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Week 33 (June 8 - 13)Done
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YESSSSYOU TOOK MY SUGGESTION!
I guess this means I better enter...
lol! good thinking on the *heads up* :) cool word.
A great physiologist, Joseph McCackleheimer, was working for four days staight without any sleep. His mind was about fried. He wasn't going to quit, though, until he finished his new theory.He slaved away at his chemistry lab forever, and wasn't getting anywhere. Finally, after 4 1/2 days of work, he learned the theory of revolving doors. As he finished up, he collapsed in his chair and appeared to be comatose.
His colleagues had been trying to get him to take breaks the whole time Joseph was working. They came in to try once more for him to take a break. They saw him laying there comatose and figured he died from lack of sleep.
They tried to shake him awake. They tried this two or three times. Finally, they heard a faint groan.
"Well, I guess you forced yourself to take a break after all of this silliness," said one of the colleagues disgustedly.
"N...U...E," replied Joseph.
The colleagues were very confused. They asked, "Could you please repeat yourself?"
The exhausted physiologist stated once again, "N...U...E!"
The colleagues were all a-twitter about his latest discovery of N...U...E. They looked all over his lab and his desk to see what great insight Joseph had for them.
"He must have found something out or he wouldn't keep saying those three letters over and over again. Now keep looking all over this room until you find out what these strange letters mean." demanded the chief colleague.
The other colleagues looked the place up and down and found nothing even remotely resembling N...U...E.
"What are you doing?" asked one of the colleagues.
"I'm checking everywhere, like you said," replied another.
"I don't think you need to check the inside of the toilet," said the first colleague harshly.
"You never know, do you?" inquired the other one.
Then yet another colleague shook Joseph and asked what it all meant. Joseph stated, "N...U...E!"
"What does that mean, Joseph?" asked another colleague. "Please tell us what this N...U...E means. We are at a total loss. We can find nothing to tell us what this N...U...E experiment is all about."
They rolled him over again and got the same response as the other three times. The chief colleague came back in.
"Well, have you found the part of the theory that has to do with N...U...E yet?" asked the boss.
"We have combed this area with a fine toothed comb and have found nothing even remotely dealing with those three letters," replied the other colleagues.
"Wait a minute! We aren't getting anywhere this way. Let's spell the letters out and see what we get," exclaimed the boss. "N is spelled "en". "U" is just spelled "u". "E" can be spelled "ee" or "ie".
He got to where the letters spelled "enuie." Suddenly he jumped up.
"What fools are we. He isn't giving us some important breakthrough experiment. He is saying he is mentally exhausted. He is saying "ennui". That means mentally exhausted," explained the chief.
"What's the matter with you. Do you know how much work we had to do to find out you are mentally exhausted. I think you should get rid of the exhausted part," grumbled one colleague.
"You owe me one or two or three, buster," growled another.
Yet a third one chimed in. "Can I roll him over again to punch him in the nose?"
"Come now children, let's get back to work now. You have done enough playing for today," said the boss sarcastically.
Mod
lol How cuteAnd what a wonderful word!
That was so sweet! How adorable~For a second though, I thought she might become a Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtle.
Mod
“By: Arthur
Words: 1475
Notes: yes, Short Story Galore. Sorry if this tangle of a story made no sense, really I was just to busy ripping off Wikipedia to get my facts to right a decent story.
……………..
Artic Surf
“It’s over here! It says . . .” Kim had spoken. Turner thought she had still been looking over his shoulder. But in the time he became so concentrated in reading and plus he really didn’t know where to look in the book he had been reading what felt like a long time she must have slipped away.
Kim had made a decision to do a little research in the town library. When they came at the time of it opening Turner groaned and just looking at the stacks and stacks in dozens of row of books as if they’d just entered the last torture chamber of their lives was enough for him to regret getting talked into coming today. Kim’s eyes opened up wide. She felt a need to read every book in the library. Only if it would help her on her quest of absolute knowledge in learning about the little story her grandmother told her. Her glasses had stained from their bike ride there and she was unsure where to begin. They had spent a half hour combing the rows looking for the research computer. Found it to be occupied by a half dozen school children. So next checked the card catalog, an ancient devise librarians directed people to for selecting books by author and titles or by subject.
They waited for the use of the computer. They were looking through an encyclopedia of historical events when Turner last felt Kim breathing on his shoulder and neck. They both were intrigued by all the information to be covered in so short of time. He knew she was eager that he turn the page or something to something significant that she would could attribute for him of his helping solve her one riddle.
Instead she wandered off and was reading from another source. Kim read, “[Pytheas of Massalia recorded an account of a journey northward in 325 BCE:]”
Turner couldn’t see Kim. In fact he needed to turn in the direction he thought he voice was coming. “What . . . ?”
“Come here.” A mild voice, that of Kim’s said, urgent enough that Turner stood to leaving his book behind passing the computer now empty barely catching his notice and finding her behind a row of reference and history books.
“I’ve never heard of him. It was a him? Right?” Turner probed with a sarcastic smile.
She still wasn’t sure when or where a guy could be joking. So she pretended to understand. “I don’t know but it looks like they’ve always known about finding the circle but they never attempt to go across for fear.” Kim said.
“Fear? I don’t believe it. What fear? It wasn’t what you are thinking as fear. It was so cold they would never survive crossing the great and cold artic. They couldn’t of.” Turner wasn’t even sure about the right facts of history that was about the artic to be true. But he felt sure that some of the facts made enough sense. “Men wouldn’t have followed a celestial voice and try to come to it through the cold.” Turner said.
“But. They had to. Look it says,” she highlighted a part of its page with her right index finger. She had to read in a whisper into Turner’s ear, “[to a land he called "Eschate Thule," where the Sun only set for three hours each day and the water was replaced by a congealed substance "on which one can neither walk nor sail.":] . . .”
Kim then repeated the words, "on which one can neither walk nor sail.”
“The women could go and come back if they willed it, but there was no coming back.” Kim stated.
She felt know the story her grandmother had told last night to be the truth. There was a tribe of women from the Amazon who had captured enough slave men to take a capsule of the women through the icy cold to live in the North Pole. But that the place they found was so cold and isolated from the rest of the world that none of them ever returned.
Kim’s grandmother said Amazon women had reached the artic circle and with magic made camp and it was called Ennui. A place where no living being could live without needing to survive by enslaving. The taking of the freedom of men by casting a charm on them made them unaware of where they were. And they had to build their temple for the gods they so pronounced it as the only place safe and kept well to live for women. Women as a tribe strong enough till the end of time. They had slaved men into helping and needed more because many of the workers had died of starvation or frost bitten that they were in need of more. The Sirens of the Amazon women used their power to lure the explorers to Ennui. No men knew where Ennui was themselves either because of the charming spell to prevent attacks.
“Look it says [lack of knowledge of what lay north of the shifting barrier of ice gave rise to a number of conjectures. In England and other European nations, the myth of an "Open Polar Sea" was long-lived and persistent:]” She looked at Turner who looked confused, “that is so much like my grandmother’s story. And she even said there was a big ocean explorers went across but the ice storms came and they would become lost in them. The Ennui women captured the good ones and left the unwanted ones to die in the frozen barriers.” Kim read from a book so thick that the heavy weight that it was, was making her arms ache.
“The computers free.” Turner said. “Let’s look and see what we may find.”
~continue
Mod
They spent most of the hour looking up references for books in the library about the artic circle and what the exploration to it meant for the men. While Kim only could wonder about the Ennui who must have disappeared after several years of invading men. Kim was trying to trace where Ennui had been because her grandmother had convinced her of its once secret society before men had discovered it. The Amazon women living in cold like that were surprised by them, and the women fought but the forces coming from the realms of the UK had been stronger. Then soon they were defeated and about to flea. But had learned from one of the fighting men captured that there was no longer any Amazon tribe that it had disappeared. he didn’t believed there were Amazons but only as a the myth. So had the entire world.
“There aren’t many books in this library.” Kim said. “Now I wonder why no one heard of them; the Ennui I mean. Why did the explorers get to them?” Kim asked Turner.
“Well I don’t know that. Was there anything else your grandmother said that we can possibly use to find if this Ennui once existed?” Turner asked.
“Oh, yes she said there was one chance for the tribe priestess of the Ennui Amazons who were soon defeated to defend herself if they play acted they had been captured by the explorers. She hid dressed as one of the explorers and that how one of them survived. A few didn’t look like explorers and were captured too. She could have tricked the men she spoke to for to take them out of the artic to some place else. Only she saw the women captured and she ran for her life.”
“When she got back to civilization what did she do?”
“Nothing. She hid in a warm climate. She was baring with child and months later gave birth alone in a forest. She made the baby the queen of the Ennui. The baby grew to have long dark skin and black hair with beautiful eyes. Much like Indians or Eskimo in the north west territories where she brought up the queen.”
“And you are a descendant of this powerful priestess and queen of a long ago lost tribe?” Turner now asked with a small hint of ridicule. Now Kim felt alone in the world. She decided that Turner was at least trying to help her and that his savant personal interest was sufficient enough she could trust him.
“My grandmother is very old now Turner. She wouldn’t make this up.” She bent down to the table to rethink everything. “she said because my mother died in child birth for me that I was still the last one. And that many men would try to harm me if they found out who I really am. Can’t I trust you?” she asked looking up. Turner was no where to be found. He had disappeared leaving the library.
The ennui death.
Very good! I liked that a lot (I bet you can't BELIEVE that lol)
Princess EnnuiOnce upon a time in a kingdom far far away there was a King and Queen who gave life to a healthy baby girl. The baby was as cute, as babies tend to be, and had all her fingers and toes, and so she was deemed the jewel of the land. As she grew, her coordination and personality solidified and her care takers found her to be quite lethargic.
She never put up much of a fuss but nor did she laugh or smile. She would sit quietly unless instructed to play with one of her toys; and only then, she would mechanically mimic her play mates. It soon became evident that something was wrong with the child, so the hearth witch was summoned.
“She seems as healthy as a horse.” The witch observed. “Tell me about her conception.”
Both the King and Queen were taken aback by the witch’s forwardness. “Why would that matter?” The King demanded.
“Oh, it matters quite a bit. The circumstances of a conception imprint a child’s fate. Tell me, were either of you virgins? Did either of you come to orgasm? Did you love each other in the moment?”
“I was a virgin.” The Queen offered immediately, but didn’t attempt the other questions.
“Well, of corse I orgasmed.” The King hurmphed. “I’m a virile man. And she did as well.” He added after a moment.
The witch stealthily raised and eye brow to which the Queen returned a ‘so-so’ gesture behind her husband’s back.
“And was this an act of love or duty?” The witch asked and both the clients fell silent.
“Well,” The King coughed into his fist, “Go on, my Queen, answer her. Tell the truth.”
“To tell the truth...” The Queen said slowly, “Not exactly. I do have love for my King, as a faithful servant,” She quickly added, “But I’m not IN love...as a faithful servant.”
“I’m just not that into her either.” The King admitted.
“Who were the two of you fantasizing about at the conception.”
“My lady in waiting.” The Queen answered.
“Her lady in waiting.” The King answered.
“I think I know what’s the problem with your daughter.” The witch told them. “You’re daughter was conceived during a bout of profound sexual boredom. She’s doomed to be stricken with ennui, never to know any happiness.”
“So, it isn’t fatal then?” The King asked.
“Not physically.”
“Then we’re good. Bill me.”
And the witch was excused.
(Cont. in next post)
The princess grew into an average and un-excitable young woman. The Queen never bore any other heirs, as she spent each night away from her husband, in an assortment of other women’s beds. It became obvious that the princess would be inheriting the kingdom and her curse left her unfit to rule and unfit to produce an heir of her own. The King sent out a proclamation across the land that anyone who could cure his daughter would take her hand in marriage.Princes and paupers across vast lands came with jokes, magic tricks, moving poetry and interpretive dance. Nothing swayed the princess. Still more came and gave her erotic lap dances, took her to professional wrestling matches, and showed her majestic birds of pray. The princess couldn’t manage even slight interest.
The King and Queen were about at their wits end when one day, the next contestant was announced and a lanky young man wandered in. His countenance was brooding and his garments were as dark as his coal colored hair. This lad was obviously a peasant because although he was clean, his pantaloons were too tight and short, he slouched so much that scoliosis was evident, and his hair was crudely cut so that one half curtained a good part of his vision.
The young man meandered his way to the thrown where the royal family was seated and did...nothing.
After a long pause that caused the royal couple to feel as afflicted as their daughter, the King spoke, “Well, are you going to do something, or not?”
The lad shrugged and without making eye contact said, “I guess not. I just saw a line, so I stood in it. There’s nothing to do in this stupid kingdom,” he kicked the ground, “I thought there might be a show or something.”
“You thought we’re allowing peasants into the castle to see a show?” The King was incredulous.
“I don’t know, sh*t. The minstrel Morrison is pretty big now, he could, like, play in a castle.”
More silence followed and the King’s hackles began to rise. “Get out if you can’t help then!”
“Help with what?”
“The princess has ennui,” The queen explained softly, “We’re trying to find a cure.”
The young man snorted in what might have been described, if one was generous, as a laugh. “No surprise there. Like I said, there is nothing to do in this stupid kingdom. Everyone here are just sheep. Their designer imported french frocks, their hero worship of those jousting jocks, their stupid music. Who could listen to that sh*t? Brittany Spearshire is a trollop.”
“I know, right?” The princess asked and all in attendance (save for the lad) stared at her in shock.
“Ya, you get me.” He said to her, jerking his head to the side for better vision, but the black veil that was his hair fell right back into place. “My parent’s want me to be a farmer, like them, but I’m not going to do that sh*t. I’m going to be a minstrel. I play the mandolin really good now, and my parents are all ‘Oh, like, it’s too loud.’ But I’m like, you don’t get my music, you know?”
“I know!” The princess said again, this time smiling.
“She’s cured.” The Queen was beside herself with emotion.
“Oh, God.” The King groaned.
The princess and the peasant were soon married, but they didn’t live happily ever after because that kingdom, like, totally didn’t get them.
-END
Mod
great stories! lol Christy, loved the "Brittany Spearshire" part, that was awesome! Alrighty everyone, time to go vote! Good luck!
Christy wins! :) good job! no short story galore, I'm assuming?
Cool! No, thanksI'll start putting it with my stories, I never assume I'm going to win so I didn't bother, but I'll stop bothering you.
No prob, i wont ask again, so if u actually do want one on there, you'll have to tell me :)
CONGRATZZ CHRISTY!! great, i loved that story.
Congratulations, Christy. Awesome job.
i dont get these contest... no ofence but are you subposed to use that word once or des teh whole story have to be about that word or what????
Please do not use a story previously used on goodreads. After the week's contest, you are welcome to put it on your profile writings, but please refrain from using stories you have already put on there.
You have until Saturday afternoon to post a story on here. Please post it directly onto this topic, rather than posting a link. Also, please do not discuss stories on here. You must go to Weekly Short Story Contest Discussion for that. This will avoid any clutter and confusion, so that people can simply come on here and read the story, without having to read comments on the story.
This week's topic is Ennui If anyone has any objections to this topic, please go to the Objections post. The rules are pretty loose. You could write about something that ((see **Heads Up**)) etc. Or you could just have the word in the story.
Weekly stories must be at least 500 words long to 2,500 words long. (if the whole story won't fit in one post, divide it into two)
Good luck!
Arthur [acting for Clare:]
P.S. PLEASE say if you would like to have your story on Short Story Galore, if you win. This way it wouldn't take me ages to get your consent afterwards. This includes adding a link to your stories. If you want to have your story on the Short Story Galore, but not the link, just say so.
**Heads Up**
Ennui may be a tough word to use and difficult to understand but you want to write right? Here’s a quick reference from my writer’s thesaurus which contains over a 1000 pages: Ennui noun an ennui bred of long familiarity BOREDOM, tedium, listlessness, lethargy, lassitude, languor, weariness, enervation; malaise, dissatisfaction, melancholy, depression, world-weariness, Weltschmerz.
And from my desktop dictionary:
en•nui [on w:]
n. boredom from lack of interest: weariness and dissatisfaction with life that results from a loss of interest or sense of excitement
[Mid-18th century. Via French from, ultimately, Latin in odio , in the phrase in odio est “it is hateful” (source of English annoy).:]
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
You may also look it up on the internet if you know an online dictionary, Urban or otherwise, and check for access in a pocket thesaurus or dictionary you may have at school or at home.