A break in the deal

With my recent computer problems, limited writing time, and a new-found desire to finish a book I’m working on, I’m suspending the 52 Cards project.  I plan on finishing it eventually, and to that end I’ll list the remaining cards, as they appeared in the shuffled deck back in January (I haven’t looked ahead until tonight).  Some of them might get skipped to if I feel like writing something off my regularly scheduled beaten path.

Remaining cards:

Six of Hearts (I know that it was last week’s, but I don’t want to let it go)

King of Spades (this week’s)

King of Diamonds

Seven of Clubs

King of Hearts

Three of Spades

Six of Spades (part 2 of Inside-Outside Straight)

Eight of Diamonds

Eight of Spades (part 3 of Inside-Outside Straight)

Five of Clubs

Ten of Diamonds

Ten of Hearts

Seven of Hearts

Two of Spades (part 3 of  Two-Island Lake)

Two of Clubs (part 4 of Two-Island Lake)

Nine of Diamonds

Queen of Diamonds

Eight of Hearts

Nine of Spades (part 4 of Inside-Outside Straight)

Ten of Spades (conclusion of Inside-Outside Straight)

Queen of Hearts

Six of Hearts

Tonight, I’m in the same chair I’ve been using to write most of the entries, but my heart isn’t in writing tonight.  The computer I’ve composed countless blogs on, discovered numerous artists on, and laughed with at countless Homestarrunner cartoons, is showing only a blue screen and a spinning wheel near the bottom.  I’ve been on the tech support site, and so far no remedy has worked.  I had a story planned out, and I might post it later, computer willing.

UPDATE 1 8/14/2009 My computer is in the shop, and I’ll know more next week.  I’ll try to get this one written sometime before the next one goes up.

Six of Diamonds

“Good afternoon Mr. Clarkdale, or can I call you Zeke?”

Zeke Clarkdale did not look up from his work.  He was making six quick dots on a piece of paper that had been left on the table.  He rapidly made six more dots under each one, followed by six more to the middle left of all the dots, and finally six more to the right of each of the first two dots.  He started to connect the dots slowly.  “Zeke is fine” he said as he finished the third one.

“Zeke, my name is Hildegaard Cumberdale.  I’m here to talk to you about why you’re here.”

“I know why I’m here” Zeke said.  He had finished connecting each set of four dots, and was now shading them in.  Hildegaard watched him, and her smile didn’t break once.

“You must be a card player.”

“What’s that?” Zeke said.

“Card player.  That’s clearly a six of diamonds you’re making.”

“Heh” Zeke said, stopping for just an instant to look at what he was drawing.  “Yeah.  It kinda does.  I never thought of that one before.”

“So, it’s not a six of diamonds.”

“No.”

“What is it?”  Hildegaard was leaning over the table more than the security guard liked.  His hands were slowly reaching for the club and tazer that were hanging from his belt.

“You know” Zeke said.  He flipped the paper over and began making dots again.

“Ah yes” Hildegaard said.  She opened a simple folder and glanced at the contents.  “I’ve read  your file.  You claim you were abducted by aliens several months ago.  The underside of the ship had six lights that were diamond shaped, and they pulsated and made some kind of high pitched noise.”

“Like nails on a chalkboard in stereo surround” Zeke said.  He glanced up at Hildegaard, and then back to the paper.  He continued to make the dots, but his pace slowed.

“You also said the aliens abducted you.”

“That’s right.”

“I know a lot of people claim to be abducted by aliens.  I understand you really believe what you saw.  The state can’t let you break into radio stations to spout off about how they’re preparing to invade.”

“Somebody has to warn the people” Zeke said.  He took a deep breath and started connecting dots.

“I’ve worked with several cases like yours, but yours is…the most extreme one I’ve worked with.  A lot of abductees don’t have the degree of…challenges you have.  They’re able to go on with their lives and not let an encounter with these little gray men affect them.”

“Not gray” Zeke said.

“Excuse me?”

“They weren’t little gray men with black eyes.  They were green.  Green and scaley.  They had teeth like a crocodile.  Bright, yellow eyes.  They breathed very heavy and smelled terrible.”

“Um…”  Hildegaard quickly flipped through her notes.  “I don’t remember you mentioning those details before, at least in what I read.”

“That’s because I didn’t” Zeke said.  He began shading in another set of small diamonds.

“Then this is progress” Hildegaard said.  “So, these crocodile like aliens…did they do anything to you?”

“Yes” Zeke said.  He started looking around for another piece of paper.  Hildegaard slowly pushed a mostly blank sheet of notes towards him.

“Why do you make the diamonds?” Hildegaard asked.

“It occupies my mind.  It keeps me from thinking about it.”

“What did they do to you that was so bad?” Hildegaard asked, trying very hard not to sound like shew as talking down to Zeke.

“They used some kind of machine to scan my body.  Take readings…ph levels, blood content, immune system…”  Zeke was still making dots, but he was doing it more slowly.

“Why do you think they let you go?”

“People disappearing is more suspicious than crazies talking about aliens” Zeke said calmly.  The security guard shook his head.  A static-y burst of chatter came out of his shoulder receiver.

“On it” the guard said as he pressed the button. “Ma’am, we’ve got a situation on this floor and I’m needed.  I’m going to have to end this.”

“No no no” Hildegaard said.  “His file indicates he isn’t dangerous.  Go.  I can handle things here.  Please” Hildegaard gave the guard a look, and he shook his head in frustration as he ran out of the room.  Zeke watched him leave.  He kept making dots, but his pace continued to slow down.

“I won’t try anything” Zeke said.

“I know” Hildegaard said.  “Now, maybe these aliens were just studying humans.  You don’t know they had malicious intent.”

“Yes I do” Zeke said.  He kept making dots, but they weren’t as perfect as before.

“How can you know?  You’ve said in countless reports,  you were in some kind of weird state and unaware of your surroundings.”

“I was supposed to be.  I…heard things.  Saw screens that had invasion routes…there…there was one practicing English in a raspy tone…surrender and death will be quick or something along those lines…he was hard to understand…”

“Really.  Aliens working on English and an invasion.  That’s quite a tale Mr. Clarksdale.  I wonder why you opened up to me about all of this information that isn’t in your file.”

“You know why” Zeke said.  His lines connecting the dots were uneven and squiggly.

“Excuse me?” Hildegaard said with surprise in her voice.

“Because I’ll never forget the smell…” Zeke looked up and right into her eyes.  Hildegaard’s smile disappeared just as the door opened.  The guard forced a smile as he closed the door.

“I’m done here” Hildegaard said.  She snatched the paper away from Zeke and stormed out.  Zeke let out a nervous exhale as his hands shook.

“Are you okay?” the guard asked.  “You’re as white as a sheet.”

“Yeah…” Zeke said.  “I’d like to go back to my room now…”

Six of Clubs

8:30 PM, somewhere in Nebraska

Evan slowly walked towards the tree.  It was the only tree still standing that he could see.  All the leaves were gone, and the bark had been stripped away on most of the old cottonwood tree.  Rain pelted Evan’s face as he put his hand on the damp trunk.  He looked down, and slowly took in deep breath after deep breath.  His free hand was still shaking, but after a minute or two, it was holding steady at his side.  He looked up at the tree, and a foot above his hand, he spotted something.

Three hours earlier

“Dude, this is going to be the day!”  Scooter started spinning the tuning knob on the car, but other than bursts of static and song Evan didn’t hear anything.  He was too busy watching the skies and the road, and in that order.

“I still don’t think this is the day.  Besides, I’m not sure I want there to be a day.”

“Evan, for real?  We went to that spotter training class two years in a row.  We’ve been sitting on the sidelines for a while.  It is time to embrace our time in the storm chasing spotlight.  We both have the evening off, we both got away from our girlfriends, and our cell phones are fully charged.”  Scooter was pressing F5 the whole time he was talking, and when he stopped talking he looked at the screen of his laptop.  “Severe thunderstorm warnings two counties over.  I think we might finally see our first tornado.”

“Will one be enough for you?”  Evan said.  He fumbled around the steering wheel until the windshield wipers were on, as they had driven into the very front of a massive storm system.

“I hear the urge only gets stronger the more often you see ‘em.”  Scooter yanked the data card from the side of his computer.  “We go West.  I’ll check radar in another half hour or so.”

Two hours earlier

Scooter tapped his fingers on the steering wheel along with the rhythm of some old song on the radio.  They were the only car at the small town convenience store.  The skies were dark all around, and rain was pounding whatever surface it could find.  Evan ran from the store to the car, and even his rapid opening of the door, followed by a loud slam, didn’t disrupt Scooter’s finger drumming.  “How much?”

“This one’s on me.  I’ll need a good, stiff drink when we’re done.  In the meantime, root beer will have to do.”  Evan tossed Scooter a bag of Corn Nuts and an Orange Crush as he adjusted the passenger seat.  Scooter ripped open the corner of the bag of Corn Nuts, while Evan downed half a bottle of Barq’s in record time.

“This station just broke into programming with a warning.  The action is on the other side of the next county over.”  Scooter turned the keys, and his Subaru came back to life.  Evan’s face quickly recovered from the burning sensation of carbonated root beer taking an expressway into his stomach.

“Seriously, don’t hydroplane this time.  Last time we went off looking for a bad storm,  you were all over the place.  I didn’t bring my motion sickness pills.”

“That’s not my fault” Scooter said as the Subaru quickly darted back onto a Nebraska state highway.

One hour ago

“DUDE!  ARE YOU SEEING THIS?”  Scooter’s voice was full of life and excitement.  It carried over the sounds of hailstones hitting his car.

“YES, YES I AM.  I’M SEEING A FEW SMALL CRACKS ON YOUR WINDSHIELD.”  Evan had a small camcorder aimed at the windshield, but his body was pressed flat against the seat.  The hail was coming down fast, and the rain was hitting them almost horizontally.

“THIS…THIS IS FRIGGIN’ AWESOME!”  Scooter sounded as excited as Evan was scared.  The radio crackled with heavy static as the car kept speeding into the heart of the storm.

“THIS IS CRAZY!”  Evan kept thinking about all the things he’d  never done in his life, even though most of them were things he couldn’t do, shouldn’t do, or probably wouldn’t do if given the opportunity.

“THIS…THIS IS WHAT WE’VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT DOING FOR YEARS!  FINALLY, WE’RE GETTING ONE!  TORNADO, HERE WE COME!!!”

Thirty minutes ago

Evan and Scooter’s jaws were almost dragging behind the car.  They had pulled to a stop when the EAS sounded on the radio.  A massive tornado was maybe a few miles ahead of them to the West.  The dull roar was just barely audible over the tone on the radio.  They were in the middle of nowhere, and there was no other car in sight.  “We…we have to get into a ditch or under a bridge!” Evan’s words came out in a quick burst of verbiage, and he was trying to open his car door while Scooter’s face was locked on the storm, his eyes following the dark finger of the heavens as it smeared the Nebraska landscape.

“It’s coming this way…if we drive at a ninety degree angle…”

“No way!  They can change track quickly!”

“They can also dissipate quickly.  We can do this.”

“I can’t…you’re insane!  I don’t know why I agreed to this…Felicia is going to kill me!”  Evan opened the car door.  The roar was even louder now.  The tornado didn’t look like it was moving, but it looked like it was getting bigger and closer every second.

“I’m going to make a go for it.  I’m not giving up now that we found one.  I need more footage!  I’ve never felt more alive!  Evan, don’t you feel alive?”  Scooter’s eyes briefly broke away from the storm, only to see Evan slamming the car door before he ran for the ditch.  Scooter rolled down the passenger window, and twisted his body towards it.  “I’LL FIND YOU LATER!”  Scooter floored the accelerator, and he turned the car Northward.  He was soon steering with his knees as he tried to get footage of the storm.

8:31 PM, somewhere in Nebraska

Evan sidestepped to his right to see what was in the tree.  Halfway stuck in the tree was a playing card.  It was wedged into a newly formed crack, just like it had been thrown into the tree by one of those card-throwers he’d seen on Letterman.  The rain was dripping down the plastic-coated six of clubs, of which only two clubs were visible.  Evan reached up as high as he could, and he grabbed the corner of the card.  It slid out of the tree, and then Evan just looked at the spot where the card had been.  There was what looked like a small crack, other than it was perfect, straight line.  Evan slid the card into his back pocket.  With his other hand, he reached into his front pocket.  He pulled out his phone, which still had a few bars of service.  He pressed the number five, and hit send.  “C’mon Scooter…pick up.  Please…”