Pockets' Stories

The Logic of the Illogical

2007-08-01T03:36:07Z

A rather dusty looking gentleman to my right piqued my interest when he told us his approach to love. He said that since love was illogical, one must follow illogical pathways to harness it perfectly. The man who takes a woman out to dinner may be interesting, aye, but the man who takes a woman to a picnic under a waterfall will truly gain love, as one example. Quite interesting- using the illogical in a logical fashion. I asked him if he was married, but he said no.

“The problem is I’ve met far too many women who would be perfect fits, and that goes entirely against my mantra. I’ve yet to meet the worst woman for me. That’s the girl I’ll marry.”

Needless to say, I found him to be rather loopy. But that’s philosophy for you.

It’s really quite strange, this Train of Thought. Full of radicals, revolutionary thinkers… the last sort of people I’d think the government would sponsor. I leaned my head against the wall, considering the paradox.

Then I noticed the ticking noise inside that wall.

Stones from the Writer's Block

2007-08-01T01:49:16Z

“It was a dark and stormy night.”

Frustrated, Alan threw down his pen and ripped the page out of his notebook. Another worthless beginning. As though he needed any more of those. How did the authors do it, especially those that churned out books every three or four months? Even if he could come up with a decent beginning, he knew he’d never be able to finish even the first draft before a year was up.

Sighing, he rose from his chair, putting his notebook in his back pocket. No use searching for inspiration where the mines were empty. One car ride and he could entertain himself without straining his limited income.

A hop and a skip and some gasoline later, he arrived at his destination. The junkyard. Always a particularly fantastic place to practice his rock-tossing skills at the less fortunate vehicles. Throwing rocks accurately was the one talent he had that he could always rely on. He picked up an oval rock, and aimed at the windshield of a van.

Unfortunately for him, that van was occupied.

A Squandered Future

2007-06-17T02:23:19Z

I already know what will happen.

Caressing your face, gazing into your eyes. You look so innocent, and naive. Unknowing of the things to come. Of the pain I cause you. I know that you will die because of me, for it has already happened once before. All due to my own greed.

I feel your chest rising into me with every breath, much stronger than the night you died. A pierced lung is difficult to rise. While seeking the treasure that would grant one wish, you tripped and fell, onto that stone spike. That earthen lance which was the true embodiment of karma took away your breath as I cried over your body. When I came upon the object that would grant my wish, I asked to relive this moment, here, with you.

At this moment I hold your future in my hands. And I hold the eternal torture of knowing I will squander it.

I love you, Anna.

Time Flows with the Wind

2007-06-16T05:50:53Z

As Sara lingered on her lover’s lips, she became aware, that they had gone stiff, almost rigid. Confused, she withdrew for a moment and gazed at him questioningly. His lips remained as they were. In fact, his entire facial expression remained unchanged, locking lips with the… wind? But the wind itself had ceased to flow as well.

Sara shook him desperately, trying to find some sign of life, but he remained clasped to an invisible being. His face was full of passion for her, but Sara could only feel fear. It was as though time itself had stopped.

A leaf abruptly blew past her, seemingly ignoring the termination of the wind, and came to rest upon a patch of flowers a few feet away. Disconcerted, Sara nervously extended out a hand, to grasp the leaf. As her fingers wrapped around it, she felt the breeze suddenly burst back, and heard Ben suddenly falling down, no longer having someone to lean on. Ecstatic, Sara dropped the leaf and threw her arms around her lover.

The wind stilled once again.

Jack and Dave

2007-04-16T02:38:11Z

I don’t remember my friends, but I remember I had them. We all had a certain delight in catching butterflies in nets, then releasing them into spiderwebs and just watching. No one knew but us. My mother avoided me, and my father was usually consoling her. Sometimes I thought they hoped that I’d get in some terrible accident while they weren’t watching, just so they could be rid of me.

The years get hazy as they progress forward, but there are certain events which remain crystal clear despite the ravages of time. One such instance… was with a homeless man. His name was David… my brother’s name.

He lived behind the 7-11, and often had conversations with the other teens in the area. People made sure he was well fed, and tried to get him into a shelter, but he insisted that if he were to rise, it would be on his own two feet. But his name was David…

I gave him a salad one day. The dressing? I mixed it into vinegar to disguise the taste.

Was it so wrong to want to clean his insides with bleach?

Failsafe

2007-04-14T03:10:45Z

John’s grandfather hadn’t thought of the potential consequences of his actions, and neither had his partner, but they’d made a failsafe in case of a true emergency. Pulling down on the red book on the top shelf, John ran through the newly revealed passage. His grandfather had always enjoyed the cliches- he said they were the least likely possibilities.

John pulled the key from around his neck as he rushed down the hidden corridor. Arriving at his destination, he hesitated. It isn’t easy knowing you’re about to kill billions. But he knew their deaths would bring about the closest thing to salvation they had available.

He was standing in front of the very first power tap ever built. It was built to gather energy. John would reverse this. A release of the energy in the core would create a shockwave that would send the moon hurtling into space. It would also destroy every place tapping from this network. The charge in the core would level an entire country.

Holding his breath, John inserted the key.

The Problem with Inertia

2007-04-14T00:28:53Z

Sam cracked open his eyes. He was still on the same road, and for some reason, lying on the ground to its side. He also had several scrapes and bruises on his body. It was… painful, to say the least. Tilting his head a bit, he winced as a scrape was stretched, and noticed a notebook. “Brilliant,” he thought, “More orders.” He picked it up, moved into a sitting position, and flipped it open.

“This is why you don’t time travel in a moving vehicle, dummy!” Sam sighed. That would explain the scrapes. So he kept moving as he traveled through time. But the planet’s movement hadn’t left him behind. Strange. The writing continued, “Hitchhike into town. You look suspicious like this.”

Sam grudgingly stood up and waited for a car. Soon an old green truck approached, and Sam held out his thumb. The truck halted on the side of the road, and Sam walked toward it. The driver rolled down his window, and Sam cursed his future self again.

“Hey there sonny. My name’s Jonathan Spokes. Need a ride?”

Sadism and Masochism and Explosions, Oh My!

2007-04-07T22:08:34Z

So Future Sam had apparently delivered a future newspaper to his ex-girlfriend. In order to cause problems for himself. Would that make him a sadist and a masochist? And why was he preventing himself from getting the time machine he so dearly wanted himself to get? That… just didn’t follow. But he had more pressing issues than getting in a fight with himself.

“I had nothing to do with this prank, Amy. I’ve been too busy trying to get yesterday’s outfit into the hamper. And this isn’t a real newspaper anyway. I got this same paper delivered this morning, and this wasn’t in it. Here,” he picked up his paper from his table and handed it to her, “See for yourself. In the meantime, I have errands to attend to. I trust you can see yourself out.”

As Amy shuffled through the paper, Sam hurried out. The headline on the future newspaper read “Explosion Investigation Continues” with the subtext “Last week’s explosion in Franklin still perplexes police”.

The owner of the time machine lived in Franklin.

Empty Switch

2007-04-01T23:07:45Z

So evidently flipping the switch was not among my better list of ideas. Strange, and disobeying the traffic signs had always led me in the right direction. Aside from that one ‘Right Turn Only’ sign. That did not end as well as all the other incidents.

Perhaps the best way to end this whole apparent impending doom would be to remove the switch itself. Time to take out the trusty multitool screwdriver!

...

Okay, now the sign reads “Now you’ve made me angry”. This… is not good. Most disconcerting of all is that the switch was empty. It was not, in fact, hooked up to anything else. Talk about unfulfilling.

It probably doesn’t help that the sign is growing bigger now. And- that text wasn’t red before…

Healthy food

2007-04-01T22:42:05Z

One has to marvel at the general ingenuity of companies whose primary goal is to remove your money from your pocket. Throughout history, they’ve managed to sell things to people that are terrible for them. Tobacco, alcohol, those blasted stereos that ruin eardrums… but I’d have to say that this takes the cake.

It’s amazing how they can describe this product as ‘low in grease, high in iron, great to eat’. Any sane human being would decide as soon as they saw it that they would not put that anywhere near their mouth. And yet here I am, sitting at my table, watching my daughter taking one out of the ‘to go’ bag. I won’t let her eat it. I don’t care if all the other kids are eating it. Even if it does cut away fat, she will never get to have a McKnives Sandwich.

“Sharpest taste around” my arse.

Side Effects of Perfection

2007-04-01T22:01:16Z

The problem was based on the ingenuity of the engineers of the past. John’s grandfather had figured out how to gather energy, but the issue of storing this energy was another matter. A partner of his, Gerald Pherman, determined that even a vast man-made battery could never store as much energy as was gathered. So he turned to the world’s largest electromagnet- the world itself. Not only would this store the energy, but it would also help in ambiently attracting the sun’s flares.

But he forgot about the next nearby electromagnet. The Moon also had a core rich in iron, and soon after the earth began storing energy, there was a noticeable change in the tides. The moon began looming closer, though it remained in orbit, and as such the tides swelled higher. Venice was frequently ten feet underwater, and the Statue of Liberty often appeared to be wading. The coasts were no longer safe. And the climate changed for the worse.

But worst of all, the moon would finally reach the earth in less than five years.

Trash Ejected, Soul Acquired

2007-04-01T17:26:38Z

The bullet hit me straight on in the middle of the forehead. Almost immediately I knew I was dead. But… for some reason I was still breathing. Except it wasn’t me. I was lying on the ground, in a steadily increasing pool of piss and blood, and was most certainly dead. I was… watching this happen.

I looked down at myself. My outfit was ragged, and I stunk something awful. And I couldn’t help but feel… like I urgently needed something. I was still in the alley, but my body was in front of me. Which meant…

I looked at my hand. There it was. The gun that had just shot me. What had happened? Had we somehow switched identities? This definitely didn’t happen every day…

Realizing what this looked like, I quickly bent down and grabbed my keys. No one else lived in my apartment. I was going to have to run and try to figure this out, but I’d be arrested and committed if they found me here now.

But whatever I needed, I needed it soon. With dawning horror, I realized this body was on crack.

Time's Ripple Mars Skepticism

2007-04-01T05:30:33Z

The link loaded into a rather stereotypical Ebay page. Sam winced at the overdone flashing banner ad, and quickly scrolled down to the description. It read “Slightly used time machine- good condition!”

Further reading revealed that the time machine had allegedly appeared on the owner’s front lawn one day, with no sign of its origin. Conveniently it had come with an instruction manual. Unfortunately, as the owner had a pacemaker, he could not use the machine. So he put it up on Ebay for some lucky highest bidder.

As he looked at the starting bid, Sam snorted. Fifteen hundred for what looked to be a cheap metal hat with machinery welded onto it? Hardly likely, especially with the car expenses he’d have to pay soon. He pulled his notebook and pen out of his pocket, intending to make certain he never clicked on a flashily worded ad again. He turned to what should have been the most recent page, and suddenly stopped.

Scrawled across the page were the words “Get that time machine at all costs.”

Flights of Fancy Part II

2007-04-01T05:10:21Z

That was fifty years ago. Most of us have never touched the ground. Up in our own dwellings, we cannot grow food because we have no ground. Ultimately we must rely on meager charity to survive, while watching the ground people prosper. I wish I could see one of these televisions our elders spoke of. Seeing an image from the past! The closest we have to that is writing. But soon that will all change. One of our trodding friends procured a copy of Gray’s notes. He believes he has found a way to reverse this process.

Our fate is in God’s hands. Now I see why He created the rule of gravity, and every rule. I hear those on the ground envy us. They do not know their own fortune…

Flights of Fancy

2007-04-01T05:07:22Z

In stories, children always complain about the rules. They have flights of fancy about staying up at night and having extraordinary powers. Certainly, mankind has dreamt of great feats of body and mind, but society has always fantasized the most about defying the rule of gravity and taking flight.

Once upon a time a man determined to fulfill his own fantasy of flight. Before him people had tried this through mechanical means. They succeeded, but the users were still bound to the device, hardly better than being bound to the ground. This man, whose name was Franklin Gray, decided changing man was the only way he could fly. He experimented with some sort of extremely advanced science or magic(the two are mostly the same). On the date of his first and only experiment, December 17, 2018, everyone within a twenty mile radius began to float. But in a cruel twist of irony, he was the only one unaffected.