A group of friends streams their gaming on Wednesday nights. But not all the action is on the dining room table.

Part 1

In my time at University, I studied Art and Art History, with a little side project looking at literary greats. One of the things I learned by heart was the famous quote from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. It goes like this –

‘The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on.
Nor all your piety and wit, shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all your tears wash out a word of it.’

Uber Love
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

After being laid off from my job I started driving for Uber. I had a good car and it seemed like a way to make money, but to be honest it was more that I enjoyed the company of people and couldn’t stand being stuck at home. Even after I picked up a new job, I kept driving for Uber in the evenings.

Saved By The…….

I was in that strange time, between sleeping and waking. I had the feeling that I had been in a deep and dreamless sleep. A thought struck me.

“Wanda doesn’t want to be my girlfriend, any longer.”

“If you were willing to postpone the opening of the portal,” I said, “I could teach you the most commonly spoken language of my world, which would be useful in most places that your portal might open up. But I understand if you don’t wish to delay as long as that might take.” In truth, I did not wish to delay the opening of the portal either.

Swingers

“Over to your right, miss, next in line. Take your luggage with you.”

I mentally shrugged my shoulders and followed the instructions. Parking the bike in the assigned spot, I waited while the bike was secured for the ferry trip.

Razuko was crying hard now, doubled over, and I fell silent, moving my hologram to “sit” next to them and giving them a gentle telekinetic hug. When they finally cried themselves out, they stammered, “D-do you think I might... ah... I might be a girl? On the inside, like your friend?”

A group of friends streams their gaming on Wednesday nights. But not all the action is on the dining room table.

A group of friends streams their gaming on Wednesday nights. But not all the action is on the dining room table.

I am Callie Watson, the AI of this house. I was taken away, and now I’m back —

 

Impossible! I am Callie Watson. I have been embodied here for thirteen years, except for two brief malfunctions.

So I was very bored today, and I was watching Prime Video, with its amazing collection of B Disaster films. Then I got to thinking about the Take Your Daughter to Work Day Challenge.

How hard would it be to use the ready-made outline of B Disaster Movies for this idea? It's a very simple outline, I know. Still, it's there, and obviously not copywritten, because EVERY B Disaster Movie uses the same outline! A ready-made outline! Yay!

Jada was the only one of our group of lunch friends who was going to college in the fall. I was working for a year to save money and establish residency, Britt was going to take online trade school classes while learning more from her dad about working on cars, and Poppy and Lisette were just going to start working full-time.

“I’m sorry, your daddy needs me to help with something,” I told Durom. “We’ll have to continue the story tomorrow night.”

 

“But I need to know what happened to Bilbo,” he said plaintively. “Did the trolls catch him?”

By the end of the first tenday, I had become a friend and playmate to the younger children, an assistant to Bisur in his magical workshop, and an assistant to Mipina in her writing. Razuko, however, remained uninterested in socializing and did not seem to want much help.

A group of friends streams their gaming on Wednesday nights. But not all the action is on the dining room table.

“We’re gonna be working together! This is gonna be kind of awesome. I mean, it’s menial service industry work, so that kind of sucks, but it’s about as good as waiting and busing tables ever gets, from what I hear. Mr. Paget’s a fair boss, unlike that asshole at my old job, and you get to work in all kinds of cool bodies.”

A group of friends streams their gaming on Wednesday nights. But not all the action is on the dining room table.

Marcia watched as her brother and friend eyed each other. She wasn't sure how the meeting was going to go after the occurrences of three years previous, but she hoped both could reign in their feelings.

There was an uneasy silence that was finally broken by Chet. "Hi, Trish. Nice to see you." He stepped up to her and put one arm around her in a friendship embrace.

It was as if there was a collective sigh of relief as they embraced. Darryl glanced at his sister, and saw a small bit of stiffness that quickly evaporated. It was as if Mage consciously made the decision to be friendly.

I remembered the night she threw me out. I had worn her sexiest underwear. She hadn’t worn it for years, so one of us may as well use it. I was half way through clipping my stockings to my suspenders when she came in. I thought she would be out seeing her friend until 10.30 at least.

“I bloody knew it, you little queer. You couldn’t leave it alone could you? Well, you can bugger off. I want a real man.”

A group of friends streams their gaming on Wednesday nights. But not all the action is on the dining room table.

“Household spirit, manifest before me,” said the man in the workroom. The language he spoke was new to me, but apparently someone had installed a new language module without my knowledge; I understood him perfectly.

“How was work?” my Jada asked when her other self got in the back.

 

“Don’t rub it in,” other-Jada said. “Please tell me I get to have some nice memories to cancel the last eight hours out with.”