Liam Perrin's Blog, page 8
May 1, 2017
The Curiously Stunted, Incomprehensibly Disjointed, Perfectly Inadequate Adventures of Nicholas Cornelius Holloway – Episode 35
“The Civil War-” said the teacher.
The students groaned. “We talked about this last year,” said one. “And the year before.”
The teacher pointed to a banner above the whiteboard. “Please read that for the class,” he said.
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, it said.
“Those who study history are doomed to repeat it,” said the student.
“I wasn’t wrong,” she said a moment later to the bench outside the principal’s office.
The bench was quiet. Over the years it had seen a...
April 27, 2017
The Curiously Stunted, Incomprehensibly Disjointed, Perfectly Inadequate Adventures of Nicholas Cornelius Holloway – Episode 34
The flower strained her neck to watch the sun. The planet spun beneath her and carried her away from her beloved.
She slumped. Her petals drooped. Darkness fell.
A nightmouse asked, “Why so sad?”
A firefly sang, “Have hope! He’ll come again!”
When dawn broke, the yawning firefly and the blinking nightmouse listened for the flower’s melody.
But the wilted flower never woke.
“That’s a terrible story,” she said. “She should have trusted the sun.”
He nodded. “The sun is always shining somewhere....
April 24, 2017
The Curiously Stunted, Incomprehensibly Disjointed, Perfectly Inadequate Adventures of Nicholas Cornelius Holloway – Episode 33
“Dad was a hard-working ice dragon from the Old Country,” he said. “Mum comes from southern fire serpent noblesse.”
He balanced a tall stack of paper cups on one talon and inserted it into the dispenser.
“Mixed marriages were tough back then, and her family never really approved, but they made it work. Their love, you know…” He shook his head. “Nothing like it.”
“But it hasn’t made life easy, has it?” asked the reporter. “I mean the prejudices, the stereotypes.”
He nodded. “It’s not easy bein...
April 20, 2017
The Curiously Stunted, Incomprehensibly Disjointed, Perfectly Inadequate Adventures of Nicholas Cornelius Holloway – Episode 32
The traffic lurched irritably toward morning destinations.
His GPS calmly announced, “Police reported a head.”
He decided to cut back on crime TV.
April 17, 2017
The Curiously Stunted, Incomprehensibly Disjointed, Perfectly Inadequate Adventures of Nicholas Cornelius Holloway – Episode 31
“I was six,” he said. “We were learning addition. Two plus two equals four. Only I was thinking…”
He swallowed and watched his fingers.
“Take one point five. That rounds to two. But one point five and one point five is three. Two and two could be three.”
He shoved his hands away and stared at the ceiling.
“Or two point four…” His voice was hurried now. “Double that is four point eight, and that’s five,” he said.
He glanced at her. Her lack of reaction was purely professional. He slumped. “In...
April 13, 2017
The Curiously Stunted, Incomprehensibly Disjointed, Perfectly Inadequate Adventures of Nicholas Cornelius Holloway – Episode 30
The hooded man spoke with a voice like boots on gravel, “So tell me, Agent, how far are you willing to go to uncover the truth?”
“Well,” she said, “how far away is it?”
His shoulders slumped. He pulled back his hood. “It’s very difficult to be mysterious with you.”
She smiled and patted his arm. “I think you’re doing wonderfully,” she said.
April 10, 2017
The Curiously Stunted, Incomprehensibly Disjointed, Perfectly Inadequate Adventures of Nicholas Cornelius Holloway – Episode 29
“Not if you were the last person on Earth!” she said.
He paused. He thought about pointing out that if he were actually the last person, she wouldn’t be around to not go out with him. He thought about correcting her: ‘last man on Earth’ is what she meant. He thought about commenting – out loud – about how gender-inclusive language renders that phrase nonsensical. Interesting, isn’t it? he thought about saying.
He sensed she would not find it interesting. He sensed there were conversational la...
April 6, 2017
The Curiously Stunted, Incomprehensibly Disjointed, Perfectly Inadequate Adventures of Nicholas Cornelius Holloway – Episode 28
The teacher concluded, “Those early scientists – Newton, Einstein, Hawking – What they didn’t understand was that natural phenomena are most stable when first discovered and then deteriorate as our understanding of them deepens.”
The bell rang.
“You have your assignment. See you tomorrow,” she said to a room already in motion.
The children bounded in slow loping arcs toward the door, tapping their books like balloons to keep them floating in front of them. Their laughter meandered in the syru...
April 3, 2017
The Curiously Stunted, Incomprehensibly Disjointed, Perfectly Inadequate Adventures of Nicholas Cornelius Holloway – Episode 27
Murray was the seventh son of a seventh son. Eugene had been born under a full moon on a winter solstice. A vulture had deposited a live fish on his doorstep the morning of Archibald’s thirteenth birthday.
Eustice, on the other hand, could levitate a plump goose nearly five inches straight up. He could conjure edible chocolates. He could teleport small rocks and lethargic beetles medium distances, make time appear to pass slightly slower or a touch more quickly for several minutes consecutive...
March 30, 2017
The Curiously Stunted, Incomprehensibly Disjointed, Perfectly Inadequate Adventures of Nicholas Cornelius Holloway – Episode 26
He pumped the lever with one hand and turned the crank furiously with the other. His panicked frenzy of action resulted in no perceptible change in trajectory. Strapped to the exoskeleton he careened with it into the facility’s wall dislodging masonry and bending a steel girder like a noodle. Steam exploded from the crank-house on his back, and he went down in a fusillade of broken bricks and hot sparks.
She was there before the dust settled. The skyward flywheel was still spinning. “It’s oka...
