{"id":10255,"date":"2013-03-24T23:55:35","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T03:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=10255"},"modified":"2013-03-24T23:55:35","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T03:55:35","slug":"you-never-know-whats-comin-for-ya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=10255","title":{"rendered":"“You never know what’s comin’ for ya.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s been a pretty ordinary handful of days lately. I decided a little while back to take this coming Monday off, so this has been a three-day weekend, and I still have tomorrow off. I’ll work from home on Tuesday, and then travel to a local campus on Wednesday, so hopefully it shouldn’t be too rough a week. The part of me that gets to sleep in a little late in the morning certainly doesn’t think so.<\/p>\n

Last night, my parents and I went out to dinner for my upcoming birthday, and except for dessert, which was decent but unremarkable, it was a very lovely meal. I had duck gnocchi with wild mushrooms, pine nuts, golden raisins, and pancetta to start, and then possibly the best sea scallops I’ve ever tasted. (With roasted cauliflower, toasted almonds, and more golden raisins.) I was ridiculously stuffed afterward, but it was a very good meal.<\/p>\n

This evening, I watched the first episode of the new Bates Motel<\/i> television series, which wasn’t very good, and then later The Curious Case of Benjamin Button<\/a>, which surprised me because it was. <\/p>\n

I think the AV Club<\/a> is right about the series that “[t]he problem, then, is that Bates Motel<\/i> is simply overburdened by the reason it exists.” It fails to work, at least in part, because it winds up having to be a Psycho<\/i> prequel. (It’s the same thing I thought seeing the trailer for the upcoming Hannibal<\/i> TV show<\/a>. It looks strangely interesting; I just really, really wish it wasn’t an adaptation\/prequel\/remake of Manhunter<\/i>\/Silence of the Lambs<\/i>.)<\/p>\n

And earlier today, in my weekly writing group, I came up with this based on some prompts we picked out of Scientific American Mind<\/i> magazine:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can kill you with my brain,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and with just a glance. But let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretend for a moment that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both civilized people and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s maybe a better solution?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

He frowned, but then nodded, holstering his weapon, and sat in the wing chair opposite her. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Agreed,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said — and she realized with a start that in all these years this was perhaps the first time she had actually heard his voice. And after he had killed how many<\/i> of her sisters?<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153So we are at an impasse,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have no desire to kill you nor any desire to die, but that seems to be where fate has landed us.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She tried to smile; she would not<\/i> betray herself with a showing of fear, not to this man, damn his eyes. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tea?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, lifting the pot.<\/p>\n

Again, the nod, and almost a hint of a smile himself. A trained killer, she thought, and completely ruthless, but not wholly above the social niceties. For just a moment she wondered which of them both she was thinking of.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Two sugars,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No lemon.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

She poured the tea and handed him the cup. He let it cool for a moment in his hands, blew gently across its surface, but then drank the tea without hesitation. He knew you wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stoop to poison him, she thought, and then just as quickly regretted that she hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. She sipped from her own cup and stared at him, letting the silence settle between them, counting up all the room\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exits in her head.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What I propose is a bargain,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said finally, returning her cup to the tray on the table in front of her. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Or perhaps more accurately a trade. My life — \u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/p>\n

He stared, but said nothing, still sipping his tea.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 — for information. I know things that you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, things even my sisters didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. If you killed me now — or rather, if you tried<\/i> to kill me now — that knowledge would die with me.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

He nodded — so calm, damn him, even now — and leaned forward in the chair to place his own, now empty cup upon the tray. Then he sat back, actually crossed his legs, and this time did smile. There was more good humor in that look than she would have thought possible; this was just a job to him, one he took great pleasure in, but he did not hate her. And suddenly she hated him all the more because of that.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You have no information that I want or need,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, a great finality to his voice. Even seated, relaxed, almost laughing, she knew he could reach his gun before she could act. Only his own doubt of that had saved her this far. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know anything.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know who sent you here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know your employers. And I know how to kill them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

He stared for a very long minute, and she braced herself for the shot, that final bullet with her name on it, and then he said:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153All right. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m listening.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I dunno, I kind of like it.<\/p>\n

And that’s been most of weekend. Still one day of it to go, however, thank goodness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a pretty ordinary handful of days lately. I decided a little while back to take this coming Monday off, so this has been a three-day weekend, and I still have tomorrow off. I’ll work from home on Tuesday, and then travel to a local campus on Wednesday, so hopefully it shouldn’t be too … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,14,28,17,12],"class_list":["post-10255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-food","tag-movies","tag-personal","tag-tv","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10255"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10255"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10257,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10255\/revisions\/10257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}