The basic gist of a Scrabble Story is that you take the words formed from playing a game of Scrabble and incorporate them into a fictional (or nonfictional, I suppose) story. There are several variations on how that can be done, depending on how many players there are in the Scrabble game and also with whatever way you feel most comfortable with.
Here are the ways that a Scrabble Story Game could be played:
1) Simply write down the words as you play, and using that list, write the story afterward. The words can then be put into the story either in the order they were played, or randomly.
2) Write the story as you go.
2a) If there are two players, you can write the parts of the story as each word is placed - alternating who has the paper. Or, if only one person is writing, they can still write the story as the words are placed on the board. Or, both players can write as you go along, each person writing their own tale, and you can swap papers after each word is placed. That would make for some really amusing stories.
Steph and I have done the 'write as you go' version a couple times, and they were hilarious. I have done the 'write the words down, and make the story using the words from the list' version several different times, and the stories have been... interesting. I think I will post them. The words that came from the Scrabble game will be underlined. Also, note that there is no 'winner' in Scrabble Story, the point is simply to be able to work the words into the narrative in whatever way possible. (Harder than it sounds, sometimes.) You can still keep score of the Scrabble game, since the story is not really connected to the game in any way other than that it is providing words that need to be used.
This little gimmick is probably quite useful for NaNo writers. I didn't use it on my (much neglected) NaNo story, but that's mostly due to the fact that we didn't play Scrabble that month. In fact, we have only played Scrabble one time this year at all. I wrote down the words in a list (I've done that everytime we've played Scrabble now since the first time back in 1998) but I've misplaced the list, so I won't be doing that. Maybe Steph and I can play Scrabble between now and Saturday and I'll write another Scrabble Story. That would be kind of fun, to have a day when all the blogosphere (or at least the part of the blogosphere that reads my blog) plays Scrabble Story together. Hmmm. I might have to coordinate that with folks for sometime in '06...
We could either all play Scrabble at our perspective houses and then post the stories we come up with, or we could have one Master List from someone's game that everyone would have to write a story using those words... Hmm.
Anyway. Here's the very first Scrabble Story EVER. Please note that I wrote it here and there over the course of several days (weeks?) and didn't really finish it. Also, that I am not the world's greatest writer by any stretch of the imagination.
The words were from a Scrabble game played on 6/29/1998 and were as follows:
jam, humid, axe, over, twine, guts, hordes, nice, fin, alp (not a real word, as Steph pointed out), eve, mails, toad, okra, tuber, no, glue, ewer, he, don, brain, faster, vent, teddy, goof, thine, seamy, lo, pickle, vote, snake, zine, dig, or and or.
Since I didn't indicate when I wrote the story which were the words, I won't do that now either. (Next time I will). I am also going to leave in any crossing outs. (Any striked out text, stuff in parenthesis, or other comments will be exactly as it was in my notebook. You'll see what I mean.)
And with no further ado, I present:
Shakespeare and Einstein
Ellen woke unusually early. She had been having an unusual nightmare. As she sat in her bed, panting, she tried to remember the dream, but couldn't. This was also unusual; Ellen always remembered her dreams. It was the start of a highly unusual week for Ellen.
Ellen tried to go back to sleep, but to no avail. She tossed and turned for about seven minutes, then got out of bed. It was 3:24 in the morning. She slipped on a sweatshirt and some sweat pants and went into the kitchen.
Ellen opened the refrigerator, and took out the bread, butter and strawberry jam. She put two slices of bread in the toaster and sat down on the kitchen floor, thinking about her recent nightmare.
Flashes of the dream came to her. A giant snake. A plastic ladder that seemed endless. A lot of cardboard. None of it seemed to make sense.
The ringing of the phone startled her enough that she let out a sharp scream. Embarrassed at herself, then angry that someone would call her at this hours, she stood up and went to answer it.
"Hello?"
"El. I'm glad you're awake. I figured you would be. How soon can you get over to my place?" it was her longtime friend Teddy. He sounded frantic.
Ellen glanced at the clock on the wall: 3:28. "I can be there in ten minutes. What's going on, Ted?"
"I don't know yet. But I think it's big. Xil and Loam are on their way over also. And I tried to call Jude, but the line was busy. I paged Alp, but he hasn't called back yet. If you hear from them before I do, send them here, please."
Ellen was speechless. Her mind was racing. It was 3:30 in the morning, why would Teddy want all of the gang to be at his house? And why had he assumed that I'd be awake? Ellen thought, remembering the first part of the conversation. I'm sure Ted will explain it all when I get there, she thought, shaking her head and looking for her car keys.
She found them just as her toast popped up. Exasperated, she slipped on her loafers and ran into the kitchen, grabbing the toast in one hand and the butter and jam in the other. Using her foot, she nudged the door of the fridge open and shoved everything on the top shelf beside a jar of pickles. "I'll just nuke the toast later," she said to herself, closing the door.
As she rounded the corner of the kitchen, she realized she didn't have her driver's license. I'm only going up the street, she thought, maybe I should just walk. It is a nice night out.
Pausing once more before finally leaving, she changed the message on her answering machine, in case Jude or Alp called her, informing them that despite the hour, she was at Teddy's house and if they could make it to go there as well.
I sure hope this isn't bad news, she thought as she walked out the front door.
It was not as nice out as Ellen had thought. The night was, in fact, rather humid. This is one of the strangest nights of my life, Ellen thought as she walked toward Teddy's house. Maybe I'm still dreaming. That would explain a lot. Of course, if I'm not, it wouldn't be all that strange. Aswood had always been a little off-center and it's denizens were no different. Particularly Ellen's group of friends. In Aswood, it seemed one of three things was true about all who lived there. Either your name was strange, your job was strange, or you yourself were strange. Often, more than one was applicable to the same person.
Teddy was an average enough individual, and Theodore was not that bizarre of a name, ti was his occupation that was unorthodox.
Ted was a pet lawyer.
And he was a damn good one. It seemed at times that Ted knew animals better than he knew people. Of course, the usual jokes were made behind his back, and most people in town called him by his nickname, Teddy "Bear" Cutler, or thought of him as making a goof on the lawyer profession. But Teddy took his job seriously, and if he did know about the jokes, he didn't let them bother him. In many ways, he encouraged it, relishing in theentire self-mockery humor of it all.
Since 1996, Teddy had begun bringing his pet rats, Shakespeare and Einstein, everywhere with him, including to his cases. The rodents were well trained and amicable toward humans, which was partly the reason the judges allowed them to be brought into the courtroom. The fact thateveryone all the judges in town knew and liked Teddy his mother was mayor didn't hurt, either.
Teddy himself had noticed that since having the rats in court, he hadn't lost a single case. While it was only a coincidence, Teddy had begun to accept it as a superstition, and some of the other lawyers had started to notice it, too.
"What'd ya do, Teddy? Make a deal with the devil?"
"Yeah, or are your rats doing the work for you?"
Teddy laughed these comments off, but did worry that things were going too well.
Teddy had been good friends with Ellen for several years. She had been the one who helped him pick out Einstein and Shakespeare back in '96 when he'd purchased them.
Loam and Xil were the celebrity couple in Aswood. The two twenty year olds were inseparable and had been since childhood. It was rumored that when Loam had been born, 15 hours before Xil, that he had nearly died until his soul mate was placed in the delivery room next to him.
The two had been together everyday since then.
Loam (French word for 'eagle', whatever that is, will be his last name) was the only child of Suzzette and Qaal (French eagle). Qaal "Battle Axe" (French eagle)was is the one of the last members of an Indian tribe that lived where Aswood now stands long before there was an Aswood.
The majority of Qaal's people abandoned the land near the turn of the century. Qaal and his family stayed, and were accepted by the white people. Qaal and Suzzette met in high school, during Qaal's senior year. Suzzette was a sophomore and a French foreign exchange student. When they met, it was the fabled love at first sight. Though she was only in the states for four months, they began dating. By the second month, theybegan knew they would get married someday. When Suzzette's tour was finished, she promised Qaal that she would return, and true to her word, one year later, she did. Suzzette finished high school, then moved in with Qaal when they were married. Though they wanted to have many children, they were devastated to find that Suzzette could not.
Despite this setback, they remained happily married and were considering adoption, when Suzzette discovered that she was pregnant. The pregnancy, while a miracle, was not an easy one and there were several complications.
In fact, when Loam was born, New Year's Eve, 1979, he was given less than a 30% chance of survival. The doctors connected Loam to all of the latest machinery, but things still looked bleak for the newborn. It wasn't until the New Year came and a healthy baby girl named Xil Young was born in the same hospital that Loam mysteriously and miracously recovered.
Xil's parents, Unaas and Paul, had never met Qaal and Suzzette, despite the fact that they lived 3 houses apart, and Aswood wasnothing not much more than a ghost town. The Youngs were rather quiet and did not like to reclusive and had no friends in town. They were seldom seen around town, and Paul Young didn't even work in Aswood, but commuted each day the 22 miles to Springfield (or some other generic town name) in their 1970 Chevy pickup. It was not known what his job was. There were many things about the Young family that weren't known.
Loam and Xil didn't meet until '85 when they were both enrolled in kindergarten. As with Loam's parents, when they met, they both seemed to know they were destined to be together. It didn't take long for them to realize how close they lived to one another. Once they did, it was nearly impossible to keep them apart. Qaal and Suzzette didn't mind, and welcomed Xil over any time. Xil's parents, however, were a different story. While not out and out opposed to the friendship, and then later relationship, they never exactly welcomed Loam.
As they grew up, Loam had once asked Xil's parents. Xil had grown solemn and a bizarre zombie-like transformation seemed to occur in her. She had replied, "They like to be alone. I love them very much but I don't want to talk about them." Any other attempts to learn about Paul or Unaas was met with similar responses. Eventually, Loam quit asking about them.
When Loam had turned 18, back in 1997, he had moved into his own apartment. It had taken a lot of begging on Xil's part (so she said), but eventually her parents allowed her to move in with him.
Shortly thereafter, they had announced that in May2004 2005, they would be getting married. They wanted to take a year off, then finish college before exchanging vows.
Their year off had just ended, and Loam & Xil would be starting their freshman year at Aswood University (Aswood U - ha ha!) in the fall of '99 - a mere two months away.
Most Aswoodians didn't think they needed to go to college. They were both planning on being filmmakers/screenwriters and had already produced several short films. In fact, Loam had receivedseven an award for one of his shorts, documentaries, "No Guts, No Gory", about the horror film industry. And Xil had been written about in a movie zine because of her seamy screenplay about a homeless vet and his slipping into drug abuse. Naive slackers these children were not.
Judith Anderson had changed. When Ellen had first met her, she had been upbeat, active, and energizing. All that had ceased back on Feb. 15th when her son, Billy, had been killed by a werewolf. Since then, Jude, as her friends called her, had withdrawn into her home. She had made fewer and fewer public appearances, and when she spoke to people, she sounded distant. Even her work had changed. Jude wrote a weekly editorial column for the local paper, The Aswood Republic. There was serious talk of it going nationally syndicated, which would do wonders for Jude's career. Jude, however, did not care about advancing in her occupation. She wanted her Billy back. Ellen, who I should've mentioned earlier is a dream therapist, had on several occasions invited Jude in for a session or two, even going so far as to offer the service for free, but Judith had not come to see her.
Ellen was worried about her. Teddy had said her phone was busy. She must've taken the phone off the hook. Who on earth would she be talking to at 3:30am?
Oh yeah. Her column.It had changed. It, too, had been affected by Billy's death. However, as is often the case in situations like Jude's, it seemed that Jude was putting all of her life force into her work. Her writing had become sharper, clearer, and often times, more cynical. But it sold more papers. In the Friday night edition, according to sales, more than 20% more people bought the paper than any other weekday - surpassed only by the Sunday edition. (What?!?)
Her column, Inside Society's Brain, was typically the buzz around town over the weekend, and oftentimes the first thing discussed in offices on Monday. Jude Anderson was the Mike Rokyo of Aswood.
Ellen was almost to Ted's house now. She continued to think about her friends, and wonder what surprise(s) awaited her (and them).
The final person Teddy mentioned was Alp. Alp, of course, was not his real name, per se. Alp's full name was Donalp Lee Taylor. Of course, when he was born, he was supposed to have been Donald, but through the wonders of typos and the fact that Alp was an orphan and not adopted until he was 8 and had been referred to as Donalp his whole life, it stuck. There was a time, during his early teens, that he tried to go by Don - needless to say, this failed. The children merely adapted and took to calling him Alp instead. By the time Alp had entered his 20's, he had accepted the name, and felt he had even grown into it, that it gave him character. If nothing else it was a good ice-breaker when meeting new people. Of course, the almost surefire way to re-freeze that ice would be to tell them what he did for a living. In this day of post-modern-anti-intellectual-pseudo-spiritual-superstitious belief, being a scientist, especially one who was studying animal intelligence, was almost like being a leper. Fortunately, he had Teddy, Ellen, Loam, and Xil. He was also very much in love with Judith Anderson.
Of course, Jude, who had been single since late '89, almost ten years, wouldn't give Alp the time of day now. They had dated a few times and things had been going smoothly. But, after Billy's death, she had ceased seeing him.
Ellen had arrived at Ted's house. The porch light was on and the front door was propped open. As she neared the door, she could hear the faint sounds of technology. A radio playing La Bamba, and at least two televisions. What is going on? she thought.
She creaked the door open, knocking slightly. Apparently Ted heard the knocking, because he opened the door immediately,rushing signaling Ellen to come in, but to be quiet. He had an old Toad the Wet Sprockets t-shirt on and some old shorts that Ellen presumed he slept in. His hair wasn't combed and he hadn't shaved. This was unlike Ted.
A mixture of curiosity and fear was rising in Ellen. Teddy left the door opened a little for Xil and Loam, then led Ellen into the living room.
"Will you please tell me what the hell is going on?" Ellen whispered. She noticed that one of the televisions was playing a French movie that was ending. The word "Fin" was on the screen. On the radio, Richie Valens (?) had ended his song, and was replaced with the Smashing Pumpkins doing Feliz Navidad.
"Now, El, I need you to promise me you're not gonna freak out here. What's going on is pretty wild, I'm barely keeping it together myself, so I don't want you to go screaming into the street."
"All right, Teddy. Jesus, you're scaring me. What's wrong? Was it a dream?"
Sidenote: Teddy was a patient of Ellen's, that's how they first met, and Teddy had had a recurring nightmare problem. He was cured, aside from an occasional relapse.
"I wish to hell it was. No, this is no dream."
From theliving room spare room, someone said, "Who's that?" It was a voice that Ellen didn't recognize, and didn't like right away either. It was raspy and ...unnatural was the best word Ellen could think of to describe it.
Ellen gave Teddy a puzzled look as he responded, "Um... it's um, Ellen, my friend from uh... down the street. I'm... um... trying to bring her... um... up to date on the situation."
One of the televisions turned off and the radioduring in the middle of Love Me Tender and the TVs were either turned off, or muted. "She's here! Why didn't you tell us?" the voice was approaching the other room, and Ellen thought it sounded tiny, like perhaps from a midget, or a child. A child who had smoked its entire life, but maybe a child. It also sounded strangely familiar, as though from a long forgotten movie.
"No, Shakespeare, stay back!" Teddy screamed looking down
"No, wait!" Teddy yelled to the stranger in the other room. It was at this time that Xil and Loam showed up, knocking on the door and walking in at the same time. "Teddy?" Xil asked, then upon seeing Ellen and Teddy, smiled. "Oh, hi!" Loam smiled and said, "Morning," and was making his way to the sofa, when Shakespeare, one of Teddy's rats, walked in from the guest room with a piece of twine in his mouth like a toothpick. "Hello there, Ellen. And you must be Xil and Loam. I'm Shakespeare, but ya'll knew that. Would any of you like something to drink?"
Ellen fainted.
Loam quickly jumped from the sofa, pointing at the rodent, screeching hysterically, "What the hell is that?!"
Teddy sighed. "I told you to wait in the guest room."
Shakespeare shrugged. (Yes, rats have shoulders) "They'd have to find out eventually," he said to Teddy. "Best to get it out of the way."
Noticing that Ellen had fainted, Shakespeare seemed to have a change of heart. He jogged over to her, scampering from one side of Ellen's head to the other. "Oh! Oh! She's not dead, is she? Oh! Please don't let her be dead. Not this. Not now. Oh, dear!"
Teddy stepped past a still shocked Xil and a still terrified Loam and knelt down to help Ellen. "No, Shakes, she's not dead. She fainted. Go get me some smelling salt. It's in the bathroom. First Aid Kit."
Shakespeare disappeared into thebathroom hallway toward the bathroom.
Teddy turned to face Loam and Xil. "Well, surprise. You'll accept it eventually, kids." And then to Loam, "Is she okay?" This seemed to bring Loam out of the state of fear he was in. "Huh?" He turned to Xil, who hadn't blinked since first seeing Shakespeare.
"Xil? Honey, come on. It's all right. Teddy's going to explain this. It's a joke or something. Come on." He shook Xil slightly. Xil looked at her lover with a blank stare. "Rat. Talked." She shook her head and looked at Loam, coming out of shock enough to recognize him. "Sorry. Didn't mean to space out. IT's just not everyday, you know. I'm... I'll be okay." She finally said.
Shakespeare returned, walking on his hind legs and carrying a packet of smelling salt in his front paws. He was unstable, as if walking on two legs was new to him, and somewhat of an exercise. "Here," he said, giving Teddy the packet.
"Why didn't you carry it in your mouth?" Teddy asked.
"You kidding? That's poisonous! Oh, humans! I can't wait to get this trial under way." With that, Shakespeare went back into the guest room. The television and radio turned back on momentarily after.
Teddy broke the smelling salt under Ellen's nose, bringing her around.
"Are you all right?" Teddy asked.
"I... um... it was a hallucination, right?" Ellend was gaining her senses quickly.
"'Fraid not," Teddy told her, helping her up.
"But rats don't talk," Ellen said, trying to make sense of it.
"I guess Shakespeare does," Xil said.
"Einstein does, too," Teddy said, "but she's asleep still. Probably dream transferring." With that cryptic remark, Teddy went into the kitchen. "Would any of you like anything to drink?" he asked.
Shakespeare made a disgusted noise, upset that no one had responded when he'd asked just five minutes earlier.
Xil, Ellen, and Loam went into the kitchen. Teddy had an ewer filled with apple cider. He poured a glass for himself, then for Loam. Xil wanted water. Ellen wanted a beer.
"Let's stay in here for a while," Teddy siad. "I can tell you what I know and they won't be able to hear us."
Xil plopped down in the middle of the kitchen floor, sitting Indian style. Loam hopped up on one of the counters. Ellen leaned against the stove. "So," Loam asked, "how long have your pets been able to speak?"
"As far as I know, just a couple of hours. I woke up from one of their dreams around 1 this morning."
Ellen gasped, the final piece of her nightmare falling into place.
Teddy, Xil, and Loam looked at Ellen.
"Sorry," she said.
"What is it?" Teddy asked.
"It's a... long story and I don't really understand it. Hell, I don't understand any of this. But... nevermind. Please, og on Teddy."
"If what happened to me happened to you, I'll explain fully in a moment. Let me ask you,was were your nightmare dreams this morning... different in any way?"
Ellen nodded. "Yes. They were. First off, they were nightmares. And secondly, I couldn't remember them right away, and that never happens."
The group nodded its concurrence, knowing very well that Ellen's profession was dream therapy, and in order for her to stay the best, she kept a precise dream log. In the past three years, Ellen had only two entries that could be considered even partly vague.
"I did begin to remember them a bit later, but it was ... like it was somebody else's dream. As if, this sounds crazy, but it was like somebody, or something, had taken over my theatre of the mind and changed the movie."
"That," Teddy said, "is a perfect way of describing what is going on. It seems my rats have, overnight, accrewed supernatural powers, and the ability to speak."
"Does Alp know about this?" Loam asked.
"I think Alp is, indirectly, responsible for this." Teddy answered. "But that's speculation, because I can't reach him. He was over here the other day and had one of his lab rats, Tuber or Tubey or Two-bin, that's it. Two-bin was with him. And it was playing with Einstein and Shakespeare. Nothing odd about that. Alp often brings the other rats over to compare them to mine. Usually racing through mazes, or who can dig faster, stuff like that. And nothing seemed stragne about Alp's rat. Perhaps I'm jumping to conclusions. I mean, just because Alp has been doing animal intelligence research, and now my animals havesupreme extreme intelligence is no reason to assume..."
"Where is Alp, anyway?" Xil asked.
"When I saw him on Tuesday, he mentioned some convention in Canada. He told me that he'd have his pager with him at all times, though. I've paged him five times now, and I've written three different emails to his screen name. But so far, no response. I hope that he's all right. I mean, if this isn't an isolated occurance, well, let's just say that I'm not sure how safe we are, but I feel a lot better now that I'm no longer alone with them."
"Not that we're out of the danger zone yet." Not that my characters are developed or interesting and the dialog blows and it's an okay idea but i have GOT to do some major repair work on this story. All right, enough bitching. Anyone reading this knows that this isn't the best piece of work they could be reading. Back to the story:
"If the press gets hold of this, we're in for a long ride."
"I agree, Teddy, so why did you try to call Jude... and why was her phone busy?" Ellen said.
"Well... Einstein and Shakespeare wanted me to call her... but I don't think they wanted the papers in on it. Luckily they haven'twanted decided to get press coverage... yet. They wanted me to get hold of Banka, Judith's dog."
"What on earth for?" Xil asked. "Can she talk too?"
"I'm not sure, but I think they'd be able to make her speak, if she can't. And from what I understand, they want her to reside as the judge."
"Judge for what?" Loam inquired.
"Shakespeare and Einstein want to put humanity on trial."
Teddy let that sink in. Everyone was silent. The only noise was from the televisions and radio the rat was watching in the other room, barely audible in the kitchen.
"Like Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation," Loam said quietly.
Xil either heard him or had the same thought. "They believe they're omnipotent," she said.
"And for all we know," Ellen said glumly, "they are."
"Wait a minute," Teddy said. "They're rats! They may be able to speak and take over people's minds - when they're both unconcious, I might add - but that's about the extent of their power. We're a lot bigger than they are, and we outnumber them. If they had godlike powers, they'd have put us in cages hours ago. Let's face it, they're just rodents with delusions of grandeur. I should know, they're my pets. And I've spent the most time with them. Both before and after their jump on the evolutionary ladder. If I feared for even one minute that they had any real power over us, I wouldn't have agreed to this trial of theirs."
"Why did you?" Xil asked.
"To think own self be true. I'm an animal lawyer. If I had declined this trial, I'd be a hypocrite. Besides, they're my pets and I do love them. If this will make them happy, I'll humor them."
"Cool."
"Well, let's get this under way. I'm kinda interested in talking to the rats themselves. See how much they know, what they think, stuff like that." Xil said.
They walked into the other room and found Shakespeare eating a piece of okra, watching something on tv,and with his ear next to the air vent.
"Oh, hi. I was just trying to turn the air on," he said, "It's really warm tonight."
Teddy looked at him suspiciously. "Yeah. Humid. The AC controls are in the living room. Or you could just turn on the fan in here."
"Oh yeah." Shakespeare smirked. He ran over to the fan controls and with some work managed to push the button that said "Lo".
Einstein was curled up in a corner, asleep. She twitched periodically.
"I hate to wake her when she's sleeping so soundly," Shakespeare said, "But we have a lot to do."
Shakespeare went over to where Einstein was sleeping and nudged her with his nose.
After a while, Einstein stirred and woke. She blinked, looking at Shakespeare. "What?"
"There are other humans here. We should get the trial started."
At hearing this, Einstein sprung to life. Noticing the group, she said, "Morning. I'm Einstein. I guesss you all know what you're here for. Well, let's decide the fate of humanity. I vote they die."
The humans exchanged some puzzled looks, most cast in Teddy's direction. He seemed as shocked asthey the rest of them at Einstein's sudden delve into the macabre.
"I second," Shakespeare said wickedly.
"All opposed?" Einstein asked. Without waiting for a response, she continued, "Fine. Then it is settled. Humanity shall be exterminated."
"But..." Teddy started.
A thundering crash interrupted his objection. The four of them turned toward the noise and saw hordes of rats tearing down Teddy's house.
The End
Notes written back then: I like the idea of rats (or some animals) becoming aware and wanting to put the human race on trial. The ending, the last couple days writing in fact, just kind of spiraled into something I didn't want. I will come back to this story eventually and fix it up. I like the characters and was having fun developing them. I wanted Loam to be more like the Indian character from Northern Exposure and Xil to be ...I don't know, just more there. The idea of an animal lawyer is amusing, especially for a story like this one which pits humans against the so-called lower animals. To sum it up, I believe Shakespeare and Einstein has potential and eventually may be something to be proud of.
Notes from now: Ugh. Some of that was horrible. Like so much of my writing, it has a great premise, horrible execution. It was difficult for me not to edit a lot of the writing as I was typing this up. It was also difficult not to editorialize and comment on how stupid some of the sentences were. It's also interesting that intelligent rats played a role in my NaNo novel, even though it had none of the same characters.
I wonder if I ever will come back to work on this story. If done correctly, it could be an entertaining little short story. Eh. Probably not. But hopefully those of you who read the whole thing got some enjoyment from it. Perhaps I'll post some of my other Scrabble Stories in the next couple of days. If nothing else, they certainly help with the word count.
Ellen tried to go back to sleep, but to no avail. She tossed and turned for about seven minutes, then got out of bed. It was 3:24 in the morning. She slipped on a sweatshirt and some sweat pants and went into the kitchen.
Ellen opened the refrigerator, and took out the bread, butter and strawberry jam. She put two slices of bread in the toaster and sat down on the kitchen floor, thinking about her recent nightmare.
Flashes of the dream came to her. A giant snake. A plastic ladder that seemed endless. A lot of cardboard. None of it seemed to make sense.
The ringing of the phone startled her enough that she let out a sharp scream. Embarrassed at herself, then angry that someone would call her at this hours, she stood up and went to answer it.
"Hello?"
"El. I'm glad you're awake. I figured you would be. How soon can you get over to my place?" it was her longtime friend Teddy. He sounded frantic.
Ellen glanced at the clock on the wall: 3:28. "I can be there in ten minutes. What's going on, Ted?"
"I don't know yet. But I think it's big. Xil and Loam are on their way over also. And I tried to call Jude, but the line was busy. I paged Alp, but he hasn't called back yet. If you hear from them before I do, send them here, please."
Ellen was speechless. Her mind was racing. It was 3:30 in the morning, why would Teddy want all of the gang to be at his house? And why had he assumed that I'd be awake? Ellen thought, remembering the first part of the conversation. I'm sure Ted will explain it all when I get there, she thought, shaking her head and looking for her car keys.
She found them just as her toast popped up. Exasperated, she slipped on her loafers and ran into the kitchen, grabbing the toast in one hand and the butter and jam in the other. Using her foot, she nudged the door of the fridge open and shoved everything on the top shelf beside a jar of pickles. "I'll just nuke the toast later," she said to herself, closing the door.
As she rounded the corner of the kitchen, she realized she didn't have her driver's license. I'm only going up the street, she thought, maybe I should just walk. It is a nice night out.
Pausing once more before finally leaving, she changed the message on her answering machine, in case Jude or Alp called her, informing them that despite the hour, she was at Teddy's house and if they could make it to go there as well.
I sure hope this isn't bad news, she thought as she walked out the front door.
It was not as nice out as Ellen had thought. The night was, in fact, rather humid. This is one of the strangest nights of my life, Ellen thought as she walked toward Teddy's house. Maybe I'm still dreaming. That would explain a lot. Of course, if I'm not, it wouldn't be all that strange. Aswood had always been a little off-center and it's denizens were no different. Particularly Ellen's group of friends. In Aswood, it seemed one of three things was true about all who lived there. Either your name was strange, your job was strange, or you yourself were strange. Often, more than one was applicable to the same person.
Teddy was an average enough individual, and Theodore was not that bizarre of a name, ti was his occupation that was unorthodox.
Ted was a pet lawyer.
And he was a damn good one. It seemed at times that Ted knew animals better than he knew people. Of course, the usual jokes were made behind his back, and most people in town called him by his nickname, Teddy "Bear" Cutler, or thought of him as making a goof on the lawyer profession. But Teddy took his job seriously, and if he did know about the jokes, he didn't let them bother him. In many ways, he encouraged it, relishing in the
Since 1996, Teddy had begun bringing his pet rats, Shakespeare and Einstein, everywhere with him, including to his cases. The rodents were well trained and amicable toward humans, which was partly the reason the judges allowed them to be brought into the courtroom. The fact that
Teddy himself had noticed that since having the rats in court, he hadn't lost a single case. While it was only a coincidence, Teddy had begun to accept it as a superstition, and some of the other lawyers had started to notice it, too.
"What'd ya do, Teddy? Make a deal with the devil?"
"Yeah, or are your rats doing the work for you?"
Teddy laughed these comments off, but did worry that things were going too well.
Teddy had been good friends with Ellen for several years. She had been the one who helped him pick out Einstein and Shakespeare back in '96 when he'd purchased them.
Loam and Xil were the celebrity couple in Aswood. The two twenty year olds were inseparable and had been since childhood. It was rumored that when Loam had been born, 15 hours before Xil, that he had nearly died until his soul mate was placed in the delivery room next to him.
The two had been together everyday since then.
Loam (French word for 'eagle', whatever that is, will be his last name) was the only child of Suzzette and Qaal (French eagle). Qaal "Battle Axe" (French eagle)
The majority of Qaal's people abandoned the land near the turn of the century. Qaal and his family stayed, and were accepted by the white people. Qaal and Suzzette met in high school, during Qaal's senior year. Suzzette was a sophomore and a French foreign exchange student. When they met, it was the fabled love at first sight. Though she was only in the states for four months, they began dating. By the second month, they
Despite this setback, they remained happily married and were considering adoption, when Suzzette discovered that she was pregnant. The pregnancy, while a miracle, was not an easy one and there were several complications.
In fact, when Loam was born, New Year's Eve, 1979, he was given less than a 30% chance of survival. The doctors connected Loam to all of the latest machinery, but things still looked bleak for the newborn. It wasn't until the New Year came and a healthy baby girl named Xil Young was born in the same hospital that Loam mysteriously and miracously recovered.
Xil's parents, Unaas and Paul, had never met Qaal and Suzzette, despite the fact that they lived 3 houses apart, and Aswood was
Loam and Xil didn't meet until '85 when they were both enrolled in kindergarten. As with Loam's parents, when they met, they both seemed to know they were destined to be together. It didn't take long for them to realize how close they lived to one another. Once they did, it was nearly impossible to keep them apart. Qaal and Suzzette didn't mind, and welcomed Xil over any time. Xil's parents, however, were a different story. While not out and out opposed to the friendship, and then later relationship, they never exactly welcomed Loam.
As they grew up, Loam had once asked Xil's parents. Xil had grown solemn and a bizarre zombie-like transformation seemed to occur in her. She had replied, "They like to be alone. I love them very much but I don't want to talk about them." Any other attempts to learn about Paul or Unaas was met with similar responses. Eventually, Loam quit asking about them.
When Loam had turned 18, back in 1997, he had moved into his own apartment. It had taken a lot of begging on Xil's part (so she said), but eventually her parents allowed her to move in with him.
Shortly thereafter, they had announced that in May
Their year off had just ended, and Loam & Xil would be starting their freshman year at Aswood University (Aswood U - ha ha!) in the fall of '99 - a mere two months away.
Most Aswoodians didn't think they needed to go to college. They were both planning on being filmmakers/screenwriters and had already produced several short films. In fact, Loam had received
Judith Anderson had changed. When Ellen had first met her, she had been upbeat, active, and energizing. All that had ceased back on Feb. 15th when her son, Billy, had been killed by a werewolf. Since then, Jude, as her friends called her, had withdrawn into her home. She had made fewer and fewer public appearances, and when she spoke to people, she sounded distant. Even her work had changed. Jude wrote a weekly editorial column for the local paper, The Aswood Republic. There was serious talk of it going nationally syndicated, which would do wonders for Jude's career. Jude, however, did not care about advancing in her occupation. She wanted her Billy back. Ellen, who I should've mentioned earlier is a dream therapist, had on several occasions invited Jude in for a session or two, even going so far as to offer the service for free, but Judith had not come to see her.
Ellen was worried about her. Teddy had said her phone was busy. She must've taken the phone off the hook. Who on earth would she be talking to at 3:30am?
Oh yeah. Her column.
Her column, Inside Society's Brain, was typically the buzz around town over the weekend, and oftentimes the first thing discussed in offices on Monday. Jude Anderson was the Mike Rokyo of Aswood.
Ellen was almost to Ted's house now. She continued to think about her friends, and wonder what surprise(s) awaited her (and them).
The final person Teddy mentioned was Alp. Alp, of course, was not his real name, per se. Alp's full name was Donalp Lee Taylor. Of course, when he was born, he was supposed to have been Donald, but through the wonders of typos and the fact that Alp was an orphan and not adopted until he was 8 and had been referred to as Donalp his whole life, it stuck. There was a time, during his early teens, that he tried to go by Don - needless to say, this failed. The children merely adapted and took to calling him Alp instead. By the time Alp had entered his 20's, he had accepted the name, and felt he had even grown into it, that it gave him character. If nothing else it was a good ice-breaker when meeting new people. Of course, the almost surefire way to re-freeze that ice would be to tell them what he did for a living. In this day of post-modern-anti-intellectual-pseudo-spiritual-superstitious belief, being a scientist, especially one who was studying animal intelligence, was almost like being a leper. Fortunately, he had Teddy, Ellen, Loam, and Xil. He was also very much in love with Judith Anderson.
Of course, Jude, who had been single since late '89, almost ten years, wouldn't give Alp the time of day now. They had dated a few times and things had been going smoothly. But, after Billy's death, she had ceased seeing him.
Ellen had arrived at Ted's house. The porch light was on and the front door was propped open. As she neared the door, she could hear the faint sounds of technology. A radio playing La Bamba, and at least two televisions. What is going on? she thought.
She creaked the door open, knocking slightly. Apparently Ted heard the knocking, because he opened the door immediately,
A mixture of curiosity and fear was rising in Ellen. Teddy left the door opened a little for Xil and Loam, then led Ellen into the living room.
"Will you please tell me what the hell is going on?" Ellen whispered. She noticed that one of the televisions was playing a French movie that was ending. The word "Fin" was on the screen. On the radio, Richie Valens (?) had ended his song, and was replaced with the Smashing Pumpkins doing Feliz Navidad.
"Now, El, I need you to promise me you're not gonna freak out here. What's going on is pretty wild, I'm barely keeping it together myself, so I don't want you to go screaming into the street."
"All right, Teddy. Jesus, you're scaring me. What's wrong? Was it a dream?"
Sidenote: Teddy was a patient of Ellen's, that's how they first met, and Teddy had had a recurring nightmare problem. He was cured, aside from an occasional relapse.
"I wish to hell it was. No, this is no dream."
From the
Ellen gave Teddy a puzzled look as he responded, "Um... it's um, Ellen, my friend from uh... down the street. I'm... um... trying to bring her... um... up to date on the situation."
One of the televisions turned off and the radio
Ellen fainted.
Loam quickly jumped from the sofa, pointing at the rodent, screeching hysterically, "What the hell is that?!"
Teddy sighed. "I told you to wait in the guest room."
Shakespeare shrugged. (Yes, rats have shoulders) "They'd have to find out eventually," he said to Teddy. "Best to get it out of the way."
Noticing that Ellen had fainted, Shakespeare seemed to have a change of heart. He jogged over to her, scampering from one side of Ellen's head to the other. "Oh! Oh! She's not dead, is she? Oh! Please don't let her be dead. Not this. Not now. Oh, dear!"
Teddy stepped past a still shocked Xil and a still terrified Loam and knelt down to help Ellen. "No, Shakes, she's not dead. She fainted. Go get me some smelling salt. It's in the bathroom. First Aid Kit."
Shakespeare disappeared into the
Teddy turned to face Loam and Xil. "Well, surprise. You'll accept it eventually, kids." And then to Loam, "Is she okay?" This seemed to bring Loam out of the state of fear he was in. "Huh?" He turned to Xil, who hadn't blinked since first seeing Shakespeare.
"Xil? Honey, come on. It's all right. Teddy's going to explain this. It's a joke or something. Come on." He shook Xil slightly. Xil looked at her lover with a blank stare. "Rat. Talked." She shook her head and looked at Loam, coming out of shock enough to recognize him. "Sorry. Didn't mean to space out. IT's just not everyday, you know. I'm... I'll be okay." She finally said.
Shakespeare returned, walking on his hind legs and carrying a packet of smelling salt in his front paws. He was unstable, as if walking on two legs was new to him, and somewhat of an exercise. "Here," he said, giving Teddy the packet.
"Why didn't you carry it in your mouth?" Teddy asked.
"You kidding? That's poisonous! Oh, humans! I can't wait to get this trial under way." With that, Shakespeare went back into the guest room. The television and radio turned back on momentarily after.
Teddy broke the smelling salt under Ellen's nose, bringing her around.
"Are you all right?" Teddy asked.
"I... um... it was a hallucination, right?" Ellend was gaining her senses quickly.
"'Fraid not," Teddy told her, helping her up.
"But rats don't talk," Ellen said, trying to make sense of it.
"I guess Shakespeare does," Xil said.
"Einstein does, too," Teddy said, "but she's asleep still. Probably dream transferring." With that cryptic remark, Teddy went into the kitchen. "Would any of you like anything to drink?" he asked.
Shakespeare made a disgusted noise, upset that no one had responded when he'd asked just five minutes earlier.
Xil, Ellen, and Loam went into the kitchen. Teddy had an ewer filled with apple cider. He poured a glass for himself, then for Loam. Xil wanted water. Ellen wanted a beer.
"Let's stay in here for a while," Teddy siad. "I can tell you what I know and they won't be able to hear us."
Xil plopped down in the middle of the kitchen floor, sitting Indian style. Loam hopped up on one of the counters. Ellen leaned against the stove. "So," Loam asked, "how long have your pets been able to speak?"
"As far as I know, just a couple of hours. I woke up from one of their dreams around 1 this morning."
Ellen gasped, the final piece of her nightmare falling into place.
Teddy, Xil, and Loam looked at Ellen.
"Sorry," she said.
"What is it?" Teddy asked.
"It's a... long story and I don't really understand it. Hell, I don't understand any of this. But... nevermind. Please, og on Teddy."
"If what happened to me happened to you, I'll explain fully in a moment. Let me ask you,
Ellen nodded. "Yes. They were. First off, they were nightmares. And secondly, I couldn't remember them right away, and that never happens."
The group nodded its concurrence, knowing very well that Ellen's profession was dream therapy, and in order for her to stay the best, she kept a precise dream log. In the past three years, Ellen had only two entries that could be considered even partly vague.
"I did begin to remember them a bit later, but it was ... like it was somebody else's dream. As if, this sounds crazy, but it was like somebody, or something, had taken over my theatre of the mind and changed the movie."
"That," Teddy said, "is a perfect way of describing what is going on. It seems my rats have, overnight, accrewed supernatural powers, and the ability to speak."
"Does Alp know about this?" Loam asked.
"I think Alp is, indirectly, responsible for this." Teddy answered. "But that's speculation, because I can't reach him. He was over here the other day and had one of his lab rats, Tuber or Tubey or Two-bin, that's it. Two-bin was with him. And it was playing with Einstein and Shakespeare. Nothing odd about that. Alp often brings the other rats over to compare them to mine. Usually racing through mazes, or who can dig faster, stuff like that. And nothing seemed stragne about Alp's rat. Perhaps I'm jumping to conclusions. I mean, just because Alp has been doing animal intelligence research, and now my animals have
"Where is Alp, anyway?" Xil asked.
"When I saw him on Tuesday, he mentioned some convention in Canada. He told me that he'd have his pager with him at all times, though. I've paged him five times now, and I've written three different emails to his screen name. But so far, no response. I hope that he's all right. I mean, if this isn't an isolated occurance, well, let's just say that I'm not sure how safe we are, but I feel a lot better now that I'm no longer alone with them."
"Not that we're out of the danger zone yet." Not that my characters are developed or interesting and the dialog blows and it's an okay idea but i have GOT to do some major repair work on this story. All right, enough bitching. Anyone reading this knows that this isn't the best piece of work they could be reading. Back to the story:
"If the press gets hold of this, we're in for a long ride."
"I agree, Teddy, so why did you try to call Jude... and why was her phone busy?" Ellen said.
"Well... Einstein and Shakespeare wanted me to call her... but I don't think they wanted the papers in on it. Luckily they haven't
"What on earth for?" Xil asked. "Can she talk too?"
"I'm not sure, but I think they'd be able to make her speak, if she can't. And from what I understand, they want her to reside as the judge."
"Judge for what?" Loam inquired.
"Shakespeare and Einstein want to put humanity on trial."
Teddy let that sink in. Everyone was silent. The only noise was from the televisions and radio the rat was watching in the other room, barely audible in the kitchen.
"Like Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation," Loam said quietly.
Xil either heard him or had the same thought. "They believe they're omnipotent," she said.
"And for all we know," Ellen said glumly, "they are."
"Wait a minute," Teddy said. "They're rats! They may be able to speak and take over people's minds - when they're both unconcious, I might add - but that's about the extent of their power. We're a lot bigger than they are, and we outnumber them. If they had godlike powers, they'd have put us in cages hours ago. Let's face it, they're just rodents with delusions of grandeur. I should know, they're my pets. And I've spent the most time with them. Both before and after their jump on the evolutionary ladder. If I feared for even one minute that they had any real power over us, I wouldn't have agreed to this trial of theirs."
"Why did you?" Xil asked.
"To think own self be true. I'm an animal lawyer. If I had declined this trial, I'd be a hypocrite. Besides, they're my pets and I do love them. If this will make them happy, I'll humor them."
"Cool."
"Well, let's get this under way. I'm kinda interested in talking to the rats themselves. See how much they know, what they think, stuff like that." Xil said.
They walked into the other room and found Shakespeare eating a piece of okra, watching something on tv,
"Oh, hi. I was just trying to turn the air on," he said, "It's really warm tonight."
Teddy looked at him suspiciously. "Yeah. Humid. The AC controls are in the living room. Or you could just turn on the fan in here."
"Oh yeah." Shakespeare smirked. He ran over to the fan controls and with some work managed to push the button that said "Lo".
Einstein was curled up in a corner, asleep. She twitched periodically.
"I hate to wake her when she's sleeping so soundly," Shakespeare said, "But we have a lot to do."
Shakespeare went over to where Einstein was sleeping and nudged her with his nose.
After a while, Einstein stirred and woke. She blinked, looking at Shakespeare. "What?"
"There are other humans here. We should get the trial started."
At hearing this, Einstein sprung to life. Noticing the group, she said, "Morning. I'm Einstein. I guesss you all know what you're here for. Well, let's decide the fate of humanity. I vote they die."
The humans exchanged some puzzled looks, most cast in Teddy's direction. He seemed as shocked as
"I second," Shakespeare said wickedly.
"All opposed?" Einstein asked. Without waiting for a response, she continued, "Fine. Then it is settled. Humanity shall be exterminated."
"But..." Teddy started.
A thundering crash interrupted his objection. The four of them turned toward the noise and saw hordes of rats tearing down Teddy's house.
The End
Notes written back then: I like the idea of rats (or some animals) becoming aware and wanting to put the human race on trial. The ending, the last couple days writing in fact, just kind of spiraled into something I didn't want. I will come back to this story eventually and fix it up. I like the characters and was having fun developing them. I wanted Loam to be more like the Indian character from Northern Exposure and Xil to be ...I don't know, just more there. The idea of an animal lawyer is amusing, especially for a story like this one which pits humans against the so-called lower animals. To sum it up, I believe Shakespeare and Einstein has potential and eventually may be something to be proud of.
Notes from now: Ugh. Some of that was horrible. Like so much of my writing, it has a great premise, horrible execution. It was difficult for me not to edit a lot of the writing as I was typing this up. It was also difficult not to editorialize and comment on how stupid some of the sentences were. It's also interesting that intelligent rats played a role in my NaNo novel, even though it had none of the same characters.
I wonder if I ever will come back to work on this story. If done correctly, it could be an entertaining little short story. Eh. Probably not. But hopefully those of you who read the whole thing got some enjoyment from it. Perhaps I'll post some of my other Scrabble Stories in the next couple of days. If nothing else, they certainly help with the word count.
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