flood

A couple having an illicit affair go off together for a romantic weekend away from their spouses. However they run into foul weather – in fact, they are caught in severe flooding. They have to leave their hotel to seek higher ground. During their escape, the man rescues pair of children that have been separated from their parents and caught mid-stream. The woman notices a TV crew capturing the scene. She realizes that he will be interviewed. For his sake, and for hers, she manages to slip away to find rescue elsewhere. He can now make up whatever story he likes for the media.

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licensed

At end of 19th century brothels were state run in Norway. An official in charge of keeping track of the hygenic examinations is put in charge of the accounting as well, and starts a series of reforms aimed at increasing profitability.

corvee

He was called every year for two of the winter months to come work on the terra cotta army. He works with the team that makes the pipes for the legs. The first year he falls in love with a young man who he then looks forward to seeing eevry year. The fourth year the young man is not there, and instead of returning home he journeys to the young man’s village to find out what happened.

long game

He kept a careful log of the upkeep he had to do of the estate. For example, the dechlorination tablets needed to be restocked well in advance. Without the routine he would implode – he found it a useful way to mutilate his weariness of life. Every ballpoint mark on the laser-printed excel spreadsheet was another scar on his apathy. He put together power point slides to prepare for negotiations with the field mice that had infested the basement. His long-term strategy was to Americanize them so they would eventually share his goals. But he didn’t count on the rise of a strong trade union that took up carcinogens as a key issue.

stroll

wandering along the roads that only went out from the city, i was lulled into a state where my brain was an empty bowl with a spoon sticking out of it. i came across a lighthouse but had no matches. i sat there until out of pure boredom i was emboldened to use the drafting equipment that had been abandoned there to draw a sign calling for help. the next morning looking down at the rocks i saw the bones of a ship, and was overcome with the imagined pain of the sailors dashed on the rocks and crushed beneath her hull. i shook it off and turned to the opposite window, looking inland. i imagined myself installed as the feudal lord of the dusty gray hills. i imagined them green and dotted with herds.

irrigation army

How Sargon, the first king of the Akkadian empire built an army out of irrigation workers.

reactive theater

Dave, out with some co-workers at a bar arcade, stepped in to a booth labeled reactive theater’ and steps out a few minutes later with a scowl on his face. He didn’t like all the thinly-veiled references to the affair he was having with the girl in the finance department.

proteus search

After selling several “whack a mole” style games to advertisers, Max launches a new search engine that has the same kind of chase the cursor interface. Why would anyone use it? It will answer questions about your own life – where did I leave your car keys, who is my wife seeing on the side, where is my son getting the drugs.

through kindred cities

The legend about zeke was that he was born on the road, in the middle of nowhere. there was no one but his father to serve as midwife, and the birth was difficult. his father had to perform an emergency episiotomy, and the only way he could sterilize the hunting knife he had was with heat. even after all that zeke was stillborn – but his father revived him with a car battery. unfortunately zeke’s father died of a snake bite about a week later. his mom, who suffered through all the rest of it, soldiered on. that’s the legend according to zeke. everybody at school thought he was full of it. zeke and his mom moved around a lot, and the kids from his old school always found out where he moved to and managed to get word to the new school that he was a big phony.

certain find

First colony in space, made up of a dozen people who volunteered for a one-way trip, find a coffin on the supposedly uninhabited planet. When they open the coffin it contains a human body, a black tentacled thing that moves like water. It ripples to the corner of the room, leaving the corpse bare, and in the middle of it opens an eye.e Three or four of the colonists meet and decide that it’s best to destroy the colony, kill everyone there, and warn off any future expeditions.