Monday, April 24, 2006


Vaughn counted the hands. One two three four. Four of them. Then he counted the heads. "Hold still!" he shouted. Four heads. Only four. "Stop smiling at me!" With four heads there must be at least double the number of hands! He looked at the two appendages at the end of his own arms, wiggling the fingers to be sure they were his. "I knew your grandmother," he told them. "She had five fine hands. Twenty fingers. Five thumbs. She'd knit up a storm, she would. But where are your five?" He aimed a long, hard stare at the four faces, then he closed his eyes, trying hard to remember the people he'd shaken hands with in the past, and how many hands they'd had. "Once again, all palms on the glass!" More thoughts of the grandmother. Would she visit them? One two three four. "Stop smiling, I beg you! And hold those hands still!" He counted again, but something of the scene unsettled him. "Please!" he called out, "this is a solemn ceremony. Stop smiling or the scéance will never work!"

Story #356

Thanks for all the stories! They'll be reposted at indeterminacies.blogspot.com later.

19 comments:

The Mushroom said...

Jane's gene splicing experiment was a huge success. In the 1970's she fiddled around with genetics in her kitchen, using clothes pins and salad forks along with orange rubber gloves to manipulate the fertilized eggs in the kitchen sink. Using a wooden salad tong, she'd then implant the zygotes back into her womb and let them brew until they emerge as savory golden brown babies.

Or that's the story she told the curious about why all her children had her teeth, but the skin tone and hair of the surfer boy who mowed her lawn for several summers.

Doug The Una said...

Dinner was almost ready. Janet was to be the appetizer.

An_Altered_State_of_Consciousness said...

Mary and her three children decided to use the free portrait coupon from the local mall and have their picture taken. They got all cleaned up and put on their best clothes and headed out to the mall. "Smile" said the camera man as he snapped the picture. Just then it happened the flash of light must have created a chain reaction and disturbed cyber-space.
The four flew through the air until they reached a very high altitude. "Are we still flying..." said Alicia, as her mom looked down at the clouds she said "yes honey, but don't worry the man said it would be alright". They flew higher and higher and their hands gripped the table so they wouldn't fall off. Finally, in a huge flash of light they exploded into the atmosphere never to be seen again. But, the picture remained in cyber-space for many years to come and ended up on a couple rather interesting blogs.

Anonymous said...

Allan stuck to the ground, bullets wizzing over his head, he’d been in that shell hole for a couple of hours while the ennemy’s artillery was pounding his position.
The sound of hundreds guns, yelling their hatred over the land, made as a long scream that had no end, it lasted so long and it was so continuous that the soldier on the ground didn’t hear the uproar of war anymore, his brain, numb from the noise was shut to sounds.
When the guns stopped spitting steal, there was twenty seconds of quiet, ominous silence,
then a long yell coming from a thousand throats rushing toward Allan, growing like plague………….
They found him next morning, he had a picture of his family in his right hand.

Jamie Dawn said...

Luke's mother made him wear the new T-shirt she bought him for the family picture. It said, "Living the Good Life." In defiance, he wrote the word "Shitty" on the inside of the shirt, on the backside of the word "Good."
He smiled proudly for the picture.

----------------
Doug: Poor Janet!

Anonymous said...

just came by to read these little creations indie, my creative mode is off this weekend.

Mutha said...

Phoebe, the youngest, could not decide which was more disturbing:
her mother's prized mirror-top diningroom table, her sister's constantly vacant expression, or the fact that she always had to sit on Chip's lap for family photos. She wondered how much longer they would have to hold these smiles before the timer went off.

Mutha said...

Jamie Dawn, I love that.

admin said...

The Melly Family would be part of a famous TV show called "smile the longest". Participants would stands in front of a camera and try to smile for as long as they could. If they managed to smile for 4 hours non-stop they would win the great gifts they had wished for. Mama Melly had wished for a car. Tom Melly wished for an electronic system of virtual reality. Jenny and Penny wished for a million barbies. There they were now, struggling for the past 3 and a half hours to keep their smiles on their faces. They had almost win, when Jenny's lips started to relax, dissapointed the audience shouted "OOhhhh" but Jenny quickly formed the smile angle again. And if you are curious yes they won!

~Nitoo Das~ said...

We used to conduct séances too, you know. Very funny ones and we could never stop laughing. Séance paraphernalia included anything from coloured felt pens to glass marbles.

After a close friend died in a drowning incident, we got quite obsessed with it...

Ariel the Thief said...

lol, Indie! I know now what was so odd to me inthe photo.

Indeterminacy said...

Sorry for commenting so late. I just now got to read through everything.

Mushroom: That procedure sounds like it might actually work! You should patent it! Great story.

Doug: What if Janet was a vegetarian? WOuld that get her off the hook? They wouldn't eat her if she was a vegetarian!

An Altered: I loved this story. And now I know where all these photos are coming. I thought something was going on.

GPV: You really have a way of writing believable scenarios. I always think, yeah, this might really have happened.

Jamie: I wonder if this one was autobiographical? Whether real or not, I like Luke!

Cooper: I haven't felt creative anymore since around story #40. After that it got harder and harder to write anything I thought was good enough to post. Your post this morning was great, so I declare your creative mood on.

Mutha: I bet that's exactly how she felt! A Mutha always knows!

Viruswitch: That's what always scared me the most on the twilight zone, when these strange characters would smile in moments when things weren't quite right. I don't think I could watch that "Smile the Longest" show. I'm sure there will also be spin-offs: laugh the longest, cry, scream, fake an orgasm, etc.

River: I've never actually participated in a seance that I can remember, just some ouiji board stuff, though I read a lot of books on ESP and the paranormal when I was in my early teens. Still I know all about seances from watching Dark Shadows. Did your seances get results?

Ariel: I see people like that every day in the subway.

Tom & Icy said...

Seance? Wonder if they ever contacted Little Bar of Soap and got those dirty little paws washed?

Indeterminacy said...

Yeah, since Little Bar of Soap left us I've been floundering without spiritual guidance.

Mutha said...

Man, Indie -- your story is great. I love the frantic quality the narrator has: Hands on the table!

Indeterminacy said...

Mutha: Thank you very much. It's hard to get stories sometimes. Often I think it helps to add a light touch of madness to a narrator's dialogue.

Doug The Una said...

Indie, that story was so good. Mel Brooksish. Big fun.

Indeterminacy said...

Doug: Really? Great! Thank you. I hope people will compare me to Hitchcock soon. I'm working through the "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" series on DVD.

~Nitoo Das~ said...

We thought we did. ;)

But, I guess it was just wish-fulfilment.