Thursday, December 13, 2012

Until He Shows Up




"That's it," said the man at the PC. "Done!"

"Are you certain?" countered the gray-bearded gentleman approaching. "After all these years, this is what you want?"

"Sure, Boss.  The job's gotten smaller and frankly the people have become kind of a pain in the ass. I need to look for new challenges."

"Well, then I approve it.  But using Craig's List to outsource?" 

"I found a guy named Donald Trump.  Certainly has the hubris. 'Til he shows up, I'll just keep it in this orange bucket."

"Fine, Atlas," said Mighty Zeus. "But if he screws up, I'm gonna come back to you!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The above is my contribution to this week's Fantastic Flying Friday Fictioneers' Flash Fiction Foray.  And in addition to being able to say that fast three times, I have this week come within two words of hitting the prescribed 100 word maximum I typically bypass week after week with aplomb wholly uncharacteristic of me.

Maybe not exactly worth a Kennedy Center Honor, but it ought to be worth something.  

See you next week!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

30 comments:

janet said...

Perry, congratulations on your story and almost hitting the mark in word count again. It's always good to have a goal for your life!!! :-)

PirateGunn said...

I like the use of mighty Zeus! Reminds us of other worlds that existed..

Lora said...

Donald Trump, with his hubris and overblown ego, would enjoy this. Would love to see Trump spar with mighty Zeus. ps:Too bad you didn't mention Trump's comb-over as well. lol. Nice work.

Unknown said...

Donald Trump will take all the credit for this good work no doubt...nicely done.

Anonymous said...

Here we go again...I thought old Donald was done messing up.
Scott
Mine: http://kindredspirit23.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/friday-fictioneers-10/

Russell said...

Hello, my name is Paul Bunyan and I'm responding to an add looking for someone to carry a planet. I figure we could hook it to Babe, my blue ox, and he'll swing it around in orbit with his tail. We don't work cheap though . . . .

Parul said...

This is good Perry... but having Donald Trump replacing Atlas... not good at all!
I had thought of writing something with Atlas, but gave up after a few bizarre ideas crossed my mind.
Good thinking! :)

Rochelle Wisoff-Fields said...

Right...Donald can carry the world on his ego alone.
Nice job, Perry.

Joanna (Lazuli Portals Trilogy) said...

Ha, very clever, and worth reading twice!
And well done on your word count achievement. Mine came in at 100 but Ron's sneaked over at 103. We're both on the same blog ;)

Perry Block said...

Yep, that's about as goal-oriented as I am. I'm close to nirvana now!

Thanks for writing, Janet.

Perry Block said...

Did they exist? Other worlds?

Oh, boy, that means I've pissed off even more gods than the one I'm trying to work with here!

Thanks for your comment.

Perry Block said...

We'll have plenty of time to look at his comb-over when he's holding us all up.

Just hope he doesn't ask for the birth certificates of everyone on the planet!

Thanks, Lora.

Perry Block said...

Thanks, Boomie. But Zeus will be watching him!

Perry Block said...

Let's hope he doesn't mess up or it's going to be real bad for those of us who are afraid of heights!

Perry Block said...

Thanks, Paul, but you don't really exist!

Zeus and Atlas are not going to want to deal with a fictional character for something so important as holding up the planet.

Oh, wait. Donald Trump's hair is fictional. Okay, we'll use ya!

Perry Block said...

I'd like to hear those bizarre ideas. Especially before Atlas takes off for Tahiti and we never hear from him again.

Thanks for writing!

Perry Block said...

Thanks, Rochelle. For once I almost hit the word limit and wasn't ambiguous as well!

Getting there ...

Perry Block said...

I didn't realize I beat Ron. And I did it with both hands tied behind the keyboard.

Thanks for reading twice, most people are happy with reading zero!

Reading Pleasure said...

Oh, this is so nicely written and fun.

Perry Block said...

Thanks, glad you had fun. And I gave you a whole extra two words to have fun with too!

Appreciate your commenting.

Anonymous said...

Hi Perry,
Trump is loaded down with something, but it's not the weight of the world. I shudder to think what he'd do with the world in his hands. Probably rename it Trump Planet to start. Fun story as always. Ron

Perry Block said...

He'd at least give Europe a bad comb-over.

Thanks, Ron!

brudberg said...

Outsourcing Atlas to Donald Trump. What a brilliant idea. Just as Santa outsourced his gnome factories to penguins on the south pole.

tedstrutz said...

Yeah, Trump would think he could do it. Loved the casualness of the gods.

Anonymous said...

atlas, zeus, and trump in the same story? seems just, just wrong. but well done.

Perry Block said...

Yes, but the penguins were smarter! Thanks for writing.

Perry Block said...

You should see them on Casual Friday.

Perry Block said...

That's nothing. I deleted the portions with Charlie Sheen & Lindsay Lohan.

Douglas MacIlroy said...

Dear Perry,

All you're missing is Bill O'Reilly as the herald of the new world. I'll ring him up if you'll consebt to edit.

Aloha,

Doug

Perry Block said...

Deal! (As long as I don't have to talk to him.)

Thanks for writing, Doug.