Friday, November 29, 2013

200 More Words

I pasted David Kearney's 200 words and changed the font to differentiate it from mine. He had a typo on the last sentence so I fixed it. Here are the pertinent web links:

200 Words at a time part one and part two at Chuck's site and David's site.

***

The lecture theatre door slammed shut with a bang so loud half the room jumped in their seat. Alice descended the stairs, not oblivious to the 200 pairs of indignant eyes boring through her, and took the only available seat at the front of the class.

Professor Gordon Kane stood at the lectern and looked over the top his glasses at her. “Welcome Miss Turner, what a remarkable entrance. I was just about to introduce my colleague to your classmates, may I continue?”

Alice’s face burned so hard she thought her hair might catch fire.

Kane gestured toward a tall man wearing a green turtleneck and an tweed jacket with leather patches at the elbows. “I expect that many of you will recognise our guest,” he said.

She recognised him immediately, in fact he was the very reason she was late for class.

“His book, Changing Minds, has spent the last six months perched at the top of the New York Times Best Sellers list, his television show of the same name has surprised  an delighted audiences around the world and we are very fortunate to have him here today. It is therefore, my very great privilege to introduce, Dr Lucas Spencer.”

The room erupted into deafening applause. Dr Spencer moved to the lectern and held up his right hand. “Thank you Gordon, thank you everyone” he said. “I’d like to ask for five volunteers.”

Alice’s hand rocketed upward. She willed with all her being that he choose her. She didn’t want to look too desperate, but she had to be chosen. Doctor Spencer looked around the room and his eyes locked briefly with hers. She hoped her loud entrance was enough to get on stage. The blast radius was only five feet so she had to be in his “bubble.”

Doctor Spencer chose a diverse group of volunteers. Different ethnicities and social standing, but they were all male. Alice wondered if she had chosen the wrong gender. After four of her classmates made their way to the stage, Doctor Spencer looked at her and smiled.

“Alice, please join us on stage.”

Alice glanced at the watch covering the scar on her wrist. She had worked hard to show her peers she was just like the rest of them.

If they only knew, she thought as she ascended the steps to the stage. It was almost time - her purpose on this world had almost reached fruition. Doctor Lucas greeted each volunteer with a hearty handshake. That would be her moment.


The room was awash with hundreds of conversations, but she focused on only Doctor Lucas.

No comments:

Post a Comment