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Prompt #323 - First Line

comicfan

By comicfan
in Peeks and Prompts

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joann414 Heroic Scribe

joann414

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Lust and Other Disasters


 


 


"Can I talk to you?"  KC stood in front of Cassie as she made last minute plans for the weekend.


 


"Let me go.  Our boarder is interrupting us."  Clicking off her phone, she glared at KC.  "What's so important that you interrupt my conversation with Jo Ann?  I won't be able to talk to her again until late tonight.  She has seminars all evening."


 


"Sorry.  I just need a teensy tiny favor.  "Pretty please?"  KC put on his best' puppy dog eyes' expression.


 


Glaring at him, Cassie asked in a 'I don't have time for this shit whisper'.  "Do you see stupid written on my forehead or do I even have on my tee shirt that I wear when I go places with you that says, I'm With Stupid?  That means I don't have time for any bullshit KC.  I'm trying to get Jo Ann a nice Mother's Day surprise planned since her daughter can't come for the day.  You should be helping me by the way.  She's been great to you since you've been sponging off of us for a place to live.  You should've moved out months ago and I know it.  I steamed open your bank statement.  You've more than enough to get a place of your own."  Crossing her arms across her chest, she dared him to contradict her.


 


KC's mouth dropped open.  "You snooped my mail.  Now you have to help me or I'm going to tell Jo Ann when she gets home tomorrow and you'll be in hells of trouble."


 


Knowing he spoke the truth she huffed, "What do you want me to do."


 


"I promised Chris's sister that I'd watch the baby while she went shopping this afternoon.  I just want you to keep your eye on him while I mow the lawn.  After all, it is Mother's Day Sunday and we want everything to look good for Jo Ann."  KC knew he'd played the trump card and waited smugly for Cassie to agree.


 


"Why in the world did you agree to babysit when you had things to do here?  You also promised to help me paint Jo Ann's new rose trellises and put them up this afternoon.  Just put him on a leash in the shade in the backyard and I'll keep check on him while you mow the front.  Then you can help me with a few other things."


 


KC smiled.  "If I babysit, then Chris can finish up his shopping and be free for our date tonight.  Thanks so much Cass.  I wasn't really going to squeal to Jo Ann."


 


"Bullshit, you're worse than any pig I know as far as squealing.  Now go get the damn baby and get to work."  Cassie stomped out the back door and muttered to herself.  "Damn people and their dogs nowadays.  Act like they can't leave them alone.  Whatever happened to pens and just letting them run loose in the backyard."  She trudged over to the tool shed and started digging out paint brushes.  Picking up the gallon of white paint she'd purchased that morning, she walked over to the two saw horses in the backyard that held the two trellises she'd bought Jo Ann for Mother's day. 


 


****


Cassie worked tirelessly, paying no attention when KC came through the back door other than to shout at him, "Tie him in the shade and give him some water."


 


About an hour later, she decided to take a break and get herself a beer out of the ice chest on the patio.  Strolling over to the patio, she retrieved her beer, opened it and took a huge gulp of it, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, almost choking at the sight in the corner of the yard under the shade of the huge Magnolia tree.  A toddler sat under the Magnolia tree, a bright pink leash tied around one of his legs and the other end of it hooked over one of the lower limbs of the tree.  He was digging happily in the dirt with what appeared to be a limb he'd found.  Running to get the stick from the toddler, she grabbed it from the small hand and threw it out of the child's reach.  That's when she spotted the bowl of water sitting about two feet to the right of the child.  Checking to make sure the child was ok, she picked up the bowl of water and headed toward the sound of the lawn mower in the front yard.


 


KC sang loudly along with his iPod as he cut the grass, oblivious to anything but driving the mower and belting out one tune after another of his favorite music.  Making a sharp turn, he gasped when cold water sloshed over the top of his head and onto the wires of his iPod.  Turning, he saw Cassie standing behind him looking like someone had peed in her beer.


 


The mowers motor died when KC cut it off and the silence echoed with, "Are you a fucking idiot?  Tying a child to a tree and leaving him a BOWL of water to drink!  I thought you were bringing that damn dog back over here.  That was the baby you sat for last time.  Why didn't you tell me it was a toddler.  For Pete's sake KC, anything could've happened to him."  Cassie shook she was so upset, wanting to hit KC over the head with the beer bottle she still held in her other hand. 


 


"You didn't ask, but just assumed like you always do.  You're such a know it all.  I checked on Matthew several times because I knew you wouldn't even worry about him."


 


"That's because I thought you were babysitting a dog, not a toddler.  Now, get your ass inside and get him something cold to drink while I go untie him from that tree.  The yard will just have to do until I can finish it later.  You're going to babysit."  Cassie stormed back to the back yard to check on the toddler.


 


****


 


Jo Ann let herself into the silent house in the wee hours of the morning.  Cassie thought she wasn't going to be home until later evening, but she'd decided to skip the seminars today and come home.  Tiptoeing into the kitchen, she slipped her boots off and switched on the coffee pot that was already prepared.  She'd just sat down at the table when KC stumbled through the back door.  "What are you doing outside this time of morning?"


 


"Umm, I decided to sleep outside last night."  The sheepish look on the young man's face was shouting lie.


 


"Well, that's interesting.  You scream like a girl when a mosquito bites you and you're sleeping outside?  Try the truth this time."  Jo Ann watched as KC poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down across from her.


 


"Cass made me sleep outside.  I remembered the key around front and went and got it so I could sneak in.  I didn't expect you to be home."  KC wouldn't meet Jo Ann's eyes with his own.


 


"Tell her why, KC.  I think Jo Ann would love to know the reason."  Cassie walked into the kitchen and kissed the top of Jo Ann's head as she went to get her some coffee.  "Go ahead."


 


For the next twenty minutes, the two argued through the tale of KC tying the baby to the tree in the backyard, both trying to get Jo Ann to believe them.


 


"I think that's the craziest thing you've done yet, KC.  If I were your boyfriend, I'd never let you near my family ever again."  Jo Ann got up to refill her cup.  "But, Cassie, you shouldn't have put him outside.  You know he's afraid of bugs."


 


KC stuck his tongue out at Cassie before piping up to say, "Yeah, and it's humid as hell out there and I couldn't sleep for the buzzing of the mosquitoes.  When I closed my eyes, all I could see was millions of mosquitoes buzzing around in my head.  It was horrible."  The pitiful look on KC's face brought a gagging sound from Cassie's mouth.


 


"You're just playing it up KC.  It's not that bad.  You just better be glad Jo Ann is home or I'd lock you out this time without the key outside.  I wish I'd thought of it earlier."


 


"That's enough.  It's 5 a.m., too early for the two of you to be bickering."  Jo Ann sighed, looked at the two youngsters sitting across from her.  It amazed her how much they argued.


 


"KC Pooh, I'm bringing my surprise to you.  You better have the whip cream in hand because I brought you something to put it on."


 


The two women turned to see a naked man with a raging hard on walk through the back door stroking his hard on seductively. 


 


"Shit!  Chris, wait!."  KC got up but it was too late.  He watched Chris stop, a look of horror on his face when he saw Cassie and Jo Ann sitting there, one hand over their mouth and the other pretending to shield their eyes from the sight of the turned on naked man. 


 


Miraculously, Chris managed to maintain his hard on throughout the ordeal, trying to hide it with his hands, but he was too hung to even entertain that thought and the two women were finally unashamedly admiring the man's tool in all it's hardened glory.  "No whip cream?"


 


Chris's question brought the three back to life.  KC rushed to the refrigerator and pulled out two cans of whipped topping, grinning like a kid with a new toy.


 


"Whoa there Studley.  Leave one of those for us.  I think we might want a little dessert after our coffee too, huh Jo Ann?"


 


"Damn right."  Jo Ann snatched one of the cans from KC and watched the two men scramble out the back door giggling like two teenagers.

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K.C. Heroic Scribe

K.C.

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OMG, someone might read this and call Child Services on me! :P  I swear, I have only left my daughter tied to a tree once well maybe six times but she had shade and water and I left her some doggie treats to chew on :lmao:

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Timothy M. Mythic Scribe

Timothy M.

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You'll have to start another thread for this prompt series so I can rant in comfort, Tim.

 

:*)  thanks Irri, that's such a wonderful compliment. Or maybe you'd like to start one? I feel awkward about doing story forums. AC had to twist my arm to get an OK for the CC forum, but I have to admit he was right.

This seemed to be a great compromise when aditus pointed out the tradition of listing your prompt here. Plus it's nice to acknowledge comicfan's inspiring first liners.

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JamesSavik Master Scribe

JamesSavik

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University of Utah at Ceder City

 

____________________________________________

 

"Can I talk to you?"

 

I looked up from my desk and saw one of my students at my office door.

 

"Sure Cal, come on in. I'm a little busy trying to figure out why an earthquake fault that hasn't moved in 250,000 years just decided to go renegade and hit the valley with a 4.2."

 

Cal Morris was one of my brighter geology students. Coming from a dusty little town in Nevada, I suppose you either went completely bonkers or were interested in rocks. He parked his backpack on the floor and sat in the chair across from me. I could tell that something was bugging him.

 

"It's about the earthquake Doc. I think, no I'm sure I caused it."

 

I grinned and said, "Cal, you're pretty good but..."

 

"No Doc, hear me out. Do you remember a paper by a guy named Pasternak last year?"

 

I searched my memory and yes- I did remember that paper. "Isn't he the guy who suggested that sound waves could trigger a slip fault?"

 

Cal nodded and said, "Yeah, that's the one and I can tell you it works."

 

I said, "Cal, start at the beginning and tell me what happened?"

 

The kid shifted nervously in his seat and said, "One of my friends that works at a junk yard got all sorts of sound equipment out of a totaled car: A 1500 watt amp, four big woofers and a lot of other junk. I paid him $300 for the stuff and put it together to test Pasternak's theory."

 

"Over the weekend, I went camping out near Dry Springs and set up my experiment with four bass speakers spaced out over a kilometer on the old Dry Springs fault line."

 

"I set up a sine-wave on a function generator at 1 Kilo-hertz and fed it to the amp and began the experiment. At that low frequency, you couldn't hear it. You could feel it. Nothing happened so I lowered the frequency to a point where the fault began to pick up the harmonic. Once it started, I freaked and shut down but by that point, the whole fault had picked up the harmonic and they quake started."

 

I said, "Hold it."  I picked up the seismograph strip and said, "When did you start?"

 

Cal said, "I powered up at 10:00 and began cycling through frequencies. Apparently I hit the right one at 20 minutes till eleven."

 

Sure enough- as I went backwards through the tape, the fault began moving in fits and starts at 10:00. As he moved to lower frequencies, the fault became more and more unstable until at 10:38 the small quake began in earnest."

 

I said, "That explains all the weirdness that I saw on the seismograph. We're damned lucky there was nothing out there to shake up but gophers and sage brush."

 

Cal said, "That's why I picked that spot Doc. If it worked, it couldn't hurt anything."

 

I grinned and said, "What on earth possessed you to try to cause an earthquake Cal?"

 

He looked at me and said, "Pasternak's article has been out there for over a year. If I could do it with a few hundred dollars worth of junk..."

 

The implications hit me like a train, "Anybody could do it."

Edited by jamessavik
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Timothy M. Mythic Scribe

Timothy M.

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Posted

I grinned and said, "What on earth possessed you to try to cause an earthquake Cal?"

 

He looked at me and said, "Pasternak's article has been out there for over a year. If I could do it with a few hundred dollars worth of junk..."

 

The implications hit me like a train, "Anybody could do it."

 

:o SCARY !!!

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