Chuck’s challenge of the week: A random picture.

I chose this one:

What can I say, it called to me.  Maybe something about smuggling watermelons since my wife is super pregnant.

I also riffed off a challenge from several weeks back: SomethingPunk, for which I wrote the story “Borrowed Time“.  This one’s more fun, less depressing: FruitPunk.

Hope you like it.

 

Seeds of Insurgence

Larry takes a healthy slurp from his biodegradable cup filled with the newest lime-flavored Nutro-Slam beverage, wipes the froth from his mouth with the back of his meaty hand, and then sucks the froth off his knuckle.  It tastes almost, but not entirely, completely unlike lime.  Travelers file past him in a somber parade, waiting for winged tin cans like the ones dinner comes in to whisk them off to some other part of the world.  To stave off the boredom, he begins concocting backstories for them, one by one.  This one, with the patched overcoat and the limp, saved all his creds for one last trip to see his grandchildren before he dies.  That one, in the flowery dress and boyish haircut, back from college to see her parents and come out of the closet.  He wonders if that makes him a bigot.

A shout shatters his reverie: “GRAPES!”Read More »