Image Problem

“Whaddaya mean, I’m ‘not human,’?” said Ruth. “I’m as human as the next person!” “Clearly not,” said the postal box-sized mass of lime-green slug-stuff, through a speaker embedded in its surface near the top. The voice was mechanical.

“No,” said its partner, twin to the first except for being more of a grass green. “We have observed your transmissions. You are not human.”

“You are not tall enough,” said Lime.

“You have too many freckles,” said Grass.

“Your hair is neither light blond nor rich brown,” said Lime.

“It is also not a flirty red,” said Grass.

“We particularly like flirty red,” said Lime.

Ruth narrowed her eyes. “Just because I’m not the ideal, movie-star woman doesn’t mean I’m not human.”

The things quivered, and Lime said, “We came to meet humans.”

“One man, with dark hair, gruff exterior, emotional insides, and skill at violence,” said Grass.

“And one woman, with small chin, large eyes, a complicated relationship to the man, and bazoongas out to here,” said Lime.

“You’re disgusting,” said Ruth, and she got back in her car.

“Wait,” said Lime, turning up the volume. “Who will protect us from the distrusting and prejudiced public?”

Boardroom

“Gentlemen,” said the CEO, “Thank you for convening to deal with this serious matter.” He looked out across the gathered vice-presidents in the boardroom. “I have fallen in love.” He leaned forward over the polished oak table. “Ideas.”

“Flowers,” said the VP of Operations, spreading his hands wide. “Flowers mean romance.”

“Good,” said the CEO. “What else?”

“A night on the town,” said the VP of Sales, “A night out will--”

The VP of Marketing smacked the table with a palm. “No! A weekend! A weekend in Aruba!”

“Aruba’s for couples,” snarled Sales. “A week in Paris!”

“A cliche,” roared Marketing, “London is worldly!”

“Enough,” shouted the CEO, “We’re all on the same team here!”

The room was quiet for a moment.

“Put a poem in a puzzle and let your love interest, eh... puzzle out your feelings,” said the VP of R&D, leaning back and perhaps almost asleep.

“Huh,” said Operations.

“Ha!” said Sales.

“And what kind of puzzle would you choose?” said Marketing.

“I dunno,” said R&D. “What sort of thing does this person like?”

The entire boardroom stopped.

“Huh?” said Operations.

“Ha!” said Marketing.

“Let’s stay focused, people,” said the CEO. “Let’s talk demographics!”

Last Meal

“Here. Use it and save us the trouble.” The guard tossed something through the bars onto my cot.

It was an old-fashioned fold-out razor. The blade had inched out of the bone handle on landing. Its mirror shine was just as I’d kept it. My fingers twitched toward it. Was it a trap?

I was dead either way: now in staged self defense or as justice later. Why worry? I picked it up and unfolded it. A millimeter from my eye, the edge looked as sharp as I’d left it.

I tested the edge on my thumb, despite my stubble. I’d never dulled the blade on hair. It drew a perfect thin red line with almost no pain. Just a taste.

Execution meant an injection, sleep, and death. I had never been so clean and obedient. Resisting was worse: Bullets would rip the pulse from me and make heroes of the mugs who did it.

So what if I spared them the expense? It was always about me, never about hurting them. Why grant them any pleasure?

The razor knew where to go. I could think of no one else who deserved the honor of taking my life.

Stop

Maggie flipped her sign from SLOW to STOP at the last moment, and the Jaguar scraped to a halt. She knocked on the window. Her tinted reflection rolled away, replacing hard hat and orange vest with with a man: Tarantino-pinched face, tinted sunglasses, too cool to slow down. “What?” he said. “There’s nobody coming. Why can’t I go through?”

“Safety hazard, sir. Never normally do this, but I need to point out a serious problem, if you’ll come out of the car.” He looked suspicious, but got out. Maggie pointed to the front of the car. “Take a look up there.”

His back was to her as he looked. She set down her sign as she talked. “Look at the front bumper.” The bumper had a mirror shine. She took off her vest and hat. “See that? A real danger. Could cause serious damage any time now.”

“Don’t... see anything,” he muttered.

She slipped into the driver seat and restarted the engine. “It’s you, dipshit.” And she drove off.

He’d call the police and call the company, but she’d only worked for them since she’d traded their employee her car for the sign, hat, and vest.

Another asshole served.

Trapped

I’m trapped here. I’m pretty sure I built this wall. These bricks. This cement.

Oh, hey, I probably used these tools. There’s some quick-dry cement here... and some extra bricks... and a pointy spatula-thing. Yup. I probably made this wall.

Wonder why I didn’t build it with myself on the outside.

Huh.

Well, I probably had a reason. Maybe there’s a monster or something out there. Or Nazis. Or zombies.

Still, I would have liked to have left me something to eat. And drink.

Maybe a toilet.

There’s not a lot of room in here either. How long do I have to wait until it’s safe? If I’d been expecting not to remember anything, you think I would have remembered to leave myself a note. And more to read by than this bare light bulb.

And... and there are no tools here for breaking out. Just for building. And one light. Did I build a catch into the wall, a secret way to break out?

...

Nope.

Maybe someone else built the wall, and left the tools in here to trick me.

Or maybe I wanted to make damn sure I never left.

I’ll have to think about this.