Years ago, our town voted to Fluoridate the water.
Now, we’re being asked to vote on Somadate the water.
Scientists say Soma is safe. Just as safe as Fluoride.
But instead of strengthening our teeth and reducing dental issues like Fluoride does, Soma will make us calmer and happier.
It will reduce conflict and violence.
The proposal shows charts and graphs from test studies and other cities.
Crime rates are down. Suicide rates are down.
People are much better and more productive.
And more compliant.
Election Day comes, the election officials say “Vote yes,” and we all politely vote yes.
The overpasses
There are fences and cameras watching the overpasses.
Because people throw things over the side on to the traffic below.
There were a few wrecks. People got hurt. People got killed.
So, the city added the fences and cameras.
In spite of this, some people still throw things over the side.
It’s not as easy, with the fences.
But they still do.
Cops park there now, taking their coffee breaks on the overpasses.
But when the cops leave, it doesn’t take long for someone to throw something over the fence.
Avoid the freeway. Take the side streets.
They’re much safer.
Talk to Mars
The signal from the Mars colony stopped.
We tried to connect to the emergency relay satellites, but they didn’t respond.
It took a month to prepare a rocket to launch.
And several months for it to reach Mars orbit.
Long-range photos revealed nothing.
Several probes landed nearby, releasing drones and crawlers to investigate.
One went through a hangar bay, passed through an airlock, and rolled through the empty hallways.
And then, it reached the auditorium.
Hundreds of chairs, neatly arranged, a body sitting in each of them.
Were they… smiling?
Facing a podium with the chief administrator slumped over it.
Weekly Challenge #1038 – The noisiest place in the universe
- Lewie
- Lisa
- Lizzie
- Richard
- Tom
- Serendipidy
- Norval Joe
- Planet Z
The next topic is Bubble wrap.
LEWIE
Title: Silence Has Teeth
Alone.
In the dark.
It is a cruel punishment. No one else around. Left to your thoughts.
With people, you could tell them to quiet. Alone, there are none to silence. The mind never stops talking.
It remembers every wrong, every injustice, every moment no one believed.
The silence feeds it.
“Shut up!”
There are no consequences, only echoes. A mind can waste away arguing with itself.
When the universe is quiet, the mind becomes the noisiest place in existence.
“Please stop.”
There is only one task left.
Not escape.
To make peace with it.
“That’s enough, Warden.”
Good night.
LISA
Our House
Growing up our house was actually in the Guiness Book of Records as the noisiest place in the universe. My twin sisters fought constantly: screaming matches followed by raucous fights which usually ended with tears and a door slamming. My brother played the trumpet. Badly. Dad always had the radio on and would sing along whether he knew the words or not. Mum, well, Mum was, understandably, out a lot. So, I never knew how blissful quiet was until I left home and experienced an empty house for the first time and heard the sound of my own contented breathing.
LIZZIE
This is the noisiest place in the universe, he said. There was absolutely no sound in the tunnel, except for their voices. She winced. You can’t hear it? He’s nuts, she thought. Look! Two small figures appeared. Who?! He pointed up. They said that this is the noisiest place they have visited. They had to hide in this tunnel. They were going nuts out there. Let’s go for a ride. And they all did, to the quietest place in the universe, where everyone waved. She wasn’t sure whether they waved hello or goodbye to the noisiest creatures in the universe.
RICHARD
In Space
Remember the tag line for the movie, Alien? ‘In space no one can hear you scream’.
Scientifically sound, of course: soundwaves can’t travel through the vacuum of space, but that troubles me.
Just how many screams are reverberating around up there? And who on earth would be screaming?
What else is going on in space that we can’t hear, but we really should be concerned about?
Is there some gigantic interstellar PA system booming out a message that humanity is doomed, issuing vital instructions to ensure our survival?
Or maybe there’s nothing, at all.
A silence so profound, it’s deafening.
TOM
A fine and quite place
Ra woke to noise. Lots of noise right down to the rumble of radiation. A rain of tachyons beating down, it was enough to drive a god crazy. The big bang was hecka loud but it was over pretty fast. All this matter in the center of the Milky Way made it noisiest place in the universe. So slowly at first by faster later Ra move his tiny sun 10,000 light years to the low rent section housing of the Orion arm. Ra went back to sleep … until someone started to ping in the dark forest. “Not good,” he thought.
SERENDIPIDY
Welcome to my mind.
Quite possibly the noisiest place in the universe, not that you could possibly know that, if you weren’t me.
You don’t hear the constant voices; the shouting and screaming, urging me to burn, kill and destroy. You don’t hear the rush and thunder of the blood coursing through my veins, or the ringing in my ears that never stops.
You know nothing of the thoughts that continually clamour for attention.
You don’t hear any of it. Nothing whatsoever.
But I do.
And it’s unbearable.
Mostly.
You see, I can make it stop.
With bloodshed, and pain.
NORVAL JOE
Sabrina continued reading the diary. “Two of you have been sufficient thus far. Now, a third with power must join. Your quest takes you to a place, louder than all others, where time is limited, and the drive for success approaches the boundaries of speed.
“There, you will meet a fourth to lead you on.”
Billbert looked at the girls. “What’s the loudest place on earth?”
Sabrina shrugged. “They aren’t launching space shuttles anymore, so, how about an airport?”
Mandi shook her head. “They’re loud, but there is no drive for success. I think the place is a NASCAR race.”
PLANET Z
By the time the cryogenically preserved crew arrived at their destination, scientists invented faster than light travel. So instead of the colony ship arriving to an empty world, civilization had been founded and flourished. The colony ship had been programmed to launch the terraforming drones on arrival. The current residents of the world were not pleased about this, and they destroyed the colony ship and its drones. The ships flaming wreckage landed in the ocean, and a few coastal cities suffered tidal waves. There were a handful of cryogenic pods that survived somehow, but they were quickly smashed to pieces.
Dumb fat monkey
When I go for my walks, I don’t wear a headset or listen to music or podcasts anymore. I’d rather listen to the birds, singing or the squirrels chittering or the crickets or the frogs. It’s so much calmer soundtrack than people trying to convince me to think like they do. Instead, I’d rather think like the birds and the squirrels. Although after years of walking in the trees, I couldn’t possibly tell you what they’re saying or thinking. Maybe it’s watch out. A big fat dumb monkey is walking around. Don’t let it cut your tree down this time.
Waiting for Lord Foster
From the void came a wind.
It blew in all directions.
Lord Foster licked his finger and held it to the wind.
He sensed… something…
There. There it was.
The void.
And he walked into the void.
His manservant Drake watched as Lord Foster vanished into the darkness.
He didn’t follow. Foster had told him to wait.
So, he waited.
For hours. Days.
Before he ran out of food or water, he ran out of patience.
And he’d only been hired for the week.
He yawned, picked up his folding chair, and went back to the car.
And drove off.
Danny will dance again
It’s been three years since Danny last danced.
He’s sitting there, on the edge of the dance floor, watching all the dancers dancing.
But day after day, he’ll watch, and then get up and go home.
Without dancing.
The next day, he’s back there at the edge of the dance floor, sitting.
And watching.
Sometimes, he smokes a cigarette.
Other times, he pulls out his phone and calls someone.
Once, a dancer walked up to Danny and asked him to dance.
He shook his head and smiled.
Maybe one day, he’ll dance again.
Or maybe he won’t. Nobody really knows.
Snowball fight
Looking at all the sports at the winter Olympics and all the different competitions with teams and individual achievements, I wonder if they just wanna have a big snowball fight. I mean, it’s winter, you have a bunch of kids, there’s some rivalries, so why not snowball fight? You don’t have to keep score, you don’t need referees and you don’t need rules. And all the equipment you need is a good hat, a good jacket, good boots and snow pants, and really good gloves that keep your hands warm while letting you get a good grip on the snow
Three car washes
I like to get a car wash after I go to the beach.
It’s really to vacuum the sand up from my floormats, even though I wrap my shoes in a towel and put on slippers to avoid tracking sand in my car.
I could do that at home with a shopvac or my dustbuster, but whatever.
Yesterday, I had three car washes.
First time around, the attendant told me the soap didn’t quite dispense, go back around.
Then the vacuum system was offline, so he sent me to their other location.
For a third car wash. And a vacuum.
Box it up
At the end of every contract, they mail out a FedEx label to put on a box to send their laptop back, and sometimes I like to put a little something extra in there like some candy or whatever promotional material they’ve sent me or in the rare cases they’ve acknowledged my existence, the awards were branded hat, or bottle or whatever or tote bag. Especially if it’s a shirt or some other clothing that acts as an advertisement. I seal it all up, slap the label on, and head to the Fedex store to start the next career chapter.