things anymore.
Steve: Wow! Great story, and my afterword is in some kind of harmony with it.
Vicki: What a happy thought. With a postive outlook, even a bad fortune can be a new start.
Cooper: You've got to start writing some stories! But even if you don't, I'm always happy when you stop by.
Mrs Weirsdo: Best one sentence story I've read in a short time. The last one was from you too.
Willy: That was funny! Thanks for making me laugh!
Cheesemeister: I would open the fortune cookie. There might be a message from Pansi inside.
Carries: That's what we need. Realistic fortunes with practical advice. I need new shoes, myself.
Pacifist Anarchist: Damn. If only they had been two different people it might have worked!
Iris: Oops. Some bad impressions going on there. Jeremiah should maybe just take the cookie and run.
Wow! what a great place this is. im surely be one of the frquent visitors tooo...captivating stories complemented by pictures!
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