So I was in the bathroom today at work, feeling groggy... when I was overcome by a story, sumpthin' fierce, I tell ya. It's pretty brutal, but it doesn't start out that way. I've been reading McSweeny's fantastical stories or something of the like, and this one jumped out at me...



Considering how awful my niece has behaved recently, I think the motivation here is clear: kids can act like animals! Here goes:



A little girl is sitting in her third grade classroom, and she sees a guy dressed in a monkey suit poking his head in the door. No one else sees him at first. The monkey suit is obviously a suit, brownish, but the eyes and hands are freaky. They don't look suit-like. They look real.



He keeps popping his head in, catching her attention, disappearing. She sits near the back of the close, sideways, so she has a good view of him. But other kids start noticing too.



The story switches to little vignettes -- her uncle once wore a monkey mask like this, to scare her at the zoo; her father told her a monkey had once bit him, and he'd been sick for days, nearly died; there is a bratty girl in her class who has big bags under her eyes but who is popular just by being so aggressive and mean in her personality, that girl has a little tag-along follower, and the bratty girl implies to the other girls she may have been molested, though she does so as a boast, like "I've kissed boys twice my age!" (she's nine); the protagonist of the story doesn't get along with the bratty girl, though the protagonist is also quietly popular with two other girls always competing to sit next to her on the school bus. She's just as happy to sit alone, though, and stare out the window, plotting what she's going to draw next. she's an artist. Also, in first grade, the teacher loved her so much, she brought her an apple (she read it in a book), and on the last day the teacher hugged her hard and kissed her on the cheek. You're wonderful, she thought to herself, or something like that. But she had the same teacher for second and third grade, and this one doesn't seem to care much for her, and has her sit at the back of the class.



The mean girl with the bags under her eyes eventually sees the monkey (by this time, a little nervous ripple is going through the class; only the teacher is busy preparing her lesson at the chalk board while the girls work in teams on projects). She and her tag-along friend look scared. The monkey motions to her, and the girl walks to the back of the room, near the exit, turns to the class, curtsies sadly, head bowed, eyes downcast, and walks out in the direction of the monkey.



Insert a vignette here.



Now, back to the classroom. The monkey, who has stooped, monkey like movements, is suddenly back in the doorway, howling. Even the teacher turns around. THe girl recognizes him. Of course! So familiar, he is! He raises himself up to his full height. Then he swivels so his upper body is out of eyesight. He's reaching for something .... it's the bratty girl's body! She's all broken up and stuff, with her head facing the wrong way, looking lifelessly at the classroom (I forgot to mention it's an all-girls academy). The monkey tosses the body into the classroom, where it knocks the teacher's desk. Everyone screams and goes running, most kids jumping out the window. One girl lands and her ankle goes pop. Another girl helps her.



Hey, I did say it's a brutal story, and I've been reading fantasy / horror type stories!



The monkey jumps into the classroom and rips up the teacher, gnashing at her eyes and throat with his hands (he's wearing a monkey mask, so no mouth).



The fat girl in the classroom is frozen. The protagonist is frozen. The tag-along to the bratty girl is hiding in the corner.



The monkey looks at the fat girl, who pees herself. He bows and motions for her to leave. She can't. He does a mighty kick, like a spinning drop kick and slaps her in the ass with his monkey foot. She goes half-running, half-hurtling for the door, safe and unharmed. SHe escapes. he turns to the tag-along in the corner, grabs her, and breaks her neck. Then he turns to the protagonist, who has done nothing all this time but stare.



He kinda takes a seat on the floor next to her, so he's looking up at her. After a long moment, she says, "You've really made a mess here." The monkey looks sad, downcast, stares at the floor. "Please try to be neater next time, okay?" The monkey looks up, and she kinda strokes his head and scratches him under the chin. His eyes are fascinated and familiar. They begin to giggle together. The end.



Wow. I dunno if I could ever write this one, and if I had the talent to do it justice, who would publish it!



The intro quote, beneath the title, would say: "Little girls and ferocious men in monkey suits are not always so distinct."



Man, I think I could be a horror writer, if only I'd practice the craft. My mind works in such a way that I can see odd moments, some beautiful, some awful, some just bizarre. I just need a little stimulus and it comes -- scenes, vignettes. I combine something I heard, with something I've read, with something I've experienced, and poof! The scene is in my head. But I never write it down in time. And by the time I do, it's crap. Maybe it was always crap.



I really want to slow down the moment of recognition so that when she sees the monkey and recognizes who it is in the doorway, she thinks to herself:

The monkey!

Stella gasped in recognition as the monkey raised himself to his full height, suddenly occupying every inch of the doorway, arms outstretched and anger bellowing. For the first time, he was making noise, and it was a terrible noise. His howls sounded like monkeys screaming before some tribal animal war; but not just one monkey, so many of them, a dozen at least, all of them furious and committed to clawing and biting whatever enemy, real or perceived, had the misfortune of standing before them.

The monkey! The monkey! The monkey!

Every girl saw and heard the monkey now. How could they not? Even Mrs. Rosen saw and heard. There was so much screaming. Fat Lucy was crying and so was tag-along Susie. So were the others. The monkey suddenly swiveled his upper body down to the side, his legs planted in the doorway but his torso obscured. He was reaching for something out of eyesight.

And then it was in his arms, offered to the classroom like a gift. It was bitchy bratty Cassie, or what was left of her. Her head hung crazily, facing the girls with wide, lifeless eyes, a red ribbon of blood threading her nose to her chin. Her body faced the wrong direction, a broken doll. He'd snapped her neck.

The girls were all screaming, all crying, even Mrs. Rosen was crying. The monkey was in the room now, lifting bitchy bratty Cassie above his head. And then he threw her.

She cut through the air like a flopping sack, legs and arms a jumble, and hit the hard front of Mrs. Rosen's table with a ka-thump. A second whump as she bounced to the floor. Chest to the ground, Cassie's doll head stared up toward the desks to the right of Mrs. Rosen, her eyes still open. Tag-along Susie met her lifeless gaze and instantly became silent. She could no longer scream or cry. They stared at each other, the living girl and the dead.

The monkey was upon everyone now, chasing the wannabe-twins and the tall girl and the shortest of the short. Girls were pushing open the window, crawling over the sill. It was a half-story drop. They dropped. Stella saw dark-haired Annie land awkwardly, her left foot splayed on its side. She moaned. Jenny Liu was helping her up, pulling her to her feet. They were running off now, Annie limping. They would be safe.

The monkey pressed his face close to one of the new girls and growled, his monkey paws in the air; an awful noise. She screamed, then ran around him to the window, another found the door. He chased after another, then another. But they all made it away. Well, almost all.

The monkey locked stares with Mrs. Rosen.

"Please," she whispered, clutching at her own face.

But it was too late. The monkey was sailing through the air, ripping at her eyes and at her throat. Stella hadn't noticed anything like claws on the monkey before, but they must have been there now. It was short work; a disaster. The monkey was relentless.

Mrs. Rosen's ruined body sank in shreds to the floor, a scrap of her falling from the monkey's paws a moment later, a bloodied afterthought. Only three girls remained. The monkey turned for a moment to tag-along Susie, who still had not made a new sound. He turned to Fat Lucy. She was crying quietly, her chin bubbling, standing in the middle of the room. The monkey looked Lucy up and down, up and down, then dropped to his haunches. A large wet stain formed across her pants.

He raised himself up a bit. And then the monkey bowed.

With a little flourish of his bloodied monkey paw, he motioned from his bow toward the door. Fat Lucy stood still as the earth itself, a lake of tears slipping off her face. The monkey righted himself and bowed again. Again, with the flourish of his hand. She was free to go.

Fat Lucy did not move. The monkey raised himself, reared back, rocked, and Lucy's chubby face became amazingly taut. This would be the end for her.

The monkey moved to the left quickly, then back to the right, snapping his legs around him in one 360-degree rotation. A roundhouse kick. His monkey paw hit Fat Lucy square in the seat of her pants; her body, lifted, swam toward the exit a centimeter ahead of her feet. She was out the classroom exit and tumbling down the hallway. She caught her balance by the landing. She was down the steps and off through the schoolhouse doors. She was almost home.

Other than the impression of his monkey toes in her ass, she was safe.

Then the monkey turned toward Tag-along Susie, who had finally taken refuge in the corner. She was curled in a ball, arms clasped around her head, still in silence. The monkey stepped forward. Grabbed her up in his arms. Stella couldn't see what was happening, with the monkey's brown body blocking her view. She heard a snap. Susie fell to the ground. Her eyes caught Stella straight-on from the corner, her body was crumpled toward the wall.

Susie was dead.

The monkey wasn't finished.

He turned toward Stella. He looked down at her from his full height. Stella looked up from her chair. She hadn't moved, screamed or cried. She had just watched.

He took one step, then another. He was right there before her now.

He dropped slowly to the ground, beside and beneath her. She stared into his wild, human eyes.

They remained there for a long moment, an eternity. The room was no longer a room but a ruins of desks and chairs, three bodies, broken glass, papers and books, pens and pencils, art projects that would never be finished. It was a disaster.

"Oh monkey," Stella said finally, "you've really made a mess here."

The monkey dropped his gaze toward the floor, and a sag went into his shoulders.

Stella shook her head.

"It's okay," she said, taking his cheek in one hand and lifting his face, scratching the top of his fuzzy head with the other. "Just try to be neater next time, you promise?"

The monkey looked at her, his joyful, familiar eyes fascinated and shining. He snorted. Stella giggled. They would be good together, this team, she seemed to be saying. And they both laughed until they fell down dizzy, happy to be so alive.

THE END

Scenes in my head

Okay where to begin? Typing in the dark is deefeecult... But it's 2 a.m. and I'm as awake as rain, if that makes any sense. I left work early today and crashed at 5 p.m til 1:30 a.m. My weird schedule has me completely spent. Gotta work on getting the whole sleep schedule thing under control. The issue last night was that I worked late and didn't fall asleep until after 2 a.m. or so, and I had to be up before 7 a.m. to take a relative to a conference. First alarm went off at 6 a.m. Youch. I was already sleep-deprived to begin with.

There are two stories rumbling around in my head, and they've been beating at the inner membrane for months now. The problem is, they're more like scenes, not words. As in movie scenes. One would look great animated. But on paper? I don't know if I have it in me. I haven't written a short story since high school, that I can remember. I tried something or other in college, without success.

I haven't read fantasy-fiction of the spaceship or wizards and warriors variety since probably middle school... but these two stories definitely fit the fantasy bill. I wonder why? I don't think I'd be very good at writing fantasy, seeing as it bores me to read about these elaborately drummed up societies and caste systems and feudal worlds, with all their maps and heavy verbiage. Nope, never got into Dune.

But tonight I put some meat on the bone, at least internally. I woke up with a bit of a back-story on the tip of my tongue... The character's name is Berlin Strummer. He's in a bit of an amalgm world, kind of like Flash Gordon or the animated film Heavy Metal, where there are both robots and planes, but also wizards and warriors (I think). Tonight I decided he is the son of "visitors"... Earth-humans who came to the planet he grew up on before he was born. Or maybe he was born in space? Hmmmm... I was thinking mom was from Argentina and dad was from Minnesota, mostly because I like the idea of him trying to remember and then sound out the words.

Where I started with Berlin Strummer in my head was that he was on a cliff, surrounded by "the enemy." He had a gun or some kind of weapon, but he was reluctant to use it because the bad guys had turned his family or friends into mind-controlled weirdos, zombie-ish or flesh-eating. If this were animated, the 'camera' would pan across grandma and grandpa, mom and dad, and then little Timmy -- who is growling with his hands clawing at the air. It'd be comic I tell you. Comic. But not so comic that Timmy would actually be saying, "Brains!"

Anyway, Berlin isn't about to shoot his family or adopted family or teamates or whoever they are on that cliff. So he says, audibly, but quietly, "I'm sorry," fingers his weapon, and then he falls backwards, off the cliff.

He's scared but kinda making his peace with death internally as he's falling. That's when -- badda bing! -- this lithe winged angel-creature shows up. We would have introduced her earlier as a captive of the bad guys, or a carnivale attraction held against her will. Anyhoo, she's all giant wings and feathers, and she doesn't so much catch him and get tangled up with him, and they fall earthward in a ball. It's mildly sexual, see? But innocent. Funny, if it's written write.

There's also "the little man." He's a midget (little person?) who rides a flying skateboard. The only problem with this character is it's so familiar, I'm afraid I might have plucked him from Heavy Metal. In any case, little man and Nimh (the winged woman) manage to prop up Berlin Strummer, and he falls to the ground a-okay.

I had different takes in my head... Instead of Nimh and little man, a Mytzylplk-like character shows up (that's the all powerful trickster from Superman who doesn't really mean the protagonist any harm but likes toying with him, like Q on Star Trek). I think I'll scratch that.

Well, it's tough to write a story around a scene. You're beginning in the middle. I gotta get my character to the cliff, and off the cliff. Hmmm.. I'm getting sleepy.

My second story is even more involved. There's a girl who wants to defeat this creature or bad person who has the entire world living in fear. The world is really a collection of tribes, loosely but not necessarily exclusively based on race. Each one has a different skill -- Asians have martial arts, African tribe has the spear, Indians have arrows, etc etc. There's a white kid from a kind of Nordic Viking tribe, who has Thor's hammer or something.

But she's the only girl, about 14, and she's the leader of a group of boys, one from each tribe. They're off to defeat the monster... but she gets them all killed. Maybe they just get turned to stone or something in a kind of "final battle." In any case, they're done for.

She's kind of a proud leader. So right before her own death, she casts a wish to put others before herself, or something like that. Basically, she learns humility. The moment that she learns that, the kids are returned to life. She still fails to kill the monster, but somehow, a minor character (lets say a gnome-like creature that they carry as a mascot) is able to televise her plight to all the tribes all over the world, and then channel the power of all the tribes in a kind of spiritual ultimate weapon aimed at the creature.

It sounds goofy, I know, but you gotta think big. Big! Like soda pop. Whoever invented that wasn't no small thinker, no sir.

I have a bunch of characters and scenes in my noodle, but they're mostly just that-- scenes. There's no story around them, at least, not really.

In one, there's a team of space mercenaries who are shipping cargo illegally for some evil empire, until they realize the cargo is children from the major planets around their galaxy. They're furious and they switch sides. The most self-serving and wimpy of the bunch lures the bad guys into thinking he's on their side, but then he blows up their "mother ship" or does something equally courageous. I've thought at times that he has hidden tentacles and rooms in his stomach that can store devices. So he hides poison gas in his tummy... but it's not poison to him. I've also thought that the captain of his ship, who is more respectable, blows up the mother ship, but then this tentacle dude teleports onto the ship before it pops and takes the captain's place (there's only one teleportation device, and it's one person per trip).

At some other point, I've thought of pairing these mercenaries up with their opposite-sex counterparts (there would be one lesbian couple) on the same planet that Berlin Strummer is from. Hmmm....

Somewhere in the child-trafficking story is the story of a girl and her baby cousins or baby brother. She gets captured and place in a cargo container, which is presented to the king of this warrior-race that is doing the trafficking, on his homeworld. The problem is that the homeworld is oblivious to the trafficking, which is being conducted by the king's son out in space for huge profit. The son is maybe telling the king he's protecting shipping channels or mining or fur trading or something. But somehow the king gets to sample the wares. He's an odious Jabba the Hut-like lump with lots of tentacles. The queen, in contrast, is this sexy warrior Ninja. Her body guard, the sergeant at arms, is the strong, silent type and it's implied that they're lovers. He has kind of a Native American warrior ambience to him.

Anyhoo, the king sends the sergeant at arms to open the cargo box... and out pops the girl, shivering and shaking, with the baby cousins clutching her legs and huddled behind her. She has a bow and arrow in her hand and she lets it rip. It hits the sergeant at arms in the arm, but he barely does more than flinch, more intrigued than injured.

The corrupt son sends his men to kill the girl but the Jabba the Hut creature rips their heads off. with a tentacle. He wants to know why there are kids in the cargo box. Slowly, the son's subterfuge begins to unravel. The queen takes the girl under her wing, and she and the sergeant at arms and her maids in waiting (who are also, secretly, trained ninja body guards) travel into space with the girl to see for themselves, and somehow enter the fight.

Okay, it's 3 a.m., and Im outta here!