"The Umbrella" and some unrelated pictures.

As part of the short lived writer's group, I still have a couple of unpolished micro-fiction stories.  I figured I'd publish another one.  I believe the assigned subject for this piece was anything and I randomly chose "The Umbrella". 

I also have two more pictures.  The "Splash on the Rocks" is a higher quality picture.  The "City AlphaV1" is a version of a future project and an Alpha, so, take it for what it is.

I'm currently working on a small personal project.  A gift to a family member.  Outside of that project I'm working on a bigger project, a short film.  It is very complex, considering how short it is.  I guess it can be when you have no budget and are largely working with open source programs, but, I don't mind.

I'm also working on at least one composition, which will be posted once it's finished and doing some testing on visual effects inside of video.  Yup, I'm busy playing in my Digital Playground.

------

The Umbrella

By:  JameDawg

The elevator door opened and out stepped a woman with an umbrella. "Excuse me," she said. "You seem strong to me. Could you help me fix my umbrella?"

I do like to be helpful, so I said, "Why sure. Let me take a look." Sure enough, it was jammed and very difficult to open. I fiddled with it and eventually forced it open. Poking my eye with one of the spokes in the process.

"Are you ok?" the woman asked.

With one eye closed, I said "I'm fine," and chuckled at my carelessness.

"Thank you for fixing it," she said, closing it back up.

At that moment a dog, that I had not noticed in the entryway with its owner, peed on my shoe. I rolled my eyes and swore at it.

"I'm soooo sorry," said the owner.

"It's no big deal," I said. But secretly I was plotting the dog's demise.

"I better get something to clean that up," said the owner, looking at the puddle on the floor.

As she walked toward her apartment I couldn't help but think that the majority of the urine wound up on my shoe anyhow.

The elevator took an excruciatingly long time to arrive at my floor. One of the elevators was out-of-order, and another was locked on a floor, probably being used to move furniture. That left a single elevator for general use.

I went to sit on the bench and wait. As I did so, I slipped on the urine and fell bumping my head on the bench and putting both my knee and my hand in the dog urine.

"Oh, my! Are you ok?" asked the owner with a rag in her hand.

I gingerly arose and said, "Yeah, I'm fine." I wiped my hand on a dry part of my pants and felt a ping-pong sized welt on my forehead. The elevator bell dinged, signaling its arrival.

"You go ahead," the owner said reaching down to clean up her dog's mess.

I got into the empty elevator and pressed the button for the first floor. The doors closed. I immediately noticed a foul oder in the elevator a cross between vomit and feces. I looked down and wretched a little, recognizing I was standing in a pile of what appeared to be bile.

"Shit," I said aloud. But, I knew my ride to the lobby would be short.

The elevator wiggled and bumped up and down. I braced my hands on the rail, looking up at the lights that were blinking in and out of existence. Then the elevator stopped. I fiddled in the darkness, suddenly realizing I had forgotten my cell phone at home. I began to panic a bit. How long will I be stuck here? It was warming quite fast in the elevator with the fan going out. The smell of the bile-like substance was also begining to choke me.

I reached for the emergency phone in the elevator. I found the door to the phone, but it was difficult to open. I pulled hard and bashed my knuckles as the phone door flew open.

"OUCH!" I yelped. I felt around for the phone and through my tactile discovery, realized that the phone was not a phone in the traditional sense. It was a speaker with a button. I tried to push the small plastic shaped button. It provided much resistance. I had to push quite hard and it hurt my finger as I pushed.

An operator answered, "Ajax elevator emergency, how may I help you," said a crackly voice.

"Yeah, I'm stuck on the elevator," I said giving her my address and my approximate floor location.

"Hello...., Ajax elevator emergency, are you there?" said the box.

I suddenly realized I had to hold the painful button down to talk to this lady. I pressed the button, wincing a bit, and recited the information again.

"Ok, someone wi...." the speaker cut out.

"Hello!?" I said, pushing hard on the button. There was no response. The box was dead. I was panicky, sweaty, and in not-a-little pain. I began to pace, contemplating the imagined penalty for smoking in the elevator. My legs began to fell rubbery and I moved to a corner to sit, rest, and wait for help.

I slid down and sat on the floor and felt a sharp pain in my behind. I apparently sat on a pin of some kind and it was deep in my butt. I grimaced once more and a tear came to my eye as I slowly arouse. Contemplating my options for a moment I grabbed the pin and pulled it out of my posterior. The time flowed slower then molasses in the winter. But eventually the elevator shook and the lights came on.

The elevator drifted to the first floor, but, the doors did not open. A few, slow minutes later, the doors were forced open by men in yellow suits. The firemen had rescued me from the hot, sticky box. Just as I was about to thank them, one of them said to me, "that's what you get for jumping on the elevator."

I stopped in my tracks, both pissed and dumbfounded (as I did not jump on the elevator), I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. Probably a good thing. I expressed my displeasurable experience to a passing neighbor when a voice behind me, from a man sitting on the bench, said, "Ahh, quit your babying."

Barely able to contain my anger, I approached the man leaned to his ear and as comely as I could said, "I just had a bad experience, thanks for making it a bit worse, asshole," and walked away.

I pushed the pull that opened the exit door and it did not respond right away. After smashing my face into the closed door, I took another try at it. This time it was successful. I was running quite late for my appointment, so I continued on.

I exited the building and stepped off the curb, into a puddle and immediately got hit by a car.

As I laid on the ground in pain, I felt the world fade. Just before I passed out, I realized, it's bad luck to open an umbrella indoors.

 ---

"Shot on the Rocks" - By: JameDawg

"City AlphaV1" - By: JameDawg

 

 

The above works including the story are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

You can find more pictures on my Flickr feed:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamedawg/