Episode 70 - We're Back!

[00:00:00] So, oh I'm excited. I haven't done this in a minute. I'm gonna get ramped up real quick.

[00:00:20] What's up everyone and welcome to episode 70 of the Promptly Written podcast where every

[00:00:25] month we take a writing prompt provided by you, write stories based on it, then break

[00:00:29] them down for you. My name's Matt Sugerik and with me as always, Ian Lewis. What's up,

[00:00:34] Ian? Hey man, great to be back. I am so fucking excited to be back. You know, I guess I should

[00:00:41] just give everybody like a real quick refresher. I think this is actually, correct me if I'm

[00:00:46] wrong but this is the first episode of Promptly Written that's being released in

[00:00:49] 2024. Oh yeah, for sure. So, the end of the year was crazy for me. And then as people

[00:00:56] who have previously listened probably know, but if you're new, welcome. I started teaching

[00:01:01] at my local community college last fall and in the spring, which the spring semester starts

[00:01:07] in January, I actually added an additional class. So I started teaching an English

[00:01:12] class and I wasn't really prepared for it. So, and this was 100% my fault but

[00:01:21] when I spoke to the English department they were like, you know, I teach photography

[00:01:25] as well in person and then I teach an online English class. So they were like, you know,

[00:01:29] most of it's ready to go. Like we just kind of import the stuff into your online classroom

[00:01:35] and then you do some tweaking and you're good to go. And I was like, sweet, sounds easy.

[00:01:40] Turns out that that tweaking is quite a bit of work. So I go in and there's all these

[00:01:47] like red words and it's like instructor add stuff here or whatever. And I'm like,

[00:01:52] so I went and I had to read these articles and come up with like kind of questions to

[00:01:58] like guide their reading or whatever. And then you go next and it's like, okay, quiz,

[00:02:02] create your quiz. And I'm like, oh fuck, I have to do all of this work. So literally

[00:02:07] I thought I was just going in and being able to kind of like run the class and kind

[00:02:10] of just like start grading shit, you know? But in all reality, I actually had to take

[00:02:14] the class. So while I was doing, while they were doing one week's work, I was grading

[00:02:22] that week's work and doing the next week's work so that I could come up with all of

[00:02:26] their work that they had to do the following week. Yeah, that's nuts. It was, it was

[00:02:30] absolutely nuts. And I just got completely and utterly overwhelmed. And it was to

[00:02:37] the point where I almost just like shut down completely. Like I would be there,

[00:02:42] I would like get home from work at night or whatever. And then I would be sitting

[00:02:44] there and I'd be like, okay, I need a few minutes to decompress and then I could

[00:02:48] go get some work done. And then I would just end up just like, I was so brain

[00:02:51] fried that I would do nothing. And then I would get even further behind. And

[00:02:56] unfortunately, the podcast writing, just writing in general took the hit.

[00:03:01] Well, yeah, as it should. We're not making money at this.

[00:03:03] Right. So you know, what really sucked about it is I was really sad. I was

[00:03:10] doing everything in my power not to take a break. I mean, we were, we were 65

[00:03:16] episodes in and had never missed a month.

[00:03:19] I missed one month at one point, but yeah, we were pretty solid.

[00:03:24] It was really, really frustrating for me. And it took a lot. Like I really

[00:03:28] didn't want to make that post. I really didn't want to take the break

[00:03:31] because I'm not going to lie. I was scared that today was never going to

[00:03:37] happen. I was afraid that it was just going to keep getting pushed, pushed,

[00:03:40] pushed and then whatever. So I am completely ecstatic that we're here

[00:03:46] talking today. Like I'm so excited.

[00:03:48] It's excited, but like I'll be more excited when we're recording next month.

[00:03:52] You know what I mean?

[00:03:52] Oh, for sure, for sure. But I want to thank you. I think I've done so

[00:03:57] like, you know, via text or whatever, but I want to thank you publicly now

[00:04:00] because when we did stop, you were like, Hey, what if I did some more

[00:04:05] like micro fiction stuff about some unused prompts and we can keep some

[00:04:09] content out there? So I think even though you and I weren't speaking on

[00:04:13] the podcast for these, you know, almost six months now, you still put

[00:04:18] some content out there. And there was really only a couple of months that

[00:04:21] had nothing in our feed.

[00:04:23] Yeah, I think, I think I had a story. I had planned on having a story

[00:04:28] for each month. And I think the story that I had planned for April got

[00:04:32] pushed back to May.

[00:04:34] Okay, so did we, we might've missed a month then.

[00:04:37] I think we missed April, if I recall. But yeah, it was, it was an easy way

[00:04:41] to just, you know, our meager audience to keep them engaged, but also just

[00:04:46] to keep me kind of like creative on that front. So I was, I was, it was fun.

[00:04:50] Sure. Absolutely. And in all of the stories you read or wrote and

[00:04:56] read, I guess they were great. Like I think you're, you're starting to

[00:05:00] kind of hone in on that, that micro fiction. Is that something you're

[00:05:03] taking a bigger interest in now? Or was it just because you were riding

[00:05:06] off the...

[00:05:06] Well, I think, I think it's, I think it's because we did the micro

[00:05:09] fiction challenge that that was just sort of on my brain. And it's

[00:05:12] just an easy non-committal form of storytelling. You know what I

[00:05:16] mean? It's 250. Well, granted, I wasn't aiming for a word count

[00:05:20] in this case. I was trying to keep it in the micro fiction

[00:05:23] territory, which I don't remember the cutoff. But I think last month

[00:05:27] or this month rather, the story kind of exceeded micro fiction

[00:05:30] territory, but it was still pretty short.

[00:05:32] I think it's generally a thousand is like the cutoff or whatever,

[00:05:36] but I'm not, I'm not totally sure.

[00:05:39] I think it, I think it's even less than that.

[00:05:41] Is it really?

[00:05:42] Yeah, I think, I think a thousand is like flash fiction and

[00:05:44] micro is like maybe 500 and under 400 and under maybe.

[00:05:47] Oh, okay.

[00:05:49] I don't know who makes up these rules, but somebody does.

[00:05:51] Yeah, I don't know. It always changes. But yes, thank you so

[00:05:54] much. If you're listening, thank you so much for being here

[00:05:56] with us again. I was a little disappointed because, you know,

[00:06:01] it's been a while. So I couldn't be like too disappointed

[00:06:03] when there wasn't a whole lot of like interaction on the

[00:06:06] pole or whatever, because like, you know, the group isn't

[00:06:08] like the most active group in the world. But I was talking

[00:06:12] to front of the show, Jeff, and he didn't even see

[00:06:16] the poll come through his algorithm.

[00:06:18] Interesting.

[00:06:19] So like, I don't know what's going on with that. It's

[00:06:22] actually taken me to the point where I think that I want

[00:06:25] to start maybe looking elsewhere for an external

[00:06:28] polling system that we can share via different socials

[00:06:32] again. Right? Like, I think we tried that back in the

[00:06:34] day, but I think the frustration we had with the

[00:06:36] one that we found was people had to create an account in

[00:06:39] order to vote and that's no good. Like I need a landing

[00:06:42] page where people can just like click the buttons or

[00:06:44] type something in and call it a day. So I think I'm

[00:06:46] going to start on that search again, because if he

[00:06:48] said that his algorithms kind of all messed up and he

[00:06:51] was like, you know, I wait for this, you know. So the

[00:06:55] fact that it didn't show up for him who is generally

[00:06:57] pretty active in the group is concerning to me. So if

[00:07:00] that's not happening, then what good is Facebook

[00:07:03] really doing for us?

[00:07:04] Yeah, I mean, the whole Facebook interface not to

[00:07:06] go on a tangent, but is I've never found it to be

[00:07:09] overly intuitive. It's not the best.

[00:07:11] Well, and it's just like sometimes I see a bunch

[00:07:13] of stuff I don't want to see instead of the

[00:07:14] stuff I really want to see. And it seems like

[00:07:16] that's the kind of thing we're running into now.

[00:07:19] I did run over to Instagram and looked at threads

[00:07:22] because, you know, I think you and I are

[00:07:23] probably the most active on Instagram. So that

[00:07:26] made sense to me. But threads, the user can't

[00:07:31] suggest an option. And you can only there's a

[00:07:36] like a limited four and there was like a

[00:07:37] bunch. There's a couple other limitations that

[00:07:39] just make it not able to work. But anyways,

[00:07:42] that's more behind the scenes stuff. I'm going

[00:07:43] to look for that. So we might try some

[00:07:46] different polling stuff here in the future.

[00:07:48] But other than that, what we what we promised

[00:07:52] you guys was that when we did return, we

[00:07:55] were going to give you two stories because

[00:07:57] we there were there were two episodes that

[00:07:59] were skipped. Two main episodes that were

[00:08:01] skipped. We had two prompts out there that

[00:08:03] were left out there unfulfilled. And

[00:08:05] that's what we're going to do for you

[00:08:06] today. We're going to give you two stories

[00:08:08] each. And I think because we're doing that,

[00:08:10] we're probably just going to dive right into

[00:08:12] the stories. Is that right?

[00:08:13] Yep. Yep.

[00:08:14] All right. So so and I know we do owe you

[00:08:17] some follow up some conversations and stuff.

[00:08:19] We're going to hit you with that stuff next

[00:08:20] month. We we want to talk about the NYC

[00:08:23] midnight stuff that we did. And I want to

[00:08:26] talk about reading and writing goals for

[00:08:27] 2024, even though it's halfway over. But

[00:08:31] all of that we're pushing to next month

[00:08:32] because we got a bunch of storytelling to

[00:08:33] do.

[00:08:34] Yeah, I'm ready.

[00:08:36] So I guess we can go why don't you tell

[00:08:38] us what the first prompt is?

[00:08:39] Okay, the first prompt was really interesting

[00:08:42] because it I think it was incorrect from

[00:08:45] a tense perspective. And I don't know if

[00:08:46] there was intentional to throw us a curveball

[00:08:49] or if it was just the hastiness of typing

[00:08:51] in something. But it was I was okay

[00:08:54] walking through the darkness. But what is

[00:08:56] that smell?

[00:08:57] And so we got a was and an is.

[00:08:59] Yeah, we got that provided by Russ

[00:09:01] Marty, I believe.

[00:09:02] But I think at the same time, it also

[00:09:04] kind of works because like if I was

[00:09:06] actively walking and then stopped, I was

[00:09:09] walking. But now what is that smell? You

[00:09:11] know what I mean? So

[00:09:12] yeah, well, you'll see how you'll see

[00:09:14] how I solve the problem in my story. I

[00:09:15] was wondering if you did the same, but

[00:09:17] I I fudged with it a little bit. I'm

[00:09:19] not gonna lie, but we'll get to it.

[00:09:21] We'll get to that later. But all the

[00:09:22] words are there. So what do you got

[00:09:24] for us?

[00:09:26] Okay, well, my story is called Blame

[00:09:29] and it is about 2000 words.

[00:09:32] Good stuff. Oh, I'm so excited. It's

[00:09:34] time. Are you ready?

[00:09:36] I'm ready. I'm gonna clear my throat

[00:09:37] here. All right, here we go. They

[00:09:41] called us the hoagie heads. It's

[00:09:44] because we always used to hang out

[00:09:45] at the sandwich shop. We were a

[00:09:47] motley crew. I was the kid who always

[00:09:49] went to church on Sunday. They were

[00:09:51] Sam fast talking, wise cracking

[00:09:53] jester. Then there was Brody, the

[00:09:56] tall troubled one who could hit a

[00:09:57] baseball like no one's business,

[00:09:59] but for some reason never wanted to

[00:10:01] play on the team. And there was

[00:10:03] Reggie, the quiet kid who just

[00:10:05] blend in just about anywhere. We

[00:10:07] were sitting in the sandwich shop.

[00:10:09] Rubens it was called, loitering like

[00:10:11] we always did when it happened. Hey

[00:10:14] Quint, Sam had said to me, playing

[00:10:17] with a straw wrapper. Did you hear

[00:10:19] Wendy Jacob's little brothers as he

[00:10:20] saw the rat man? I sipped at my cup

[00:10:23] of hot chocolate. Yeah, I heard

[00:10:26] something about it, but the kid

[00:10:28] was missing for a whole day. He's

[00:10:29] just little. Probably got hungry and

[00:10:32] delirious. He's diabetic, isn't

[00:10:34] he? Sam flicked the straw wrapper

[00:10:37] at me. You don't get delirious

[00:10:39] from being diabetic. Of course, we

[00:10:42] all knew about what we'd heard at

[00:10:43] school. How Robbie Jacobs went

[00:10:45] missing and everybody was up in

[00:10:47] arms until they found him down

[00:10:48] by the old drainage ditch. And

[00:10:50] because it was by the old

[00:10:51] drainage ditch, so went the

[00:10:53] stories about the rat man. He

[00:10:56] probably was scared of all the

[00:10:57] stories and imagine it. I said,

[00:11:00] that's not what I heard, said

[00:11:01] Brody. All matter of fact, the

[00:11:03] doctors checked him out and said

[00:11:04] he was in his right mind. I

[00:11:06] shrugged, probably just a little

[00:11:08] kid and Robbie was just a little

[00:11:11] kid, but stories aren't always

[00:11:12] just stories. Assures Brody was

[00:11:15] giving me his most serious

[00:11:16] expression, his trying to fool a

[00:11:18] grownup look. The rat man was

[00:11:20] the story we'd heard off and

[00:11:22] on since we were little. Our

[00:11:24] parents all told it. They all

[00:11:25] knew it because they lived it.

[00:11:28] You see, parents are always

[00:11:29] perfect. That might seem like

[00:11:31] an obvious thing, but sometimes

[00:11:33] in small towns and smaller

[00:11:34] circles, kids think their

[00:11:36] parents are near enough. Things

[00:11:38] are squeaky clean. There are

[00:11:40] picket fences and stability. Our

[00:11:43] neighborhood was like that. It

[00:11:44] was one of the best streets in

[00:11:45] town where I met my best friends,

[00:11:48] but none of us really believed

[00:11:49] in the rat man. It was just

[00:11:51] something that turned into an

[00:11:52] urban legend, like stories of

[00:11:54] ghost children from a burned

[00:11:55] down orphanage or cemetery

[00:11:57] angel statue that would take

[00:11:58] you for a ride through hell.

[00:12:00] If you jumped on its back,

[00:12:01] just stuff or teenagers make

[00:12:03] up all told the rat man was

[00:12:06] a little different. He was

[00:12:07] based on a real person at

[00:12:09] least a man that used to live

[00:12:10] in our town. His name was Bob

[00:12:13] Renfro. I don't know the whole

[00:12:15] story or all the details. I

[00:12:17] have parts that I heard from

[00:12:18] my parents and parts that I

[00:12:19] heard from other people. There

[00:12:21] is infidelity, a confrontation

[00:12:24] of some kind, problems at

[00:12:25] work and bad blood. How

[00:12:28] Renfro was involved with all

[00:12:29] or any of it is hard to say.

[00:12:31] I just know it came to the

[00:12:32] point where he lost

[00:12:33] everything and that the

[00:12:34] situation was never remembered

[00:12:36] very fondly by anyone. His

[00:12:38] wife and kids left and the

[00:12:40] bank repossessed his house.

[00:12:43] Supposedly he went to live

[00:12:44] down by the old drainage ditch

[00:12:45] and made a home for himself

[00:12:46] in the abandoned part of the

[00:12:47] sewer there. He grew long

[00:12:49] hair, didn't trim his nails

[00:12:51] or take care of his teeth

[00:12:53] and ultimately became feral

[00:12:54] and crazy. We all believe

[00:12:56] it as kids and while our

[00:12:58] parents would shush us and

[00:12:59] say something to the effect of

[00:13:00] Renfro having moved away, we

[00:13:02] still clung to the stories up

[00:13:03] through junior high. I mean,

[00:13:06] it wasn't as if they were

[00:13:07] very forthcoming. There was

[00:13:10] always a bit of secrecy,

[00:13:11] maybe even shame about the

[00:13:13] way they remembered Renfro.

[00:13:16] I think we have to go have

[00:13:17] a look, Reggie said, his

[00:13:18] mouth full of french fries.

[00:13:20] He wiped his hands on an

[00:13:21] already greased soaked

[00:13:22] napkin. We just get a

[00:13:24] couple of flashlights and

[00:13:25] go down there. Why not,

[00:13:27] Sam asked, serious as can

[00:13:28] be. You guys are silly,

[00:13:31] I said. It's just a bunch

[00:13:32] of nonsense.

[00:13:34] Rody shrugged in a

[00:13:35] noncommittal and very

[00:13:36] hesitant sort of way.

[00:13:38] Ah, come on, Sam laughed.

[00:13:40] What else are we going to do?

[00:13:43] Because I didn't have an

[00:13:43] answer to that, I gave

[00:13:45] into the two and a half

[00:13:46] votes against me. We

[00:13:48] finished up our food,

[00:13:49] paid, and then went out

[00:13:51] into the cool of the

[00:13:51] early October evening. The

[00:13:53] Hoagyheads United just won.

[00:13:56] We could hear the band

[00:13:57] playing in the distance.

[00:13:58] Friday night football and

[00:14:00] everything, as well as the

[00:14:01] whoop of the crowd. It

[00:14:03] was plenty dark, though

[00:14:05] we could still see the

[00:14:05] trail well enough to make

[00:14:06] our way down past the

[00:14:07] library and post office.

[00:14:09] That's where the trees

[00:14:10] thickened and the cut

[00:14:11] through to our

[00:14:11] neighborhood was. It

[00:14:14] didn't take long for us

[00:14:15] to collect a few

[00:14:15] flashlights from our

[00:14:16] homes and a group. Reggie

[00:14:19] was able to score his

[00:14:20] dad's van, and so we

[00:14:21] sped off to the old

[00:14:22] drainage ditch. But when

[00:14:24] we got close, we saw

[00:14:25] flashing lights behind

[00:14:26] us and quickly realized it

[00:14:27] was the police. Reggie

[00:14:30] pulled over, of course,

[00:14:31] and it turns out it was

[00:14:32] Chief Stevens, who

[00:14:34] happened to be a

[00:14:34] friend of my family.

[00:14:36] We all knew him pretty

[00:14:37] well, actually. And when

[00:14:38] he came up to the

[00:14:39] driver's side window,

[00:14:40] the first thing Sam

[00:14:41] tried to do was sweet

[00:14:42] talk him, leaning

[00:14:43] across Reggie to

[00:14:44] engage him in

[00:14:44] conversation.

[00:14:46] How are you this

[00:14:47] fine evening, Chief

[00:14:48] Stevens and all that?

[00:14:50] The chief ignored him.

[00:14:52] Going a bit fast,

[00:14:53] aren't you, Reggie?

[00:14:54] Reggie was sheepish

[00:14:55] and respectful.

[00:14:57] Sorry, sir. I'll be

[00:14:58] sure to slow down.

[00:15:01] I think the chief knew

[00:15:01] something was up because

[00:15:03] he asked us flat out

[00:15:04] whether we were planning

[00:15:05] to snoop around the

[00:15:05] old drainage ditch.

[00:15:07] He had a sixth sense

[00:15:08] about him, that chief

[00:15:09] did. We were just

[00:15:11] going to drive past

[00:15:12] it, Sam said.

[00:15:14] Don't go wandering

[00:15:14] around there, boys.

[00:15:16] It's not safe.

[00:15:17] And slow it down.

[00:15:19] We told him we

[00:15:19] wouldn't and went

[00:15:20] about our business.

[00:15:22] We were only a half

[00:15:22] mile away from where

[00:15:23] we drive past an

[00:15:24] electrical substation

[00:15:26] to where there was

[00:15:27] a turnoff and then a

[00:15:27] gate. The gate wasn't

[00:15:29] tall, only meant to

[00:15:30] keep cars from driving

[00:15:31] further. But we could

[00:15:32] hop right over it,

[00:15:33] and so we did.

[00:15:35] Our flashlights came

[00:15:36] in handy by then,

[00:15:37] and we followed the

[00:15:38] asphalt until it turned

[00:15:39] into gravel and dirt.

[00:15:41] You guys ever actually

[00:15:42] been out here? Sam asked.

[00:15:44] I was once,

[00:15:45] Brody mumbled.

[00:15:47] Did you see anything?

[00:15:49] No, Brody said,

[00:15:50] but it was plenty

[00:15:51] creepy.

[00:15:53] Who'd you come out

[00:15:54] here with? I asked.

[00:15:55] Don't remember.

[00:15:57] The Perlmutter

[00:15:57] twins maybe.

[00:15:59] Brody swung his

[00:16:00] flashlight over to

[00:16:01] the left. Down that

[00:16:02] hill is where we need

[00:16:03] to go. We followed

[00:16:05] his lead and went

[00:16:06] down the hill where

[00:16:06] we found the ditch

[00:16:07] running up to a giant

[00:16:08] concrete tube in the

[00:16:09] side of the hill.

[00:16:11] Well, fellas, I said,

[00:16:12] we're here.

[00:16:14] We all stared into

[00:16:15] the depths of the

[00:16:15] drain, but no one

[00:16:17] moved. Finally Sam

[00:16:19] went in and we

[00:16:19] followed just like

[00:16:20] always. We were

[00:16:21] always following Sam's

[00:16:22] lead, but something

[00:16:24] himney wanted to

[00:16:24] buck that trend. I

[00:16:26] pressed further toward

[00:16:27] the front until I was

[00:16:28] beside him, and then

[00:16:29] soon pushed past.

[00:16:31] The drain split off

[00:16:32] to the left and right

[00:16:33] like a maze, and

[00:16:34] curiosity and the

[00:16:35] thrill of snooping

[00:16:36] around at night got

[00:16:37] the better of me, and

[00:16:38] I went left.

[00:16:40] Hardly noticing I

[00:16:41] was moving faster.

[00:16:42] I was walking through

[00:16:43] the darkness.

[00:16:45] But what is that

[00:16:45] smell? I asked myself.

[00:16:47] It was the thing

[00:16:48] I remember most about

[00:16:49] it, having that

[00:16:50] question about the

[00:16:51] stench that I started

[00:16:52] to notice the

[00:16:52] deeper I went.

[00:16:54] I can hardly

[00:16:54] describe it, that

[00:16:55] stench. It was

[00:16:56] moldy and damp,

[00:16:57] full of rot and sweat

[00:16:59] and bad breath.

[00:17:00] It continued to

[00:17:01] grow stronger,

[00:17:02] and soon I noticed

[00:17:03] that my friends weren't

[00:17:04] behind me anymore.

[00:17:05] I remember feeling

[00:17:06] frozen as my

[00:17:07] flashlight swept

[00:17:08] across a pair of

[00:17:08] old boots, and

[00:17:09] then filthy denim,

[00:17:11] realizing I was

[00:17:12] seeing someone's

[00:17:12] legs. And then

[00:17:14] I took in the

[00:17:14] full picture of

[00:17:15] a dead man sitting

[00:17:16] propped up against

[00:17:16] the drain wall.

[00:17:19] I knew he'd been

[00:17:19] dead a long time

[00:17:20] because he was

[00:17:21] only a skeleton.

[00:17:23] I heard a

[00:17:23] movement deeper inside,

[00:17:25] and my

[00:17:25] flashlight caught

[00:17:26] bits of what I

[00:17:26] didn't realize

[00:17:27] in the moment were

[00:17:28] scraps of a

[00:17:28] living space.

[00:17:30] Blanket,

[00:17:30] food wrappers,

[00:17:31] and a backpack.

[00:17:33] And then the

[00:17:33] beam caught the

[00:17:34] crazed bearded face

[00:17:35] of someone

[00:17:35] lunging at me.

[00:17:37] We hit the

[00:17:38] ground hard, and

[00:17:38] his horrible breath

[00:17:39] was all I could smell.

[00:17:41] Something came out

[00:17:42] of me, a weak

[00:17:43] yell even though

[00:17:43] I wanted to scream,

[00:17:45] and I struggled

[00:17:45] to get out from

[00:17:46] under him,

[00:17:47] but he was

[00:17:47] crazy strong.

[00:17:48] I tasted blood on

[00:17:49] my lips, and then

[00:17:50] there was something

[00:17:51] sharp against

[00:17:51] my throat.

[00:17:53] The man shook

[00:17:54] me violently, and

[00:17:55] I managed to

[00:17:56] yell for help,

[00:17:57] but then he shook

[00:17:57] me all the harder

[00:17:58] until I banged

[00:17:59] my head against

[00:17:59] the concrete.

[00:18:01] My flashlight was

[00:18:02] laying nearby,

[00:18:03] and I saw through

[00:18:04] its beam the

[00:18:05] dirty man who,

[00:18:05] despite his long beard,

[00:18:07] appeared relatively

[00:18:08] young, not too

[00:18:09] much older than me.

[00:18:11] He peered over

[00:18:11] me and breathed

[00:18:12] furious gasps

[00:18:13] as if he hated me.

[00:18:15] His coat was greasy

[00:18:16] at the sleeves

[00:18:16] and collar,

[00:18:17] and his hair

[00:18:18] was as wild

[00:18:18] as his beard.

[00:18:20] You think you

[00:18:20] can come into

[00:18:21] my home like

[00:18:21] you own it?

[00:18:22] He said.

[00:18:23] You think you

[00:18:24] own this town

[00:18:24] just like the

[00:18:25] people who

[00:18:25] killed my father?

[00:18:27] I didn't know

[00:18:28] what to say,

[00:18:29] how to respond.

[00:18:30] I was petrified,

[00:18:31] and my head was still

[00:18:32] reeling with a doll

[00:18:33] cold ache at the back of it.

[00:18:35] You think you can

[00:18:36] take everything from

[00:18:37] someone just

[00:18:37] because you can?

[00:18:38] He said,

[00:18:39] pressing my neck

[00:18:39] again with what

[00:18:40] must have been

[00:18:40] a knife.

[00:18:42] I didn't take

[00:18:43] anything from anybody.

[00:18:45] Shut up!

[00:18:46] He growled.

[00:18:47] I remember saliva

[00:18:48] dribbled from his

[00:18:49] lips onto my forehead.

[00:18:51] You're all the same.

[00:18:52] You, your parents,

[00:18:53] your friends,

[00:18:54] everyone.

[00:18:54] You take a man's

[00:18:55] dreams,

[00:18:56] his livelihood.

[00:18:57] You chew him up

[00:18:58] and spit him out.

[00:19:00] Somewhere in my head

[00:19:01] I must have known

[00:19:01] who the angry young man was,

[00:19:03] and even the skeleton

[00:19:04] not three feet from me.

[00:19:06] But all I could think

[00:19:07] at the moment was

[00:19:07] the Rat Man.

[00:19:09] What might have been clear

[00:19:10] was the feeling

[00:19:11] of being guilty

[00:19:11] by association,

[00:19:13] that I was going to be

[00:19:13] punched for something

[00:19:14] I didn't do,

[00:19:15] something I didn't

[00:19:16] even understand.

[00:19:18] I felt sorry,

[00:19:19] sorry for myself,

[00:19:20] and sorry for telling

[00:19:21] Rat Man stories,

[00:19:22] and I felt sad

[00:19:23] for whatever circumstances

[00:19:24] had created an angry

[00:19:25] young man

[00:19:26] who was so violent.

[00:19:27] But in none of that

[00:19:28] did I find any sense.

[00:19:30] I couldn't understand

[00:19:31] why I was being held down

[00:19:32] in a sewer

[00:19:32] with a knife to my throat,

[00:19:34] far away from light and safety

[00:19:35] and all the people I loved.

[00:19:38] The next few moments

[00:19:39] were a blur.

[00:19:40] I don't remember

[00:19:40] how quickly it all happened,

[00:19:42] but I heard shouting

[00:19:43] and saw approaching light.

[00:19:45] The young man growled again

[00:19:46] and shripped me,

[00:19:47] and I felt the edge

[00:19:48] of the blade

[00:19:49] start to cut into me.

[00:19:51] Then the light was winding,

[00:19:52] and Chief Stevens

[00:19:53] was there

[00:19:53] along with my friends,

[00:19:55] and he had a gun

[00:19:55] and was shouting,

[00:19:56] and then it was over.

[00:19:59] Looking back,

[00:20:00] what I remember most

[00:20:01] was that young man's anger.

[00:20:02] He was Bob Renfro's son after all.

[00:20:05] He had apparently

[00:20:06] run away from home

[00:20:06] and wandered for a few years

[00:20:08] until it came to the town

[00:20:09] he last knew his father.

[00:20:11] Chief Stevens always said

[00:20:12] he needed to be rehabilitated

[00:20:14] to understand how to process

[00:20:15] his grief

[00:20:16] and become responsible

[00:20:17] for his own life.

[00:20:19] I certainly hoped he would,

[00:20:20] I still do,

[00:20:22] but can't help wondering

[00:20:23] whether he isn't still somehow

[00:20:24] living with his father's corpse.

[00:20:27] The End.

[00:20:29] Wow.

[00:20:30] So like,

[00:20:31] God, I miss this.

[00:20:33] Like, I'm just gonna say it again.

[00:20:34] I'm gonna keep saying it.

[00:20:35] Like, I really miss this.

[00:20:36] So like, you started out

[00:20:37] with like what I felt was like,

[00:20:39] did we get an age on these kids?

[00:20:41] They're high schoolers,

[00:20:42] old enough to drive.

[00:20:43] That's kind of what I assumed.

[00:20:45] So it started off

[00:20:47] in like just like

[00:20:48] what felt like kind of like a,

[00:20:50] like an adventure kind of thing,

[00:20:52] like a mystery,

[00:20:53] like we're gonna go like,

[00:20:54] you know, search for the Ratman.

[00:20:57] And then like,

[00:20:57] it got kind of real serious

[00:20:59] there at the end.

[00:21:00] For a second.

[00:21:00] So that's why I was asking about the age,

[00:21:02] because like,

[00:21:03] I think it makes sense,

[00:21:04] because like a teen,

[00:21:04] like somebody in their teens

[00:21:06] would have thought something like that.

[00:21:07] Whereas if we were talking about like,

[00:21:09] you know, pre-teens,

[00:21:11] like even like eight or nine

[00:21:13] that might not run through their head

[00:21:15] or whatever.

[00:21:15] Where did you come up with the idea

[00:21:17] for the Ratman?

[00:21:18] Was this another product of your kids?

[00:21:21] No, I don't think so.

[00:21:22] Honestly,

[00:21:23] I don't remember a lot about this story

[00:21:25] because it's been a number of months

[00:21:26] since I wrote it.

[00:21:27] So I don't really remember

[00:21:28] where the inspiration came from.

[00:21:30] Okay.

[00:21:31] I mean, I don't remember

[00:21:32] what I was watching at the time

[00:21:33] or anything like that.

[00:21:34] So is this the first time

[00:21:36] you've read it in a while too?

[00:21:37] I reread it earlier today

[00:21:39] just so it was fresh

[00:21:41] and that kind of thing.

[00:21:41] But yeah, yeah, good.

[00:21:44] I love it when like,

[00:21:45] you have a way to like grab people

[00:21:47] and pull them into the story

[00:21:49] and then all of a sudden

[00:21:50] like it takes this turn

[00:21:51] that you were never expecting.

[00:21:53] Do you think the Ratman

[00:21:55] is gonna get his shit together

[00:21:56] or do you think he's just like

[00:21:57] chilling with his daddy's corpse?

[00:21:59] I don't know.

[00:22:00] The last line was meant to be a metaphor.

[00:22:02] I don't know if you picked up on that.

[00:22:05] You know, sort of like

[00:22:06] the idea is that he's living in the past

[00:22:07] and he's fixated on

[00:22:10] you know, this thing that happened

[00:22:11] and he won't let it go.

[00:22:12] Sure.

[00:22:13] And it's, it didn't happen to him

[00:22:15] it happened to his dad.

[00:22:16] He was obviously, you know,

[00:22:17] in some way affected by it.

[00:22:18] But like, he just, you know,

[00:22:20] so from the viewpoint character

[00:22:22] he just sort of like wondering

[00:22:24] if like this kid's just still sort of like,

[00:22:26] you know, still kind of metaphorically

[00:22:28] living with his father's corpse

[00:22:30] rather than burying that

[00:22:33] and moving on

[00:22:34] and becoming responsible for himself.

[00:22:35] But interesting.

[00:22:37] So good stuff, man.

[00:22:39] I liked it.

[00:22:40] I thought it turned out right.

[00:22:41] It sort of had like a, you know,

[00:22:42] there's like,

[00:22:42] I don't even know if it's a genre.

[00:22:44] It's like a, like a sub genre,

[00:22:46] but like, you know,

[00:22:47] you've got the group of friends

[00:22:49] like a Stand By Me or,

[00:22:51] you know, the kids in like

[00:22:52] like a Stephen King story or something or

[00:22:54] something or like,

[00:22:56] what's the stranger thing?

[00:22:57] You know what I mean?

[00:22:57] Like you've got like that 80s

[00:23:00] like, you know, group of friends

[00:23:02] close knit, you know,

[00:23:02] goonies maybe sort of,

[00:23:04] sort of kind of kind of feel to it.

[00:23:06] But yeah, definitely.

[00:23:07] I definitely got a Goonies Stand By Me vibe,

[00:23:09] especially because you like named

[00:23:11] the group at the beginning,

[00:23:11] the Hoagie heads.

[00:23:13] Yeah.

[00:23:13] So like it was just like

[00:23:15] and that was fun.

[00:23:15] And for whatever reason,

[00:23:18] as soon as you said Sandwich Shop,

[00:23:20] I was transported back to like 1994

[00:23:23] and I was sitting in Blimpies.

[00:23:25] You remember Blimpies?

[00:23:26] Blimpies.

[00:23:28] Wow, I forgot about Blimpies.

[00:23:29] Yeah, Blimpies was awesome.

[00:23:31] I don't know that I ever had it.

[00:23:32] Oh really?

[00:23:34] It's the-

[00:23:34] I'm trying to think.

[00:23:36] Oh, it was so good.

[00:23:37] Like it was like,

[00:23:39] I don't know.

[00:23:39] Like I would take Blimpies over Subway

[00:23:42] like any day.

[00:23:43] See, I miss Quiznos.

[00:23:45] I thought Quiznos was better than Subway.

[00:23:47] See, okay, so we're about to get deep here.

[00:23:50] Quiznos I liked,

[00:23:51] but I had this problem with Quiznos.

[00:23:54] They toasted everything.

[00:23:56] Yeah, it was great.

[00:23:58] Well, it was except like

[00:24:00] different parts of the sandwich

[00:24:01] would end up being different temperatures

[00:24:03] and it drove me insane.

[00:24:05] Like sometimes like I would get

[00:24:07] like a pocket of like cold cheese

[00:24:09] or ham in the middle

[00:24:10] and it wasn't like properly heated

[00:24:11] and it drove me nuts.

[00:24:13] Okay, fair enough.

[00:24:15] But they had the Quiznos,

[00:24:16] Quiznos had like,

[00:24:18] I think their tuna was like legit

[00:24:20] because like at the time,

[00:24:22] Subway's tuna was pretty much

[00:24:23] just like a cup of mayo sprinkled with tuna

[00:24:26] and they actually had tuna in it.

[00:24:28] Now, Subway has changed their game

[00:24:30] but Quiznos,

[00:24:32] is that one that we used to go to still there?

[00:24:35] I feel like it might be.

[00:24:37] I don't even remember

[00:24:38] where any Quiznos were.

[00:24:39] There was one in town here

[00:24:40] but for a very brief period of time.

[00:24:43] I will,

[00:24:43] I don't want to start giving out locations

[00:24:46] or whatever.

[00:24:46] We'll talk after the fact.

[00:24:48] But I think there might still be one.

[00:24:50] If there is one, I need to find it.

[00:24:52] Just as I need to find

[00:24:53] a East of Chicago pizza.

[00:24:55] East, there is an East of Chicago somewhere.

[00:24:58] We'll find that.

[00:24:59] I know there are some still random ones

[00:25:01] here and there but.

[00:25:02] And you could get to Natto's at Red Robin now.

[00:25:05] Yes, you can.

[00:25:05] So.

[00:25:06] Oh man, that's so good.

[00:25:08] Oh man, I'm like,

[00:25:09] I didn't eat dinner yet.

[00:25:10] So like I'm starving.

[00:25:11] I'm sorry.

[00:25:12] So I've eaten dinner

[00:25:14] but I am on a

[00:25:15] get my bad cholesterol back in check

[00:25:17] sort of fast.

[00:25:18] So I'm not eating fun stuff.

[00:25:20] A lot of stuff that's got saturated fat in it.

[00:25:22] Gotcha.

[00:25:23] Pizza sounds about amazing right now.

[00:25:25] Yeah, I've actually like

[00:25:26] I've been having these allergies

[00:25:27] that I kind of like was talking about earlier

[00:25:30] about the cough and everything.

[00:25:31] But like this happened to be

[00:25:32] when I was a teenager

[00:25:34] and I was on like

[00:25:35] they put me on like different inhalers

[00:25:37] and I started taking allergy shots

[00:25:39] and there was like certain things

[00:25:40] that triggered it

[00:25:42] and like wheat was one of them.

[00:25:44] So I'm trying to avoid

[00:25:46] as much wheat as possible.

[00:25:48] So pizza is not the greatest thing

[00:25:50] but I just do thin crust

[00:25:51] and I hope it goes.

[00:25:51] But I mean most places

[00:25:53] you can get like gluten-free crust now

[00:25:55] but that's no fun.

[00:25:57] Yeah, some places do like a cauliflower crust

[00:26:00] if you're really wanting to punish yourself.

[00:26:02] But yeah, it's just

[00:26:03] it's just during this particular season

[00:26:06] I think it's like spring into early summer.

[00:26:09] It's I think it's

[00:26:10] if I remember correctly

[00:26:11] it's like timothy tree

[00:26:13] or timothy grass

[00:26:14] or something like that.

[00:26:15] And there's a bunch of foods

[00:26:17] that also trigger that particular allergy

[00:26:19] because there's a similar substance in them.

[00:26:21] So I'm trying to be good too.

[00:26:23] But we're about to go on vacation

[00:26:25] and I'm sure that it's just going to be terrible.

[00:26:28] But I'm hoping there's less pollen by the ocean.

[00:26:30] Yeah, I know.

[00:26:31] I have no idea.

[00:26:32] So anyways, we got more stories to tell

[00:26:34] so we should probably just get on to it.

[00:26:36] More stories.

[00:26:37] You have anything else to say about blame?

[00:26:39] No.

[00:26:39] All right, well done.

[00:26:41] I can't wait to listen to it again.

[00:26:43] A lot of times when I'm editing

[00:26:44] I listen to it again

[00:26:45] and then it really like hits me.

[00:26:46] Sometimes I end up looking over at the recording and shit.

[00:26:51] But this one, okay.

[00:26:52] So my first story tonight

[00:26:53] it's a little on the longish side.

[00:26:55] It's called The Other Side

[00:26:57] and it's bringing in just under 3,000 words.

[00:26:59] It's like 2963.

[00:27:01] So I'm going to take a sip of water here

[00:27:02] and then I'm just going to get down to it.

[00:27:05] Okay, you ready?

[00:27:07] I'm ready.

[00:27:08] All right, here we go.

[00:27:10] Paul slid the foil back from the casserole dish

[00:27:12] and poked the meat thermometer

[00:27:13] into the thickest part of the chicken breast.

[00:27:16] He waited for the beep and removed it,

[00:27:18] satisfied with the result.

[00:27:20] After confirming that the additional two breasts

[00:27:22] were also done,

[00:27:23] he recovered the dish with the foil

[00:27:24] and set it atop the stove to rest.

[00:27:27] Without thinking,

[00:27:27] he reached into the oven barehanded

[00:27:29] to grab one of the foil-wrapped potatoes.

[00:27:32] Ah shit!

[00:27:33] He exclaimed as he juggled it between his hands

[00:27:34] before guiding it onto the countertop.

[00:27:36] He grabbed an oven mitt and prodded at it

[00:27:38] before returning it to the heat.

[00:27:41] You all right, Dad?

[00:27:43] Paul turned to the sound of his son's voice.

[00:27:45] Yeah, I'm all right.

[00:27:46] Just don't have my thinking cap on today,

[00:27:48] I guess he juggled.

[00:27:49] Don't go too far, dinner's almost done.

[00:27:52] The potatoes just need a few more minutes.

[00:27:54] Should be good by the time your mom gets home.

[00:27:57] You sure about that?

[00:27:58] He's fun on his heels

[00:27:59] to face his beautiful wife

[00:28:01] who now stood in the entrance way to the apartment.

[00:28:03] With all the potato commotion,

[00:28:05] he must have missed the announcement of her arrival.

[00:28:07] As she passed through the threshold,

[00:28:09] the door closed behind her with a whoosh,

[00:28:11] followed by the soft click

[00:28:12] of the hydraulic lock system sliding into place.

[00:28:15] The couple stood staring into each other's eyes,

[00:28:18] each of them looking for any glimpse of emotion.

[00:28:21] It was a game they played often,

[00:28:22] and she was leading the series by far.

[00:28:25] It was impossible not to smile while looking at her,

[00:28:27] so he really didn't mind losing.

[00:28:30] Today, however, she was the first one to break,

[00:28:32] dropping her bags to the ground

[00:28:33] as she threw her arms around Paul's neck.

[00:28:36] It's a girl!

[00:28:38] He lost all control,

[00:28:39] and tears began to stream down his face

[00:28:40] as he brought her closer to him.

[00:28:43] She buried her face in his chest

[00:28:44] and began to softly sob.

[00:28:46] You mean it?

[00:28:47] It's really a girl?

[00:28:49] That means we get to keep her!

[00:28:52] The couple looked down at their son

[00:28:53] and wiped the tears from each other's eyes

[00:28:55] before answering.

[00:28:56] You bet, Junior.

[00:28:58] You're finally going to have a sister.

[00:29:01] It's about time.

[00:29:02] I don't think I could handle losing another brother.

[00:29:06] The room went quiet

[00:29:07] as all eyes fell upon the two small urns

[00:29:09] that sat in the center of the mantle above the fireplace.

[00:29:12] Each was adorned with a small copper plaque,

[00:29:15] engraved with the name of a child

[00:29:16] who never had a fair shot.

[00:29:19] Most couples don't name them,

[00:29:20] as to make it less personal.

[00:29:22] But the Millers weren't like most people.

[00:29:25] While it was hard to watch their sons be taken from them,

[00:29:28] they knew that it was for the betterment of the collective.

[00:29:31] The founders had decided

[00:29:32] that each family should be allowed

[00:29:34] only one boy and one girl,

[00:29:36] as the earth was not as bountiful as it once was.

[00:29:39] The easiest way to manage resources

[00:29:41] was by managing the population.

[00:29:44] Or so it had been written those many generations ago.

[00:29:48] Desperate to lighten the mood,

[00:29:49] Kate Miller ran and scooped her son into her arms,

[00:29:51] covering him with kisses.

[00:29:54] Jasper, commonly known as Junior

[00:29:55] unless he got caught up in some shenanigans,

[00:29:58] flailed about until he was able to wriggle himself free.

[00:30:01] Gosh, Mom, that stuff's for babies.

[00:30:05] Junior wiped at his face to further convey his contempt.

[00:30:08] All right, all right, I'm sorry.

[00:30:10] Why don't you go wash up for dinner

[00:30:11] while we give those potatoes another look?

[00:30:14] Junior wiped one last kiss from his face

[00:30:16] and ran down the hall to the bathroom.

[00:30:18] The couple shared a long silent embrace

[00:30:20] before returning to put the finishing touches on dinner.

[00:30:24] Fur, shivered Kate as she crossed her arms

[00:30:26] across her chest and rubbed her shoulders.

[00:30:28] It's cold in here.

[00:30:29] Shouldn't the cold be here by now?

[00:30:32] As if on cue, three soft beeps

[00:30:35] chirped from the control pad between the furnace

[00:30:37] and the fireplace and the stainless steel panel

[00:30:38] slid into place, hiding the coal hopper from view.

[00:30:42] A robotic voice announced,

[00:30:44] resource delivery imminent, coal receptacle.

[00:30:47] Please ensure area is clear.

[00:30:50] Perfect.

[00:30:52] On the other side of the wall,

[00:30:54] a young boy smeared dirt and stood across his face

[00:30:56] as he waited for the door to open.

[00:30:59] He heard the clunk on the opposite side

[00:31:00] and counted down from three in his head.

[00:31:03] When he hit zero, the panel began to slide open for him.

[00:31:06] He turned back to his trolley and grabbed the scoop

[00:31:08] from the slot on the side.

[00:31:10] Being as this was the second to last delivery

[00:31:11] for the evening, he had to lean way into the car

[00:31:14] to reach the coal at the bottom.

[00:31:16] When he was younger,

[00:31:17] his feet would sometimes leave the ground

[00:31:19] and he'd have to balance himself just right

[00:31:20] so he didn't fall face first

[00:31:21] into the steel floor of the trolley.

[00:31:24] He was glad those days were behind him,

[00:31:26] but every rose has its thorn

[00:31:29] and he had a feeling that after his 13th birthday

[00:31:31] in a couple of months,

[00:31:32] he'd be dreaming about his trolley days.

[00:31:35] Teenagers were sent off to the mines,

[00:31:36] since most would be getting too big

[00:31:38] to comfortably navigate the tunnels.

[00:31:40] He'd only seen the mines once,

[00:31:41] but they didn't look like that good of a time.

[00:31:45] He filled the scoop three times,

[00:31:46] ensuring that he made as little noise as possible

[00:31:48] while completing his work.

[00:31:50] There was a decibel meter affixed

[00:31:51] to the outside of his cart

[00:31:52] and if he went over the limit of noise infractions,

[00:31:54] his rations would be reduced to compensate.

[00:31:57] He wasn't sure what they were compensating for,

[00:31:59] but he was taught long ago not to ask any questions.

[00:32:03] After the final scoop,

[00:32:04] he waited for confirmation that he was done.

[00:32:07] When a few moments of silence passed,

[00:32:09] he tossed in a few more briquettes by hand,

[00:32:11] hoping that he'd make weight.

[00:32:13] He's pretty much a pro at this point,

[00:32:15] so you could imagine his surprise

[00:32:16] when the door still failed to close.

[00:32:19] He reached in to level the coal by hand.

[00:32:21] It was rare,

[00:32:22] but sometimes the balance wasn't perfect

[00:32:24] and it threw off the sensor.

[00:32:26] He found a pocket of empty air

[00:32:27] and began to fill it in

[00:32:28] when out of nowhere,

[00:32:29] the computer system slammed the door down on his right arm.

[00:32:33] He screamed as he tried to free his arm with no success.

[00:32:36] He reached back for his cart

[00:32:37] and was able to get just enough grip on his pickaxe

[00:32:39] to free it from a tarnas.

[00:32:41] He jammed the tip of the axe into the opening

[00:32:43] and used as much of his body weight as he could

[00:32:45] to try and get some leverage.

[00:32:47] After some awkward fumbling,

[00:32:48] he was able to free his arm

[00:32:49] and he fell to the floor.

[00:32:51] He got back to his feet,

[00:32:53] screaming in frustration

[00:32:54] and swung the axe into the dirt wall

[00:32:56] as hard as he could, lodging it into the surface.

[00:32:58] He looked at it sitting there

[00:32:59] and started to laugh to himself.

[00:33:02] After a moment,

[00:33:03] he realized that he'd probably been at the station too long

[00:33:05] and needed to move on.

[00:33:07] The axe was really in there good,

[00:33:08] so he had to work it back and forth a bit

[00:33:10] before the dirt released its hold a bit.

[00:33:13] He got the axe back in his holster,

[00:33:15] tossed the scoop into the trolley,

[00:33:16] and started to guide the car

[00:33:17] towards the last stop on his line.

[00:33:19] Paul jerked his head away from the dinner prep

[00:33:22] and stared off into the living room.

[00:33:25] Did you hear that?

[00:33:27] Kate just kept working at the potato shop

[00:33:28] and mashing a healthy pat of butter into each side

[00:33:30] before closing and twisting the foil back around them.

[00:33:34] Paul's eye caught a glimpse of something

[00:33:35] and started moving towards the coal receptacle,

[00:33:37] which was in the process of reopening, now replenished.

[00:33:41] At the side of the bin,

[00:33:42] there was a small portion of plaster that had cracked,

[00:33:44] leaving a protrusion in the wall.

[00:33:46] Come check this out!

[00:33:49] Kate joined him at his side and just shrugged it off.

[00:33:51] We'd been here a while now.

[00:33:52] It was probably a matter of time

[00:33:54] before things started falling apart.

[00:33:56] I'll put in a call to maintenance.

[00:34:01] She reached for her phone

[00:34:02] and started to tap it when Paul grabbed it from her.

[00:34:05] She was ready to give him the business

[00:34:06] when she saw the fear in his eyes.

[00:34:09] What's the matter?

[00:34:11] Took her hand and ran it across the mark in the wall.

[00:34:14] You feel that?

[00:34:16] Yeah, so?

[00:34:18] The plaster has bubbled around the point of impact.

[00:34:21] The wall was hit from the other side.

[00:34:23] Yeah, okay.

[00:34:24] The other side.

[00:34:25] Good one.

[00:34:26] She laughed to herself as she returned to the kitchen.

[00:34:30] As the last receptacle door closed,

[00:34:31] the boy replaced his scoop

[00:34:33] and looked at the contents of the trolley.

[00:34:35] Only a few errant bricks remained,

[00:34:37] which means that he once again

[00:34:38] did a hell of a job managing his load.

[00:34:41] He got behind the cart and started to push.

[00:34:44] This was his favorite part of the job,

[00:34:46] pushing the depleted cart back to the start of the line

[00:34:48] and the rash and a stale bread and bone broth that awaited him.

[00:34:51] It was during this time when it was just him and his thoughts

[00:34:53] that he enjoyed the most.

[00:34:56] He dreamt of a technicolor life,

[00:34:58] like those in the picture shows

[00:34:59] they sometimes show on Friday nights.

[00:35:02] The only light he'd ever seen

[00:35:03] was the product of a gas lantern,

[00:35:04] which wasn't much.

[00:35:06] The dreams were the best part of living among shadows.

[00:35:10] He started to make the journey back

[00:35:12] when he stopped in his tracks.

[00:35:14] The trolley kept going,

[00:35:15] so he had to chase it

[00:35:16] and lean in to grab the emergency brake,

[00:35:17] but he finally got it stopped.

[00:35:19] Resetting the brake would cost him rations,

[00:35:21] but that was the last thing on his mind right now.

[00:35:23] The only thing he could focus on

[00:35:25] was the small pinprick of light

[00:35:26] coming from the wall

[00:35:27] where he had planted his axe just moments ago.

[00:35:31] His life flashed before his eyes.

[00:35:33] If he had caused this damage,

[00:35:35] there would be hell to pay.

[00:35:38] At first, he thought his eyes

[00:35:39] were merely playing tricks on him,

[00:35:41] but as he got closer,

[00:35:42] he saw trickles of dirt falling to the ground.

[00:35:45] He thought he was going to die

[00:35:46] as the trickles of dirt falling to the ground.

[00:35:48] As the clumps of dirt got bigger,

[00:35:50] so did the amount of light coming through.

[00:35:52] He was drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

[00:35:55] He edged his way closer with caution,

[00:35:57] keeping his back to the wall

[00:35:59] when he saw a finger breakthrough

[00:36:00] from the other side.

[00:36:02] I think I see something!

[00:36:04] Paul removed his finger

[00:36:05] and looked hard enough through the hole he was creating,

[00:36:07] but it was awfully dark there.

[00:36:09] He backed away

[00:36:10] and began to claw at the wall with authority.

[00:36:13] A small pile of plaster and dust

[00:36:14] growing at his feet.

[00:36:16] Okay, honey, Kate chuckled.

[00:36:18] You just let me know when you find something.

[00:36:22] The boy was frozen where he stood.

[00:36:24] Whatever, or whomever,

[00:36:26] was on the other side of the wall

[00:36:28] appeared to be getting more aggressive.

[00:36:30] As the hole began to grow,

[00:36:31] so did the intensity of the light,

[00:36:33] causing his eyes to tear up.

[00:36:35] He slipped back behind his trolley

[00:36:37] placing the great steel bucket

[00:36:38] between himself and the unknown threat

[00:36:40] and began to move closer.

[00:36:42] He had been still for far too long now,

[00:36:44] and if he didn't wake his mate back,

[00:36:46] he wouldn't be eating until breakfast.

[00:36:48] If he was lucky.

[00:36:50] The wheels ground against the corroded tracks

[00:36:52] piercing his ears.

[00:36:54] Never really paid much attention

[00:36:55] to things like that before.

[00:36:57] Perhaps this new source of light

[00:36:58] was awakening senses

[00:36:59] that had been otherwise suppressed.

[00:37:01] As he got closer,

[00:37:02] he began to forget about the light altogether.

[00:37:05] The lack of it had never been an issue before.

[00:37:08] He'd always been okay walking in the darkness,

[00:37:11] but there was something else new happening here.

[00:37:14] What was that smell?

[00:37:16] And voices.

[00:37:18] He heard voices.

[00:37:20] Chicken's done.

[00:37:22] Shh, I think I hear something.

[00:37:24] Paul pushed his face into the much larger hole,

[00:37:27] now grown to the size of a softball.

[00:37:29] Something is moving toward us.

[00:37:31] He stared intently and watched as a shadow

[00:37:33] slowly crept in front of him.

[00:37:35] Then, as quickly as it started,

[00:37:38] the sound stopped, rendering the room silent.

[00:37:42] Paul turned back to update his wife

[00:37:44] on the most recent events,

[00:37:45] but found Junior standing behind him.

[00:37:47] Kate was oblivious to the recent development.

[00:37:50] Her focus set on dinner and dinner alone,

[00:37:52] so he addressed his son.

[00:37:54] Whatever it was seems to be gone now.

[00:37:57] Junior's eyes grew to the size of tangerines

[00:37:59] and gapped, bringing his hand to his mouth.

[00:38:03] Paul turned to find a pair of eyes

[00:38:04] and the bridge of a nose staring back at him.

[00:38:07] He dropped to his knees and began to tear at the wall.

[00:38:10] He planted his feet against the baseboard,

[00:38:12] grabbed the hole with an iron grip,

[00:38:13] and pushed away,

[00:38:14] heaving his entire body weight against the wall.

[00:38:18] After a couple of attempts,

[00:38:19] the plaster began to break away easier,

[00:38:21] and not too long after,

[00:38:23] he had managed to make the hole in his wall child-sized.

[00:38:26] He dropped to the seat of his pants

[00:38:27] and sat leaning against the wall,

[00:38:29] feeling accomplished.

[00:38:32] It took some time,

[00:38:33] but slowly the stranger from the other side

[00:38:35] began to emerge.

[00:38:38] The first thing he noticed

[00:38:39] was the softness underneath his feet,

[00:38:41] which had never known anything but dirt.

[00:38:44] He glanced around,

[00:38:45] but the light still hurt his eyes,

[00:38:46] and he was starting to feel dizzy.

[00:38:48] He took a step forward

[00:38:49] and found himself staring at a boy

[00:38:51] about the same age as him.

[00:38:53] They took each other in without saying a word.

[00:38:56] The other boy reached toward him

[00:38:57] and he shuddered back,

[00:38:59] tripping over Paul,

[00:39:00] who looked up just in time

[00:39:01] to catch him in his arms.

[00:39:04] Paul stood the boy back up on his feet

[00:39:06] and took the chance to really take him in.

[00:39:09] His clothes were merely patchwork rags

[00:39:10] that hung loosely from his skeletal frame.

[00:39:13] His hair was wiry and clumped with dirt and grease,

[00:39:16] his skin stained with soot.

[00:39:18] But those eyes…

[00:39:20] there was something about his eyes.

[00:39:23] He pulled Junior over beside him

[00:39:25] and forgot to breathe for a second.

[00:39:27] Kate, can you come here for a second?

[00:39:31] Kate mumbled a response in the background,

[00:39:33] but he already forgot he called her.

[00:39:36] His mind was racing.

[00:39:37] He turned back to the newcomer.

[00:39:40] My name is Paul.

[00:39:41] What were you doing behind our wall?

[00:39:43] The boy looked at him as if he was an imbecile.

[00:39:46] Delivering coal, of course.

[00:39:49] This is how we get our coal?

[00:39:52] He tried to gather his thoughts to no avail.

[00:39:54] Kate!

[00:39:56] She jumped at the intensity of his voice

[00:39:57] and was about to ask him

[00:39:58] just who he thought he was speaking to,

[00:40:00] but fell silent when she saw the scene

[00:40:02] that had developed in her living room.

[00:40:04] She dropped everything

[00:40:05] and moved to join her husband.

[00:40:08] What's your name?

[00:40:09] What's your name?

[00:40:11] The boy looked back at him with a blank stare.

[00:40:13] I don't know.

[00:40:15] What do people call you?

[00:40:18] They don't really call me anything.

[00:40:21] Paul reached out for the boy's left wrist,

[00:40:22] but he drew away from him.

[00:40:25] I'm sorry.

[00:40:26] I'm not going to hurt you.

[00:40:27] I just want to see something.

[00:40:29] May I?

[00:40:31] Paul pointed to a small tattoo on his own wrist

[00:40:33] and gestured toward the boy.

[00:40:35] Just a hint of reluctance,

[00:40:37] the boy reached out his arm.

[00:40:39] Kate was trying to catch up,

[00:40:41] appalled at the condition that this boy was in.

[00:40:43] She rushed over to him

[00:40:44] and tried to pull the clumps of dirt from his hair,

[00:40:46] but it was matted in too deep.

[00:40:48] She ran back to the kitchen for a cloth,

[00:40:50] ran under the sink and brought it back.

[00:40:52] She pushed Paul away

[00:40:53] and started cleaning off his face.

[00:40:56] The boy stood frozen,

[00:40:58] but didn't attempt to stop it.

[00:41:00] After she was able to get most of the first layer off,

[00:41:03] she stepped back to view her progress.

[00:41:05] One look at his eyes

[00:41:06] and she dropped to her knees.

[00:41:09] Paul, why does he…?

[00:41:12] She looked to her husband

[00:41:13] who motioned for the boy to show her his wrist.

[00:41:16] She looked down at the number

[00:41:17] and lasted approximately three seconds

[00:41:19] before losing consciousness

[00:41:20] and falling gently to the soft carpet.

[00:41:23] Dad, what's going on?

[00:41:26] Paul looked over at Junior.

[00:41:29] Well, son, I'm afraid

[00:41:31] we haven't been completely honest with you.

[00:41:33] We wanted to tell you.

[00:41:34] We did.

[00:41:36] But we weren't sure when or how.

[00:41:39] I guess today is the day the bandage gets ripped off.

[00:41:42] The boys exchanged glances but said nothing.

[00:41:45] Kate began to stir and Paul Cokester up to his side.

[00:41:49] When you were born,

[00:41:52] it wasn't just you.

[00:41:53] You had a twin brother.

[00:41:55] He took a deep breath.

[00:41:57] Well, as you know,

[00:41:59] each family's only allowed one male child,

[00:42:01] so I don't believe

[00:42:03] the tragedy that followed needs to be said aloud.

[00:42:07] Junior looked at his own wrist.

[00:42:09] 4303.

[00:42:12] He looked over at their guest

[00:42:13] and with a bit of the grime having been scrubbed away,

[00:42:15] he saw what both his parents had seen earlier.

[00:42:18] Himself.

[00:42:19] He reached for the boy's wrist

[00:42:21] who offered it willingly without taking his eyes

[00:42:23] from the cleaner version of himself.

[00:42:25] 4303.

[00:42:27] X.

[00:42:30] And that's it.

[00:42:32] Okay, so I am enamored by your world building in this one.

[00:42:37] Thank you.

[00:42:38] You've created a, you know, very,

[00:42:41] obviously very dystopian but very compelling world

[00:42:44] that raises lots of questions about

[00:42:47] how do we get here?

[00:42:48] Where are we at?

[00:42:49] What's going to happen now?

[00:42:51] You know what I mean?

[00:42:51] Like you really,

[00:42:53] you did it,

[00:42:54] it's like a double whammy.

[00:42:55] You got me as a listener really engaged in it

[00:42:59] and then you left me wanting more.

[00:43:01] You know what I mean?

[00:43:02] That was the goal.

[00:43:03] Which some people find frustrating

[00:43:05] but I kind of like because then it sticks with you

[00:43:08] rather than just sort of like,

[00:43:09] I feel like there's so many,

[00:43:11] I don't know some,

[00:43:13] I don't think stories or books necessarily

[00:43:15] but there's at least as far as media goes,

[00:43:17] there's so many like movies that are just like

[00:43:21] and even songs that are sort of like throw away

[00:43:24] songs or movies or shows

[00:43:26] because they don't give you anything compelling to think about

[00:43:30] and you just sort of like consume it and then it's gone.

[00:43:32] Like something like this,

[00:43:33] it gives you something to think about

[00:43:35] and you start to get invested in the characters

[00:43:38] and wonder about where they're going to go next.

[00:43:41] Well, I appreciate that

[00:43:42] and I was actually a little worried about

[00:43:45] ending the story like this

[00:43:46] because I don't know if there's a ton of closure or not

[00:43:51] and I was kind of worried about that.

[00:43:52] Like is this-

[00:43:53] There isn't but I don't think you need it in a sense.

[00:43:56] So-

[00:43:57] Because the nature of the story is

[00:44:02] the question raising,

[00:44:03] you know, I'm like there's,

[00:44:04] you're raising questions

[00:44:05] but they're not questions that pertain to like,

[00:44:08] oh what's happening in the story in that sense.

[00:44:11] You're like you can follow the story,

[00:44:12] it's obvious enough what's happening

[00:44:13] but you know the raising the questions of

[00:44:17] you know where they're going to go next,

[00:44:19] what are they going to do

[00:44:20] you know because you've got this authoritarian mandate

[00:44:24] you know that they're going to have to contend with.

[00:44:25] Right.

[00:44:26] I mean it's clearly their child so

[00:44:30] you know it's-

[00:44:31] The reader or listener will definitely continue to think.

[00:44:36] That's my goal and unlike some of these stories

[00:44:40] I kind of know what's going to happen next.

[00:44:43] I just need a listener to come up with the right prompt.

[00:44:46] Okay.

[00:44:47] I think it's like because like I finished in like I was

[00:44:52] like I said I was a little uneasy about ending it

[00:44:54] the way that I did but ultimately

[00:44:56] that's where I felt I was writing to.

[00:45:00] I always know the point that I'm writing to

[00:45:01] and that was the point I was writing to.

[00:45:04] So I don't necessarily like have a plan

[00:45:07] but as much as I hope the listener continues to think

[00:45:11] I continued to think about this one.

[00:45:14] Where did it come from?

[00:45:15] I don't know honestly like sometimes these prompts

[00:45:19] just get me in like a really weird space

[00:45:21] because so I was just like okay

[00:45:23] I need somebody walking through the dark

[00:45:26] then they got to smell something

[00:45:27] so I was like what could I do

[00:45:29] and I don't know how this image popped into my head

[00:45:34] but I just pictured this young boy in rags

[00:45:37] pushing a like pretty much a hopper full of coal

[00:45:40] and just kind of like delivering it

[00:45:42] and I was like well now I got just got to

[00:45:44] I got to do something with this

[00:45:45] and then everything else just came kind of came organically

[00:45:48] as I was kind of thinking about this kid walking.

[00:45:51] Like why would he be doing this?

[00:45:53] You know what I mean?

[00:45:55] So it was just kind of like a what if kind of thing.

[00:45:57] Interesting yeah so what like what kind of time period

[00:46:01] do you think we're in here?

[00:46:04] It sounded like there was maybe some technology but.

[00:46:06] So it's future I don't know how far in the future

[00:46:11] I would say that I would think how well let me ask you this

[00:46:15] like what would how far out would you consider near future?

[00:46:19] I would say 50 years 200 maybe.

[00:46:23] Okay so this is probably longer than that

[00:46:24] I'm guessing that we've had at least several generations

[00:46:29] of people since let's just say like the world

[00:46:35] like I think I said somewhere in here

[00:46:38] that the earth was not as bountiful as it once was

[00:46:42] so I would say that from what we know today

[00:46:46] several generations have passed.

[00:46:48] Okay.

[00:46:49] And I'm not necessarily sure of the events

[00:46:52] that caused this dystopian future to develop.

[00:46:57] Got it.

[00:46:58] Although I'm curious.

[00:47:01] Well you know sometimes it's again fun to not know

[00:47:05] there was this show I liked a lot

[00:47:07] it was on Adult Swim on Cartoon Network back in college

[00:47:11] it's called The Big O and it was only on for two seasons

[00:47:14] it was like this very noirish it was like an anime right?

[00:47:17] It was very noirish kind of thing where

[00:47:21] there's these events that happened 40 years prior

[00:47:23] that no one remembers it's like everyone has like city-wide amnesia

[00:47:28] but it was you know cataclysmic in some respects

[00:47:32] and you never ever find out what actually happened

[00:47:35] you always see like flashbacks to it

[00:47:37] but part of the frustration

[00:47:38] but part of the fun was not knowing kind of thing

[00:47:41] like you just had to imagine it.

[00:47:44] Yeah I kind of like that actually because it lets

[00:47:48] you know in that case it was the viewer got to kind of just like sit there

[00:47:52] and kind of just contemplate put together what they thought happened

[00:47:55] but I sort of like not spelling everything out.

[00:47:59] You know if this were to develop into something more of a long form

[00:48:03] where I decided that I needed to define that somehow

[00:48:08] but I almost you know what I think actually a lot of this

[00:48:11] we were we're still in the process of bringing that Dark Tower podcast to life

[00:48:16] so I had read the Gunslinger again

[00:48:20] and we've recorded episodes for a couple of episodes

[00:48:23] they're just kind of like sitting in the can right now

[00:48:25] so you know when you're reading The Dark Tower by Stephen King

[00:48:30] it's like you don't really know you know what happened to the world

[00:48:34] you just know that it's a far cry from what it once was

[00:48:39] so I think I kind of maybe took some inspiration from that here.

[00:48:42] That makes sense.

[00:48:43] It's not really about what happened it's about what's happening now.

[00:48:47] Right well I would say overall like you certainly came back strong.

[00:48:52] Oh thank you I hope the second one or what I have come and continues that trend.

[00:48:57] Yeah yeah I'm anxious to hear it because like it's like

[00:49:00] I never know when I'm gonna get like weird Matt or Dark Matt

[00:49:04] you know what I mean like and this one was pretty tame you know in that respect so

[00:49:10] I don't know if you're gonna hit me with a whammy here so.

[00:49:13] I guess we'll just have to find out but I think before we do

[00:49:16] I think you got another one for us right?

[00:49:19] What's the second prompt?

[00:49:21] Oh yeah the second prompt yeah

[00:49:24] The second prompt is It Cries For Blood which was provided by Jeff Ford.

[00:49:30] I love Jeff this is the best like I mean

[00:49:34] This one definitely seems right up your alley.

[00:49:36] All right so what do you got for us in terms of It Cries For Blood?

[00:49:41] This is a shorter story it's 937 words so we're in flash fiction range I guess

[00:49:48] and my title is File Under Miscellaneous.

[00:49:51] All right I'm ready.

[00:49:54] Alrighty here we go.

[00:49:57] It Cries For Blood was the prompt that they gave me.

[00:50:00] What am I supposed to do with that?

[00:50:02] Make an obscure reference to 90s rap that isn't all that funny?

[00:50:06] Actually there's lots I could do with that prompt.

[00:50:09] I could go the horror route pretty easily.

[00:50:12] Except I'm not really feeling it.

[00:50:14] I'm not really feeling anything actually.

[00:50:17] But I've still got to write something.

[00:50:19] I've still got to do something productive.

[00:50:22] Productivity is a funny thing of course.

[00:50:24] It's the backbone of an economy in a sense.

[00:50:27] Even the economy of words.

[00:50:30] Producing, being productive, productivity.

[00:50:33] It's a good word.

[00:50:35] Especially when one has something with which to be productive.

[00:50:39] Competition, price controls, value, supply and demand, scarcity, monopolies.

[00:50:44] All mechanisms of the economic machine.

[00:50:47] And I as the writer am the monopoly in this endeavor.

[00:50:50] Not like the government is a monopoly in the services it provides

[00:50:54] where there's no competition to drive innovation and efficiency.

[00:50:58] But one does wonder what it would look like with competing

[00:51:00] government services vying for the taxpayer dollar.

[00:51:03] It would be excellent fodder for a story.

[00:51:05] How such a market might look.

[00:51:07] Can you imagine pitting the IRS against some other agency?

[00:51:10] And bickering over who would tax you the least?

[00:51:13] But alas, my mind isn't quite up to that task.

[00:51:16] And after all, I am the monopoly here.

[00:51:19] I own all the ideas and gatekeep which ones come to life

[00:51:22] and which ones remain on the back burner.

[00:51:25] And ideas are funny things.

[00:51:27] So many of them seem quite organic.

[00:51:29] They seem to come to us by default without us realizing how they came to be.

[00:51:34] And yet we are all products of our environment.

[00:51:36] Are these ideas simply embedded in culture?

[00:51:39] Are they nursed along by the custodians of our well-being?

[00:51:43] Or are they just subconscious backwash?

[00:51:45] Do we weave them together piecemeal in our dreams at night

[00:51:49] only upon waking to fully recognize them as quite natural?

[00:51:53] What about the things we can't let go?

[00:51:55] Are they simple fascinations?

[00:51:57] Or are they symptoms of psychosis?

[00:51:59] The ideas that mold us and form our inner voice.

[00:52:03] Are they simple tutors?

[00:52:04] Or are they expressions of deep seed and misdirection?

[00:52:08] They can be alarmingly deceptive, these ideas.

[00:52:11] And therein lies the strange nature of this mental monopoly.

[00:52:14] As characters form, they most assuredly live and breathe.

[00:52:18] Not in the flesh and blood sense like you or I,

[00:52:21] but in perhaps a more real sense.

[00:52:23] And they compete for attention, compete for the relevance.

[00:52:27] How much of that is organic?

[00:52:29] How much of that is me deciding who will take up permanent residence in my mind?

[00:52:34] I can't say for certain.

[00:52:36] It's all so… curious.

[00:52:39] But who's to say I'm not lying?

[00:52:41] Misdirecting?

[00:52:43] Perhaps I'm an unreliable narrator.

[00:52:46] There'd be no way for you to know until, or if, rather, I reveal as much.

[00:52:51] Of course, I haven't really begun to tell a tale, have I?

[00:52:54] Maybe there's blood yet to come.

[00:52:56] Maybe I'm full of it, full of myself.

[00:52:59] And I can't decide whether my monopoly is a sham.

[00:53:03] Monopoly is a fun game, though.

[00:53:05] I'm always the hat.

[00:53:07] I don't know why, but that's always the piece with which I prefer to move around the board.

[00:53:11] Just like in Clue, I like to be Mr. Green.

[00:53:14] Again, I don't know why.

[00:53:15] He just seems like a chill dude, at least in the copy of the game I have.

[00:53:20] He and Professor Plum always look pretty innocent to me.

[00:53:23] Sort of prim and proper and above board.

[00:53:26] But there's that unreliable aspect again.

[00:53:29] It's usually the one you least suspect, right?

[00:53:32] But where was I?

[00:53:34] Oh yes, it cries for blood.

[00:53:36] A versatile prompt.

[00:53:37] Quite fitting for Clue, even.

[00:53:40] Maybe there's a murder mystery afoot.

[00:53:42] But that's been done to death.

[00:53:44] No pun intended.

[00:53:45] Or is it?

[00:53:47] Dame Agatha Christie co-ordered the market on murder mysteries.

[00:53:51] I'll bet she liked to play Clue.

[00:53:53] I'll bet she liked Scrabble, too.

[00:53:56] Of course, I don't know offhand when either game was invented,

[00:53:59] or whether their existence appreciably overlapped Agatha's lifetime.

[00:54:03] But being a wordsmith, I like to think she'd enjoy Scrabble.

[00:54:07] Though the last time I played Scrabble,

[00:54:09] I found myself playing a lot of simple three-letter words.

[00:54:12] Not very impressive, is it?

[00:54:14] Maybe I'm losing my touch.

[00:54:16] It's a thought I often have.

[00:54:18] Maybe my best writing is behind me.

[00:54:21] It happens with bands all the time.

[00:54:23] When they're younger and the creative spark is raw,

[00:54:26] they often create their best music.

[00:54:28] Then as the production value increases and tastes change,

[00:54:31] and sometimes the creative vision exceeds its grasp,

[00:54:34] the music becomes less and less relevant,

[00:54:37] less and less inspired.

[00:54:39] Likewise, despite having grandiose ideas for tales I might tell,

[00:54:43] I wonder if I'm not up to the task.

[00:54:45] At least not enough to do those ideas justice.

[00:54:49] Ideas again.

[00:54:51] Those things that germinate.

[00:54:53] Those things upon which I ruminate.

[00:54:56] Those things that percolate at any and all hours.

[00:54:59] So where are they now?

[00:55:01] Why, as inspiration eluded me,

[00:55:03] where is the creative muse?

[00:55:06] Run off with Mr. Green, perhaps.

[00:55:08] And now you, the listener, or reader,

[00:55:11] or poor soul who's been subjected to this meandering dribble must ask why.

[00:55:16] Why?

[00:55:17] Why continue with it?

[00:55:19] This tedious march of empty thoughts, empty words.

[00:55:22] It's such a waste of potential.

[00:55:24] It cries out for blood and sweat and tears from an author filled with passion.

[00:55:28] Filled with...

[00:55:30] Wait a minute.

[00:55:31] I just used the prompt.

[00:55:33] There you go.

[00:55:34] Problem solved.

[00:55:36] And I'm so very sorry for this.

[00:55:38] The end.

[00:55:40] I don't mean to laugh, but I absolutely love this because like at the end you

[00:55:45] you called it meandering dribble or whatever,

[00:55:47] but we gotta go all the way back to the beginning on this one.

[00:55:50] You led off with the prompt, which is fantastic.

[00:55:53] I'm not sure if either of us has ever done that before.

[00:55:56] But also we...

[00:55:58] I don't recall.

[00:55:58] This isn't fiction here, which I think is a first for you.

[00:56:04] Well, yeah, I suppose technically it's not.

[00:56:08] I mean, it could be.

[00:56:09] It could be all unreliable narration in some sense, so it could be fiction.

[00:56:12] It could be, but I feel like this is...

[00:56:14] It felt at the very, at least at the very beginning when you started,

[00:56:17] it felt like almost like a stream of consciousness.

[00:56:20] This is the kind of shit that runs through our heads when we see a prompt for the first time.

[00:56:27] This might have been the first instance of not knowing what to do with a prompt

[00:56:33] and then immediately not to create from me that you've ever seen.

[00:56:38] But it was like, you got a really introspective look at what we do here

[00:56:43] and how frustrating it can be.

[00:56:46] You know what I mean?

[00:56:47] Because for a prompt, it cries for blood.

[00:56:50] You said it right at the beginning.

[00:56:52] It screams for horror right off the bat.

[00:56:55] You know what I mean?

[00:56:56] So it's like you have to decide if you're going to lean into that as an author

[00:57:00] or if you're going to go against reader expectations,

[00:57:04] which is sometimes the fun part of it.

[00:57:06] But I don't know.

[00:57:07] There was a lot of truth that you just let spill

[00:57:12] about the writing process in general here.

[00:57:15] I have in all caps in my notes here, you said that we are all the products of our environment.

[00:57:20] That couldn't be more true.

[00:57:23] We're writing from the experiences and from things that have kind of formed us as individuals.

[00:57:30] We can't write stuff that we haven't experienced or at least haven't in some way.

[00:57:37] You don't have Tom Clancy's books if he's not a lawyer first.

[00:57:42] Or if he like, you know what, or maybe that's a different guy.

[00:57:46] You think of maybe.

[00:57:48] Maybe it's Dan Brown.

[00:57:49] Somebody.

[00:57:50] I don't know if it was Dan Brown, the guy that wrote a bunch of movies in the 90s of his books.

[00:57:55] What was Clancy?

[00:57:56] Clancy, was he in the military?

[00:57:58] I don't know if he was actually in the military or not, but he wrote

[00:58:01] military government type stuff, thrillers.

[00:58:03] So I'm looking this up real quick.

[00:58:05] But I'm thinking of like, shoot, there was a film, I think it was called The Client.

[00:58:10] It's like Tommy Lee Jones and what's her name?

[00:58:12] Blanking out here.

[00:58:13] So Clancy was an insurance agent.

[00:58:16] So I guess that was not the greatest of examples.

[00:58:19] The client.

[00:58:20] Yeah, I don't think he was actually ever in.

[00:58:23] John Grisham.

[00:58:23] That's who I'm thinking of.

[00:58:24] Grisham.

[00:58:25] That's who you're thinking of.

[00:58:26] Yeah, John Grisham.

[00:58:27] You don't have his books if he's not a lawyer first.

[00:58:30] There's a reason that they feel so genuine is because he lived that life.

[00:58:36] And I think there was a lot of like, but like, you also said the ideas that

[00:58:39] bold us are in her voice.

[00:58:41] Like there are so many great quotes that came out of these 900 words that you just said.

[00:58:45] Oh, I also want to look up.

[00:58:47] I'm going to look up Agatha Christie.

[00:58:49] She lived from 1890 to 1976.

[00:58:53] Oh, wow.

[00:58:54] She was born in 1890.

[00:58:55] I didn't know that.

[00:58:56] And the game of Clue was in 1949.

[00:58:59] So I'm going to have to say that yes, she played Clue and yes, she loved it.

[00:59:04] She may have played it.

[00:59:05] She had to, right?

[00:59:07] I mean, who doesn't love Clue?

[00:59:10] It's probably some people don't like board games.

[00:59:12] I don't know.

[00:59:13] Maybe, you know, who knows?

[00:59:15] Have you read a lot of Agatha Christie, by the way?

[00:59:17] I have.

[00:59:18] I used to read her a lot.

[00:59:20] Like I enjoyed them at the time.

[00:59:22] I haven't read them in so long that I don't, you know, like if I read them

[00:59:25] again, I don't know if I'd enjoy them as much, but I've been meaning to revisit

[00:59:29] I've been meaning to revisit her just as if, just as I've been meaning to revisit

[00:59:34] Tom Clancy, but I just haven't done it.

[00:59:37] Gotcha.

[00:59:38] If you think about it, like shoot me like one I should start with because I know that-

[00:59:42] Oh, and then there were none was my favorite from her.

[00:59:45] Now is she has a recurring character, right?

[00:59:48] She has two.

[00:59:49] She has Hercule Poirot and then she has Miss Marple.

[00:59:54] Now do you need to start at the beginning of one of those things or are they all

[00:59:57] standalone?

[00:59:59] No, no, they're all just yeah.

[01:00:01] So and then there were none is in recollection my favorite thing that I read by her,

[01:00:08] but Murder on the Orient Express was also very good.

[01:00:11] Good deal.

[01:00:12] Okay.

[01:00:12] That's a bunch of links that I got to add to the show notes.

[01:00:14] So yeah, but I thought and also like I wanted to make one comment,

[01:00:19] but I know that we're running kind of long here, but I wanted to make one comment here

[01:00:22] that you mentioned at some point like in there is my greatest work behind me or something like

[01:00:28] that and I hope that that wasn't Ian Lewis coming out because like you made the comparison

[01:00:35] to music and yeah, I think that a lot of what you were talking about happening in music

[01:00:45] actually happens because of money.

[01:00:48] Not because of like the creative process.

[01:00:51] If you look at like especially the kind of music I listen to like I'm going to use like

[01:00:55] corn as the example.

[01:00:57] The first corn album, I mean was just like just it was just all emotion like every

[01:01:03] song was just riddled with like anger and frustration and like everything and then

[01:01:08] like that's what fueled their music.

[01:01:11] You know what I mean?

[01:01:12] Like it was just like process of getting there and then all of a sudden like people

[01:01:17] are just like throwing money at them.

[01:01:20] And then all of the things that used to piss them off like are have been lessened.

[01:01:25] You know what I mean?

[01:01:26] Because like so I think like with that comfort of knowing that you're not like

[01:01:32] going to struggle to find like where you're going to eat the next day or you're not

[01:01:34] going to worry about this.

[01:01:35] You're going to worry about that.

[01:01:37] I think that that has an effect on music.

[01:01:39] Yeah, you make a good point and I wasn't even thinking about it in those terms at

[01:01:44] all.

[01:01:45] It's definitely not a clear analogy.

[01:01:47] I was just thinking really more on the surface level of like when you're maybe a younger

[01:01:52] newer writer less inhibited and just more creating things more organically because

[01:01:58] you don't know what you're doing yet.

[01:02:00] And then like that serendipitous sort of process of like coming up with something

[01:02:04] really good just through that organic process versus like okay like I know how

[01:02:10] to write a novel now and now it's more like calculating and cold and less.

[01:02:15] You know even though you have that creative germ there like the execution of it is much

[01:02:21] more formal right I guess and you wonder if like can I read is it possible to

[01:02:26] recapture sort of that magic that you had at the beginning.

[01:02:31] You know now but yeah that's fair I was just I'm also wondering like if like say

[01:02:38] one of your books becomes New York Times bestseller right and then all of a sudden

[01:02:43] you have fans and you have like a like like you have a ton of people with eyes on you

[01:02:50] that are expecting like something next it like does that start changing like do

[01:02:56] you start writing more for the reader than you were writing for yourself.

[01:03:00] It's funny because we were just my wife and I were just talking about that the

[01:03:03] other night with regard to I'm trying to remember what it was that somebody was

[01:03:07] remaking or having another entry in a series of something and it's just like why

[01:03:11] are we continuing to make these things like I feel like you have to have a story if you

[01:03:15] have a story and he's told you tell it and that that's the end of the artistic endeavor

[01:03:20] like you don't keep creating content just for the sake of creating content to keep that

[01:03:24] universe alive or whatever right like sometimes it's okay for the universe just to be done

[01:03:29] and to move on to other things yeah right I think Marvel kind of went off the rails a

[01:03:34] little bit I think there was just too much I'm not saying that the content wasn't good

[01:03:39] yeah yeah it's definitely oversaturated but like we just got slammed with a lot

[01:03:46] and yeah is it ever going to be as good as you know end game are they ever going to be able

[01:03:55] to put to do something like end game again like when those portals open when they were at like

[01:04:03] they were on the cusp of defeat you know they were done like it was it I mean there were people

[01:04:09] in the theater that I mean people jumped to their feet and started cheering like are they

[01:04:14] going to be able to do that again because I don't think they are yeah I don't think so

[01:04:21] so I don't know it's risky but man that was good stuff I was not expecting that at all

[01:04:27] yeah it's definitely not my usual stuff it was it was very smart alecky and I enjoyed writing

[01:04:34] it because it was just sort of like you know what I'm just gonna I don't I don't want to say

[01:04:38] mail it in because I don't think I mailed it in because I think I did something that was

[01:04:41] entertaining but it was more of a like I'm doing this in spite of myself kind of thing

[01:04:48] sure no good stuff good stuff I'm going to I'm going to I'm just going to double down

[01:04:53] I'm going to enjoy listening to that one back again too for real like there I think there like

[01:05:00] is like is you said smart alecky it's like snarky as some of it was I think there was a

[01:05:05] lot of like a lot of like hidden truth in there so I don't know would you would you

[01:05:10] like classify that non-fiction like I know I've done a non-fiction once no I still think it's

[01:05:16] it's even though there is I don't know like it is very in some sense autobiographical

[01:05:26] okay it's creative non-fiction maybe I don't know I feel like our our genre here is fiction so

[01:05:33] it's like I maybe I push the bounds a little bit too much but yeah I mean I went straight

[01:05:38] like when my dad passed away I went straight non-fiction and I admitted it I was like I

[01:05:43] had to get it out you know so as much as our target is fiction here you know if you if

[01:05:48] if a prompt takes you somewhere do it yeah like go like do it screw it we make the rules

[01:05:57] all right I got another one for you this this one's this one's way shorter 1641

[01:06:03] is the grand total here and I called it the end of the line so if you're ready I'm ready

[01:06:11] oh I'm ready so here we go the hot bath water was a far cry from anything he'd ever experienced

[01:06:18] in his life he'd never seen water so clear before for bathing or otherwise and his reaction

[01:06:23] to the bubbles from the soap was that of a child 10 years younger the smell of it tickled

[01:06:29] his nose at first and the subsequent sneeze sent an array of shimmering spheres into the air

[01:06:34] his attempts to catch them ended in tragedy his touch extinguishing their short lives

[01:06:39] as quickly as they started the woman who he had just learned to be his mother squirted a blue

[01:06:45] liquid with a different scent onto what appeared to be a strategically designed bundle of fabric

[01:06:50] squeezing it until it foamed the boiling back in defense when she reached toward him

[01:06:55] easy it's just more soap we need to get you cleaned up he kept a close eye on her as she

[01:07:02] lifted his arm from beneath the surface of the water traces of his skin tone now becoming

[01:07:06] visible from beneath the layers of filth she gently scrubbed him until the foam turned gray

[01:07:12] he watched close as she dipped his arm back under the water and nearly gasped aloud when

[01:07:15] it re-emerged clean his skin was now a scathing pink but not a trace of dirt could be found

[01:07:22] she motioned for him to continue and he took the sponge from her and began to work at his

[01:07:26] other arm she turned his attention to his hair years of grime had accumulated onto his scalp

[01:07:33] slowly trapping the individual strands and merging them into thick natural dreadlocks

[01:07:38] she did her best to begin to break them up but it didn't seem like any use

[01:07:43] it was unlikely that any of it could be saved paul could you run into our bathroom and grab

[01:07:48] me the hair clippers we're gonna have to start back at square one i'm afraid my new

[01:07:53] hair clippers he leaned in from the hall and scanned the room able to follow the entire

[01:07:58] sequence of the day's events through trails of dirt and soot left behind all she had to do was

[01:08:03] narrow her eyes and he was off to retrieve what was asked of him junior why don't you run and

[01:08:08] get him a set of fresh clothes he retreated without a word and just like that mother and

[01:08:15] son were alone she lifted the drain plug and began to run some fresh hot water into the tub

[01:08:21] a desperate attempt to cycle out the final traces of what she hoped would be a life left

[01:08:25] in the past so do you have a mother where you come from he looked up at her and

[01:08:33] held her eyes in his for an extended moment i thought you were my mother well i am but it's

[01:08:39] complicated you see there are certain rules that we live by in order to ensure a better

[01:08:45] life for everyone he scanned the room as his father did a few minutes prior i guess not for

[01:08:52] everyone no i suppose not she wiped away the tears threatening to fall from her eyes

[01:09:00] the two looked at each other without making direct eye contact the next words out of the

[01:09:04] boy's mouth were barely audible but it didn't matter she had known this was coming from the

[01:09:09] moment she saw the numbers on his wrist why'd you pick him over me the tears fell you don't

[01:09:18] understand we didn't get to choose before another word could be said the bathroom door slid closed

[01:09:25] followed by the familiar wish of the hydraulic lock moving into place

[01:09:29] well familiar to her at least he was startled but her composure kept his emotions in check

[01:09:35] she walked over to the door and tested the handle by giving it a gentle tug

[01:09:40] paul she called are you messing with me if so it's not the time no honey came paul's

[01:09:47] voice through the wall it looks like it's a lockdown junior you good yeah i'm fine

[01:09:54] kate returned to the side of the tub don't worry these kinds of things happen every now and again

[01:10:00] usually it takes a few minutes so we'll just have to wait it out but

[01:10:04] since we have some time on our hands why don't we get to work on that hair again

[01:10:08] she leaned him back into the water and began to work at the knots with a comb

[01:10:12] it took some effort but she was able to get his hair to a point where she could run a

[01:10:15] comb through from root to end she filled an empty glass with water and asked him to close

[01:10:21] his eyes before dumping it over his head the boy shuddered as the water ran over his face

[01:10:27] surprised kate tested the water and gasped at its frigid temperature

[01:10:32] my goodness i'm so sorry how long have we been in here she pulled the plug again and

[01:10:38] got fresh hot water running for him she took one of his hands and looked at his wrinkled

[01:10:42] fingertips well it's about time we get you out of there anyways you're turning into a raisin

[01:10:49] she called the pawl through the wall what time is it 7 15 we've been locked down for nearly 45

[01:10:56] minutes now she grabbed a fresh towel from the rack and handed it over to her son he

[01:11:01] looked at it with an infant's curiosity before burying his face in it and taking a deep

[01:11:05] whiff of the fresh scent of fabric softener dry yourself off and then wrap it around your

[01:11:10] waist until we can get you some clothes said kate before turning her back to give him some

[01:11:13] privacy just as she did so the locks disengaged and the door slid open a crack paul kate and

[01:11:20] jr met in the hallway their mouths agape kate took the clothes from jr passed them off to

[01:11:26] her newfound son without so much as a word the trio then stepped into their apartment

[01:11:32] all now stricken with fear by their once welcoming environment

[01:11:35] all their personal effects had been removed there were no towels or utensils in the kitchen

[01:11:41] there were no dishes in the cupboards or trash in the bin no rugs on the floor pictures on the

[01:11:46] wall the furniture had been removed with only slight indentations left in the carpet to hint

[01:11:52] at their prior existence the stainless and tile surfaces have been scrubbed clean and the

[01:11:56] carpet shampooed leaving the living space with an almost clinical feel the scent of ammonia

[01:12:03] the scent of ammonia lingered in the air oh my god paul broke away from the group and began

[01:12:10] to move towards the coal receptacle the hole that he had dug out from the plaster

[01:12:15] had been completely repaired and the wall repainted he traced his hand along the spot

[01:12:20] trying to feel for any indication of the imperfection as underneath

[01:12:24] but the work was flawless the only evidence of the day's prior events were the traces of

[01:12:29] fresh white paint on his fingertips he looked back at kate and jr the other boy his other son

[01:12:37] now dressed slowly crept his way into the living room to join the group taking his place next

[01:12:42] to jr now clean and dressed in jr's clothes the similarity was uncanny any hint of doubt

[01:12:49] could now be set aside this was indeed their son kate turned in slow circles

[01:12:56] hoping with each revolution that the next would return normalcy to her world

[01:13:00] her wishes were denied a low hiss started to permeate in the room its source of mystery

[01:13:08] all four of them were struck silent began to scan for its origin paul what's going on here

[01:13:15] the newcomer to the family was the first to speak no it can't be it just can't be

[01:13:22] he looked up at the ceiling and pointed to a dark red mist entering the room through the

[01:13:26] ceiling vents the prophecy is true it cries for blood it cries for blood kate and paul

[01:13:33] exchanged a look then jumped to their child's side as he fell to his knees grasping his head

[01:13:37] between his hands he started to chant we repent for the sins of the unfaithful thou shall be

[01:13:43] saved if thy repentance rings true we repent for the sins of the unfaithful thou shall be

[01:13:49] saved if thy repentance rings true kate rubbed her hand in circles between the

[01:13:53] boy's shoulder blades trying to calm him down shh it's all going to be okay no it's not you

[01:14:01] don't understand he attempted to shove her away but she doesn't let go well can you help

[01:14:08] us too he looked at the three of them and even though they were strangers just hours ago

[01:14:14] he somehow felt comfortable in their presence the elders warn of death and damnation to those

[01:14:19] found out of compliance the rules are simple do what is asked of thee without question

[01:14:24] and do thy duty well one step out of line is one step towards death conform

[01:14:32] and thou shall be taken care of resist and accept thy punishment

[01:14:37] he pointed again at the mist which had now encompassed the ceiling and began working its

[01:14:41] way down toward them we don't know exactly what type of punishment awaits those found guilty

[01:14:46] but legend says that disobedience awakens the beast from its slumber the only thing we do know

[01:14:52] is that its presence is preceded by a dense red mist paul was the one who managed to speak

[01:15:00] and after the mist when the mist clears nothing remains as the dense red cloud fell

[01:15:07] upon their shoulders the four came together in a final embrace accepting their fate as a family

[01:15:13] reunited there you have it wow so well you know i i from the very beginning i was like is this

[01:15:22] a sequel to what we just what we just heard and indeed it was so my my first question

[01:15:28] is when you said in the prior story or in the discussion after the prior story that

[01:15:34] you know if you got the right prompt you would do another you would do another story so was that

[01:15:41] talking about this one yeah no i got the right prompt okay i didn't know if you were talking

[01:15:45] about even beyond this that they that you had plans i was actually kind of upset at myself

[01:15:50] for saying that but i had to go with it because like i already i said it out loud so

[01:15:54] like i couldn't give you any hint because i wanted to surprise you because to my recollection

[01:15:59] nobody has done a sequel in a single episode before well no no so i was real excited about

[01:16:06] doing that and like i actually had a different story idea for this one that was going to be

[01:16:10] absolutely ridiculous and when i say absolutely ridiculous i'm telling you that it was ridiculous

[01:16:16] and stupid and like i i'm gonna save it because it might work again one day but it is

[01:16:22] like you would have just been it would have been like you would have just been like

[01:16:26] i can't believe you wrote that but like once i like i kept thinking about it and you know i

[01:16:34] there's some part of me that that kind of thinks that i kind of force the cries for blood in

[01:16:38] there but then again i'm pretty happy with the way it turned out so like what do you

[01:16:42] think about that so i i think it works you introduced another aspect into the into the

[01:16:48] world building here that you know was unexpected but it it shed some light on bare minimum

[01:16:56] the the other boy's view of the world you know so like i you know but it also could be true as

[01:17:02] well so i i don't know him being so sheltered in his life has he just been fed lies and this

[01:17:10] is part of that lie or does he actually know something true that the family doesn't and he

[01:17:15] sort of is more knowledgeable in that sense and so whatever is going to befall them you

[01:17:19] know i mean is it is it really all about this prophecy or is it just

[01:17:24] is that just an explanation for something else nefarious going on so when i first like sat

[01:17:29] down to kind of just like write down my thoughts about this world or whatever i i wrote

[01:17:34] down that i wanted a society where there is the upper class and the lower class no middle ground

[01:17:44] at all it's one or the other like it were it were at extremes so in my eyes

[01:17:51] paul caitin jr like they had rules that they were forced to live by and you know like the

[01:17:56] worst thing that's ever happened to them was a child was taken from them but otherwise

[01:18:02] they were completely and utterly i mean they were happy they lived the best life that they

[01:18:10] could in in this world right whereas jr or not jr but the other boy who is still unnamed because

[01:18:20] i never named him he was at the polar opposite of it so he did get to see a lot more of the

[01:18:26] the darker side of the world you know they he saw more death he saw more you know despair

[01:18:33] so i think it was just a way i wanted him to be the one to reveal it just so you could

[01:18:39] see that even though they were in the same world literally separated just by like a wall

[01:18:45] at some time you know at some point their their their life experience couldn't be more

[01:18:50] different right so as much as they had knowledge about the world that he didn't

[01:18:55] like i wanted him to have the same thing for them yeah no that that totally makes sense

[01:19:02] it reminded me a little bit of when they were in the tub there's there was an

[01:19:06] scene from an early walking dead episode one of the earlier seasons well i guess i don't

[01:19:12] remember what season now but like rick's in the shower and like you know you can see like how

[01:19:17] nasty his feet are and you know like all like the grime like kind of washed off and then

[01:19:22] i was thinking of do you ever see the movie of the road i don't think so yeah it was based

[01:19:28] on the cormick mccarthy novel of the same name but they did a film it was like vego

[01:19:33] mortenson and i don't remember who played this kid but same kind of thing like you know they've

[01:19:38] been homeless down on the road forever and they they're able to take a bath and like just like

[01:19:42] the filth that comes off them i just i had both of those recollections when you were

[01:19:47] when you had the other kid you know getting cleaned up yeah i had a lot of fun and actually

[01:19:52] while i was i think this is going to turn into a problem for me man you know i'm pretty

[01:19:57] notorious on this show for announcing that like i have an idea for something long and then never

[01:20:02] following through right yeah but like so i wrote these two parts right and i was really like i love

[01:20:08] it like i love these two parts but i was like you know what what i really would have liked to

[01:20:14] have done in retrospect is i would like a chapter in between that showed whoever the

[01:20:21] rule makers are like your like your snow of this world if you if you will you know like

[01:20:27] the one who's making the game or like whoever's in charge like they like we have two clear aspects

[01:20:33] here we have like happy family and then we have the like we have the two classes but we

[01:20:38] have no idea who the people that making the rules are and what's going on there and that's

[01:20:45] something that i don't even know but it's like i feel like there's a missing perspective

[01:20:51] that should be slammed right in the middle there so like if because like if we were

[01:20:55] watching a movie like say this was a film you know and it all played out as soon as she saw the

[01:21:01] axe we might we might cut to i don't know some a surveillance camera maybe showing them

[01:21:09] seeing all of this and be like okay what the fuck are we going to do about these

[01:21:12] this now this has never happened before so what would be interesting i think if you did go

[01:21:18] that route is if you similarly kept some information or knowledge from that group as well

[01:21:25] sure and i think i actually know what that is i think that that would be compelling that i think

[01:21:31] that would be really compelling so i'm i'm worried that because like now like full disclosure

[01:21:38] like this whole break i wasn't i didn't take this break to write other things i didn't take this

[01:21:43] break like i took this break i was i wasn't writing much at all what i wrote during the

[01:21:48] six months were the two stories that i read for you today i did i did have plans to embark

[01:21:54] on adapting what started as a screenplay into a novel and i think we talked about that

[01:22:00] late last year yeah i don't know i i'm always like fascinated by the new bright shiny new thing

[01:22:09] and i don't know what to do now because like i'm continuing like even after finishing this story

[01:22:15] i'm still thinking about this world and i don't know if that's a sign where maybe i should

[01:22:20] just fucking run with it because it's it's there or but that also means abandoning something that

[01:22:26] i had already intended to do and i feel like i'm talking in circles because this is all that

[01:22:31] fucking comes out of my mouth on this show so yeah that's tough um so i don't know what

[01:22:39] to do because i feel like is it is is it just interesting because it's the the shiny new

[01:22:44] thing and then once i start diving into it am i going to lose interest or do i need to

[01:22:49] just take it because it's in my imagination and just fucking run with the ball yeah i mean

[01:22:54] i think my gut says to do that first but you know the the the flip side of that is like

[01:23:00] to your point are you yeah will you just abandon at some point there is a point where you have

[01:23:06] to apply some discipline and just stick with it because you decided to do it right i've had

[01:23:11] instances though maybe not as extreme as you but instances where i'm midway through a book

[01:23:16] and i'm like man like like i really am not like as interested in it at the moment as i am in this

[01:23:23] other idea that i like to explore but and there's always the but but i started it and it's going

[01:23:29] to bug me if i don't finish it so i have to finish it and then i'll just get to the other

[01:23:33] thing when i get to it well see and and that's my thing i have i have a i have a lot of

[01:23:39] unfinished to be honest with you and i mean a lot of that started when i was in school

[01:23:43] because like when i was in school especially when i was doing the screenwriting stuff

[01:23:47] none of the classes were long enough to embark on a full length screenplay so like all of all of

[01:23:53] the stuff that i turned in for school as far as screenwriting goes was first acts like there

[01:23:57] would be a treatment that you wrote for the whole story but as far as the actual writing

[01:24:02] goes like as far as the script went it was the first act so i have a lot of first acts

[01:24:07] and that's what i was doing with this other story i was going to pretty much adapt the

[01:24:12] first act as it sat and then i have a whole bunch of notes about where i want to go from that point

[01:24:20] and if you remember i was actually and i still haven't decided if i wanted to do this now i

[01:24:24] was toying around with just finishing the screenplay and using that as the outline yeah

[01:24:29] yeah that could work so i was thinking about doing that but now like i do have some ideas

[01:24:35] so i don't know if i should just get those ideas down on the page like make a like make

[01:24:40] a new document and just be like blah blah blah and just blurt it all out and be like this is what

[01:24:44] i think and then so it's there and then go back to what i already started or you know we'll see

[01:24:49] what happens i mean i i think there's there's a lot of value in hammering out your creative

[01:24:56] urge when you have it you know what i mean sure because there will be moments where if

[01:25:01] you do commit to work on something that creative spark is going to be a little a little fizzled

[01:25:07] out you know you're you're going to run dry a little bit and so to be productive and get it

[01:25:13] out while you have it it's a fleeting thing and if you can get it out that's a good thing but i

[01:25:18] you know i i think i mentioned before like i wonder if you should try to tackle something

[01:25:23] maybe not a full-blown novel first but something like a novella or a novelette just something

[01:25:27] that is longer than a short story you have to commit to telling you know a longer story and

[01:25:35] having more detail maybe but not something that's so overwhelming as a novel just to kind

[01:25:41] of get you the just that experience of like okay i committed and i finished something

[01:25:47] and it's it's it's not a short story right and then like you can start to adapt your process

[01:25:52] then to get to that that novel length right i think i think the problem with this this

[01:25:57] this one particularly is like this could be a novella you know what i mean but i also don't

[01:26:02] want to sit down with like okay i need to write a story that goes no longer than 25,000 words or

[01:26:09] 30 like whatever the limit of a novella is because i ultimately just want to write

[01:26:14] and see what happens well sure right and so i mean that's another option too and then wherever

[01:26:21] you land you land but right i just i think i set out you know to your point the first

[01:26:26] novella i wrote i didn't set out to write a novella per se you know what i mean i i

[01:26:31] think i just i did kind of write it as long i try to write it as long as i could given what

[01:26:38] i would the story i wanted to tell in the way i wanted to tell it and it it turned out as a

[01:26:42] novella right but i guess my point is like maybe don't shoot for the moon with a novel

[01:26:49] length if that's not what's going to come out but right i'm just trying to like i think

[01:26:54] it's not even necessarily about the length right now it's just like which one is is

[01:27:01] grabbing my attention and i think like in all honesty it's been so long since i sat down to

[01:27:08] even look at my notes on the other one i could read into it and be just as as hyped about it

[01:27:14] as i was you know five months ago or whenever we last talked but i think in the meantime i

[01:27:20] definitely at least need to jot down some notes about this thing of what i'm thinking

[01:27:25] right now so it doesn't get lost yeah that makes sense so or it might be one of those

[01:27:29] things where it's like i'm working on the other thing and every time i think about this story i

[01:27:33] pull out my trusty voice recorder and i you know talk into it for 10 minutes and then i just

[01:27:37] hit stop and go back to what i was doing i don't know i'll update you it's something that i

[01:27:42] really want to figure out now i do have like some other stuff that i need to take care of

[01:27:48] over the summer for the fall so i taught english 162 in the spring which is college

[01:27:55] composition two in the fall i will be teaching college composition one so all of that stuff i

[01:28:00] had to do to prep for college composition two i have to do for comp one but i have the advantage

[01:28:06] of knowing that now and i can take time over the summer to slowly put that stuff together

[01:28:11] so it's not two weeks before the before the semester and i'm like oh shit what the hell am

[01:28:15] i going to do right so i do need to balance that out too so it's gonna be an interesting

[01:28:20] summary and well let's hope we can stick with it you know oh no we're sticking with it there's

[01:28:26] not hoping like this is back we like as of right now we're back like there's no there's

[01:28:32] no more excuses okay like it's done because as of right now i have no school i'm not teaching

[01:28:38] in the summer i opted not to because one we're going on vacation and two it's just like

[01:28:43] i think i i just want the break i'm not saying i'm never going to teach in the summer but

[01:28:47] everything's compacted like 16 week classes or eight week classes in the summer so it's just

[01:28:52] like it's twice as much it's twice as intense and it's just not something i when will you

[01:28:57] start up again september we start august 28th okay so but honestly like i i have to develop

[01:29:05] 16 weeks worth of work you know i have some articles to read and stuff like that and if i

[01:29:09] just do a little bit every week you know it'll be done in no time it'll be fine and like

[01:29:15] my photo class it's i mean all of that content is already made so that's just ready to go i just

[01:29:19] need to set it up and be done with it change some dates call it a day but yeah there's there's

[01:29:25] no more will we stick with it there's no more long-term breaks provided like there isn't some

[01:29:31] sort of like huge tragedy you know i'm not saying that we won't need to take a break ever

[01:29:36] again but it's not going to be because of my schedule if that makes any sense so

[01:29:42] we're back and we went ah we went kind of long but i mean we did read two stories a piece so

[01:29:48] you know that was that so before we do go what are you reading these days i'm reading

[01:29:53] ian fleming the complete man by nicklas shakespeare it is a biography so i did

[01:30:00] notice i believe it was it yesterday was ian fleming's birthday uh today today so it's so

[01:30:07] as of recording the day we're recording it is ian fleming's birthday so it is did that prompt

[01:30:12] you reading this or is this kind of been on the shelf no it was some it was it is a recently

[01:30:19] released biography and there have been at least two written previously at least two that are

[01:30:26] considered pretty definitive and while i wanted to read read them i had never gotten around

[01:30:31] to it but the new one is supposed to be way more comprehensive than the other two and so

[01:30:39] i'm wondering if if i won't even need to read the other two this one should cover all the

[01:30:43] bases but it's pretty long and it's it does feel very comprehensive gotcha gotcha cool

[01:30:50] well i know that you you look up to him quite a bit well i would i would say i

[01:30:54] look up to him i would say i enjoyed his writing style quite a bit but he was a

[01:30:59] you know as everybody is a complicated person but it's interesting to see his how he was

[01:31:05] raised and his time in the war and just like all these things that you know sort of you know

[01:31:12] make you behave the way you do i guess sure now do you think there's anything in this book

[01:31:18] that could potentially change your opinion of him or do you think every everything that's

[01:31:24] kind of known is already kind of out there i mean so far i think it jives with kind of tracks with

[01:31:29] who i thought he was i mean okay that's good you know i i knew he was a womanizer but it's

[01:31:36] he it it seems like he's quite a bit more of a womanizer than i thought he was but um i got

[01:31:42] a little bit out of that actually because i i read one book what was the first bond movie

[01:31:47] doctor no no not that one what was the first what was the one you made me watch

[01:31:52] it was the skiing one i didn't make you watch that one so you you i think you watched it on

[01:31:59] your own you watched on her majesty secret service yes so i believe i read that as well

[01:32:04] because you did you read the book and then i think you i i didn't realize you were watching

[01:32:08] it but you watched the film yeah so and i did get a bit of the like like a very

[01:32:13] misogynistic error just in the way that even james bond referred to and you know what i mean

[01:32:22] so so what's interesting is the bond in the films is actually quite a bit different than the

[01:32:26] bond of the books he's almost a caricature almost in the movies of like uh like like a

[01:32:35] the popular idea of him almost i don't know it's hard to it's hard to describe but

[01:32:41] yeah now i didn't get that as much with the newer bond films and i haven't watched

[01:32:47] all of the latest ones i think i'm a couple in i mean it's the interesting thing about the

[01:32:53] bond films is that each each era is like a time capsule for sure very very much so

[01:33:00] of the times they were made in respect to just filmmaking in general but like a lot of the

[01:33:07] trends that they were chasing you know moon raker came out around the time the star wars

[01:33:12] got popular you know there's there's all kinds of different cultural milestones you kind of

[01:33:16] start to pick up on so the new ones definitely feel very different with regard to like

[01:33:22] something that came out in the 60s for sure i would like to go back and watch some of

[01:33:26] the older ones there's an era that i'm probably never gonna watch i'm just not what

[01:33:30] the hell's that guy's name the guy in the 90s oh from 90s brazen yeah i'm not a brazen

[01:33:34] guy yeah i'm just not a fan of him and i don't i just don't know if i want to watch those ones

[01:33:41] his is the only bond that i don't care for uh daniel craig though i mean i haven't watched

[01:33:46] them all yet but i'm i'm pretty pleased with all of them so far that i have watched so far

[01:33:50] he i like him as bond i i don't i'm not a huge fan of his era as a whole gotcha gotcha

[01:33:57] it started out really good but cratered at the end i think okay i think i've only watched

[01:34:02] the first two so okay i'm probably i might still be on the uphill so i'll let you know if i ever

[01:34:07] get around to finishing those i'm currently well i haven't started it yet because i just finished

[01:34:12] reading hold on i pulled it up because i couldn't remember the name of it all the sad young men

[01:34:16] which is a collection of short stories by f scott fitzgerald okay and then i had read

[01:34:21] a few plays earlier this year because i had to pick one to use for my class in the fall

[01:34:25] and they needed it so i like straight cram read a few plays and i did pick one the one

[01:34:32] i'll be teaching in the fall is called a raisin in the sun by lorraine hansberry

[01:34:36] so if anybody's interested in that you can go check that out but currently i am reading

[01:34:40] you like it darker by steven king and i'm about to start it so which is a new collection

[01:34:45] of short stories that he released i mean last week i think so i'm excited to jump into that

[01:34:51] so is that is that a newer book i'm not familiar with that title yeah it's a brand new collection

[01:34:56] of shorts that he just released yeah okay okay so i'm excited i'm not sure there might be a

[01:35:02] couple i need to look because in some of the advertising or something it said that there were

[01:35:07] previously unpublished work so i don't know if it's like a new collection where like maybe

[01:35:12] some older stories were updated or anything i haven't really looked into it i just saw that

[01:35:16] it was auto delivered to my kindle because i pre-ordered it and i was like that shall

[01:35:20] be next got it so i will let you know after i after i read it so yeah that's what i got going on

[01:35:27] all right so one last thing before we go we want you to know that volume five of promptly written

[01:35:32] is finally on its way now this was totally 100 my fault but it is we got the proof back what

[01:35:39] yesterday and everything looks good so the heart the paperback cover looks good all the

[01:35:44] artwork formatting worked out that's that's really i think why we do most of the proof

[01:35:48] is just to make sure that i hit those safe zones right and there's no bleeding onto the

[01:35:52] the bind like the spine or anything like that but it's ready to go so by the we're hoping

[01:35:59] that as you're listening to this now you should be able to go order it but if not just keep an

[01:36:04] eye on our socials and i'm assuming we're definitely going to let you know when it's

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[01:36:11] to write about so to do so once you visit the facebook group join the facebook group

[01:36:16] it's facebook.com group p written pod that's where we run all the polls

[01:36:20] where you can help us choose what we're writing about next month if you don't have any ideas of

[01:36:26] your own you can go vote for your favorites you can do both we're looking to get some

[01:36:29] interaction out there so go join that group we are on twitter or axe formerly known as twitter

[01:36:34] at p written pod or you can email us directly at promptly written pod at gmail.com ian where

[01:36:41] is the best place for people to go to find out more about your work ian newsfiction.com

[01:36:45] and if you want to get in touch with me i'm at matt shigerich on x or you go to matt shigerich.com

[01:36:50] for a bunch of other ways that you can reach out i know we just talked about volume five but i'm

[01:36:54] going to remind you that one volumes one through four promptly written are available on amazon both

[01:36:58] paperback and kindle format and if you're a kindle unlimited subscriber they're all included

[01:37:03] in your subscription our next episode will be episode 71 it will drop on july 1st and the

[01:37:10] prompt will be the typo seemed insignificant but it really wasn't and that was submitted by utah

[01:37:17] shoe and i just want to take this time right now to say damn it that sounds hard i mean it

[01:37:24] it forces you to want to be clever in some way but i'm just not sure how yet

[01:37:29] so utah i know you're listening the look that i'm giving my computer screen right now is the

[01:37:35] look that your wife gives you when she's pissed just take it in okay i'm over it now

[01:37:42] a challenge we never we never turn down a challenge so i guess it's exciting if you

[01:37:48] like what you hear please leave us a review on apple podcasts or wherever you listen so

[01:37:51] that we can continue to help get the word out i think that's it for today we'll see you next

[01:37:56] one all right later