Running against time.

Question

Okay today i want you guys and girls to make a great story BUT the title must be Running Against Time. Easy enough??

Answer 1

RUNNING AGAINST TIME

Did you ever try running backwards?  It's really hard and you bump into a lot of stuff.  Once I stepped on my little brother and my mom got very pissed.

"Stop that!"  She screamed.  "And walk forwards, too, you freak!"

All I was trying to do was to slow down time.  That way, if an earthquake or a tornado was coming, I could slow it down.  I could ride my tricycle backwards, but once I got hit by a car backing out of the driveway.

It didn't work with bicycles.  They only go forward, so I took a couple of years off and just got better at the running.  Then came my first car and I had the time of my life driving backwards down the road.  There's no law against it and it's fun when the guy in front of you sees you in his rear wiew mirror.  Backside approaching.

I finally figured it out.  I didn't need to move backward.  I had to learn to think backward.  I had to study history.  The more I got into it, the more backwards everyone else looked.

It's been a long journey, but at least I get younger every day.

Comments

Odd, but nice. I liked it.

Answer 2

RUNNING  part 2

And now it hits me.  Running backwards against time is just bringing me closer to my birth - which is like dying in reverse.  No matter which way I go (forward or backward, left or right), it always leads to this weird place called 'death'.

I wish I knew more about the death place.  Some say there's a Heaven and a Hell, but does that happen if you go backwards all the time?  Back to your mother's womb?  Is there Hell before that?

I tried going left and then right, but that was just like stalling the inevitable.  Doing that, you never get anywhere and you can easily trip and fall off the edges.  To the left is pure oblivion.  To the right is ultimate denial.

I think I'll just keep reading about this history stuff.  Whatever hole I pop out of will probably answer my quest.

Comments

Oh, there's a sequel?
I misread one of your sentences and it inspired an interesting thought: Is the Hell before worse than the Hell after?

Answer 3

I think you should spend a little more time practicing your writing or come up with more creative challenges.  Sorry, that's my opinion.

Comments

Doug, I'm not "practicing" anymore.  I'm working.  That's the goal, isn't it?

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Giraffe:  Just read your comment to me.  My comment was to gummybear.  After further thought though, who am I to shoot down someone who wants to expand their knowledge by posing any challenge they desire.  I apologize.  I should have directed my "comment" to the original post in the first place.  Sorry for the confusion giraffe.

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Honest mistake, Doug

Answer 4

“Running Against Time”

Who names their kid Thyme? They were probably Simon and Garfunkle fans. I bet she has an older sister named Rosemary. No wonder she changed it as soon as she could. Someone named Thyme would wear vegan clothing, live on a cooperative farm in Oregon, and have a rescued dog named Gloria. Time on the other hand… A Time would wear black, listen to techno music, and be an expert at Krav Maga. To put it simply, Thyme is a hippie name and Time is a superhero name. It could be a villain name too. They would never admit it, but there really isn’t much difference between villains and superheroes. It’s only a matter of public opinion.

She changed a couple letters and now she is actual competition. I could have easily beat Thyme but Time will be a challenge. She can probably slow me and speed herself up with her mind. Her long legs are tanned but don’t look toned much. I will have to make sure I pay attention and see if they seem to move faster than they should. I deserve to win. I trained with weights on my ankles for -BANG- the past month. I just took them off this morn… wait, was that the gun? Dammit! I really need to stop letting my mind wander while on the starting block. Damn Simon and Garfunkle.

Comments

Love this, great twist on the idea of running against time.  (And I love the line "Thyme would wear vegan clothing...")   ;)

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Ditto to Dragon.  Just don't forget their brothers Percy and Sage.

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I loved it, too. Very creative. Keep it up!

@Giraffe, you mean Parsley and Sage.

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yep, spots.  I just wanted to add Percy for humor.  As names, Percy, Sage, Rosemary and Time worked.  Simple humor.  I hope I didn't offend anyone.

Answer 5

Running Against Time

It's not really the best job in the world. The hours are long and boring, filled with cleaning and re-cleaning all the shelves. The atmosphere is completely static, which is a shame because at least if there was a breeze, I'd have less dusting to do. Or maybe more, considering we're in the middle of some kind of desert. A desert where the sun never shines. Oh, and don't even get me started on my boss. Doesn't even talk to me most of the time, and even if it looks like he's smiling, trust me, he's not. That's just his face. Well, kind of.

So recently, I've been cleaning row 1,248,732, going over my bazillionth little grimy hourglass with the feather duster. I'd tell you about some of the interesting names I've seen, carved on the bottoms of bulbs in all shapes and sizes, but at this point, I don't really remember much. The few things I've managed to keep in mind are the location of my cot, the supply closet full of spare dusters and a broom for the black sand that collects everywhere, and the number of the row I've been working on.

Oh, and one more thing, I guess. As soon as most of the dirt has been knocked off the 5-inch-high hourglass of one Abagail Smith, I stick the duster in my belt and head off down the row, about ready to sleep for a while. Out of habit, born from years of constant worry, I make a stop in row 498, the first place the boss showed me when I first got here ages ago. Peering into the top bulb, I notice the level of the sand has dropped too far for comfort.

The boss isn't around. He's probably showing some poor sucker how to cross the desert, some soul who doesn't have the presence of mind to ask to see how it all works. A dry chuckle scrapes against my throat as I remove my hourglass from the shelf and turn it on its head, flinching slightly as hair fills in the bald spots and as my bones crack and reform stronger.

It's not that I'm afraid. It's practical. I'm not running away from the inevitable, because that would be silly. I just figured that maybe the old guy with the scythe may need a little help for a while, that's all.

Comments

Truly wonderful story! This is a clever one.

Answer 6

 

Running Against Time

 

The clock on the wall ticks away seconds, measuring your life.

 

One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three...

 

A first grader learns to tell time and watches the

 

tick-tock

of the clock and time moves

 

slowly

 

for her

 

and she dreams about it speeding up and bringing her to adulthood, where she'll be a famous ballerina or a fashion designer and won't have to listen to her parents anymore.

 

One Mississippi, two...

 

At thirteen she stares at the clock,

tick-tock,

wishing she could be six again

 

when her biggest problem was only having cherry pops

 

when she wanted grape

 

and wondering what happened to the time in between then and now – it seems to be moving faster –

 

and at the same time wishing she could fast forward because time still moves too

slowly and she thinks she's going to be stuck in middle school hell for the rest of her life.

 

Tick-tock.

 

She stares at the clock

tick

on her twenty-first birthday

tock

remembering that miserably moody thirteen year old

and knowing she's really an adult now.

One Mississippi...

Time ticks faster on the clock because each second is a smaller fraction of her life now, and she wonders why she rushed to this point only to have time speed up.

 

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

 

Whatever happened to the plans she had when she was younger and waiting to be an adult.

 

One Mississippi...two...

 

How many seconds were left and how fast would they go? Forty years now, and each second was shorter than the one before.

 

Tick.

 

Tock.

 

It's going too fast.

One Mississippi...

Tick...

Eighty years old and staring at the clock next to the hospital bed...

Tock...

What happened to when time was slow?    

Comments

Very good.  When you're 5, one year is 1/5 of your life.  When you're 30, one year is 1/30 of your life.  Time flies.  I like the style of this piece.

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Love the way the layout adds to the flow of the story. Neat one!

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midnight:  Love the writing style you used and the way it made the "time" flow.  Tis' true how time speeds up as you get older.  The only part I think you left out was how you forget how it was to be a certain age.  I have vivid memory images of when I was 4 years old, but I can't remember what I did on my 21st birthay (no, not from the alcohol lol).  As I rounded 30 the aches and pains began, and it seems like every five years another one is added.  I know I'm still "young" at forty seven and my three year old and ten year old keep me going, but it gets harder each year.  I hate to see 80, but maybe I'll have a totally different perspective then.  Sorry for the diatribe.  See what your writing does; it inspires.  Thanks.

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well, doug, keep in mind that I'm 24, so I haven't gotten to that point really that I forget how it was to be a certain age, I'm still pretty much a kid. I'm just fascinated with time, and the perception of time, and the fact that time is not a constant.

thanks to all of you for your comments. I'd written this as a story in paragraph form, and then I read it after it was written and realized that the flow was all wrong, it seemed to flow faster in the beginning and slower at the end. So I broke up the lines and toyed around with it til I felt like it flowed properly to fit the story. I'm glad you found it effective.

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oh i love this one. I don't think about time often because I'm afraid it's going to pass me by, so unlike the girl in this profound poem, I cherish every moment I'm in. Thanks for posting!