I got the following:
The creative gate pokes the spoilt wreck.
An outcome clicks outside the amended premise.
The beard downs a lavatory.
The beard seemed eerily
appropriate for Chuck, given that he sports a large reddish beard, but then I got:
The disappointing crystal approaches an empties concert.
Oh, now… that’ll work!
Less than 1,000 words - mine is
778.
~~~~~~~~
The disappointing crystal.
Empties were, by their very
nature, empty. But they were not void. They took their emotions and feelings
from an annual concert. Like a lunar calendar that concert set the tone for
the entire city for the whole of the coming year.
It was a pretty important event.
Past years had been affected by
the dizzying wonder of empties filled with motivation and ambition. The year of
happiness was one that everyone remembered fondly.
The empties were odd, jellyfish-like
creatures that floated benignly through the city, spreading their inescapable
emotion to all.
No one knew where they came from
or how they even existed. There seemed to be a static number of them. They neither
lived nor died but merely existed. They did not communicate other than by
radiating the current yearly sentiment. They could not be avoided; they invaded
your home, influenced your dreams and changed your life. The year of anger had
decimated the population. The assault and murder rate had skyrocketed and it
had taken the city years to rebuild and recover.
Visitors to the city were
astonished to see them floating around. The locals had become so used to them
that they no longer really took any notice of them. They just were.
The crystals on the other hand
were secretive and rarely seen. They lived in a gigantic underground cavern. Each
year one was chosen in a secret ritual that no one had ever witnessed. Each year
that single crystal made the solitary walk to the concert.
Crystals were of the earth and
empties of the sky. It was just the way things were.
It was thought that they had a
symbiotic relationship; each could not exist without the other.
The city residents were not
allowed to attend the concert. They lined the route from the cavern to the
concert hall to get a glimpse of the shining crystal that would determine the
fate of them all.
The empties seemed to know when it
was concert day. They slowly bobbed and eddied towards the concert hall. By late
afternoon, the hall was full of them. They waited for the crystal to enter. A
crystal never left again after the ceremony. It was as if the empties completely
consumed it.
The first people lining the route caught
sight of this year’s crystal as it left the cavern. It was clear and transparent.
The young, eager people always stood too close to the start. Older, wiser heads
knew the colour of the crystal changed as it approached the concert hall. It
was exciting to see it first, but more useful to see it later. Not that knowing
what was coming helped you to prepare for it. It couldn't be avoided. The choice
was made the second the crystal started that walk.
Small children moved, running from
their earlier position to a later one to witness the colour change.
The crystal walked carefully, as
if it could shatter if it set its foot down too hard. It looked humanoid with
two arms and two legs. The hands were held carefully together in front of the
body, not swung where they might brush against something and be damaged. The head
with its glass face was covered in flat planes that resembled features. It looked
down at the ground as it stepped delicately.
The crowd watched with bated
breath for the first glimpse of colour. It looked slightly greenish. Some
murmured hopefully. A year of growth would be a good thing.
But then a low moan came from one very
old woman. Others asked what was wrong. She pointed her hand at the crystal as
the hopeful green became tinged with an ugly brown shade. “Not again,” the old woman
said.
The word scattered through the
crowd like a rush of wind.
Disappointment.
Disillusionment.
The crystal looked it now, as if
it knew what it brought to the city.
One impetuous man lifted a rock
and hefted it in his hand as it to throw it, before others wrestled him to the
ground. It was wrong to harm the crystals. No one knew what happened in a year
with no crystal. A cloud of empties filled with nothing might do untold damage.
Frustration and regret already
tainted the crowd.
They watched as the crystal made
the steps along the final part of the journey.
At the doorway it stopped.
It turned its face towards the
crowd; seemingly remorseful before it turned and stepped inside the concert
hall.
The crowd was silent for a minute.
Then slowly, they started to peel away and make their way home.
It was going to be a very bad
year.
~~~~~~~~~~~
© AM Gray 2013
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