How Do You Define "Family?"

Family.  That’s a tricky word.  A lot of people use it as affirmation and strength while others use it for leverage and control.  Me personally, I consider family the people that stick with you through thick and thin, keep you up when your spirits are down, and make sure that whatever your burden, they’ll share the load.

It’s something I had to learn for quite a long time, about two months to be exact.  That was how long ago the folks that birthed me that claimed they were my family took off in a helicopter and abandoned me in the deep Amazon just to save their own skins.  I’ve had to survive on my own for that long against alligators, giant bugs, and hostile warlords and thugs.  If it weren’t for the people I acquired along the way, I would be dead.

That’s why I’m sending out this message, to honor the people who got me here, some of whom have died.  It’s in their memory that I’m sending out this S.O.S.

Hello, my name is Lizbeth Pierce. I’m a courageous biochemist.

Call me Lizbeth Pierce.  I call myself a courageous biochemist.  What that means to most people that know me is that I’m a creature creator.  I combine living atoms in different ways, seeing what kind of DNA I can cobble up and then I rapidly grow them.  Intelligent, basic, mammal, reptile, bird, bacteria, you name it, I’ve made it all.  But the courageous part comes in when I do the really outlandish stuff that no one thinks is possible.  I’ve given a lungs and made it honk, for example, but that’s kind of mundane in comparison to the other stuff.  It’s a good thing I’m such an out of the box thinker, otherwise we might be doomed as a species.

I work for a secret organization called P.Y.T.H.O.N.  Don’t ask me what it stands for, we haven’t come up with anything yet.

An spaceship is passing by our solar system.

A spaceship is passing by our solar system. It is so large that earth is merely the size of a dime. We can't make enough ruckus to get noticed until one day, someone has the perfect idea.

At first, people thought it was a very beautiful sunrise until they realized that it was coming up in the West.  Sure enough, the word started coming out.  A spaceship.  Honest-to-God proof of life outside the Earth.  Everyone was ecstatic.  There were parties in the streets, talk of a national holiday being declared, and a whole lot of tin foil hats on people’s heads.  There was one problem, the aliens didn’t notice any of it.

People sent out radio transmissions, bounced signals off satellites, anything to try and make as much noise as possible.  But try as the people and governments might, we couldn’t make enough noise to get their attention.  People were at a loss, as they felt like they were about to lose the opportunity of the century.  There were endless debates in Congress and the U.N., all of them fruitless.  But then, one telecommunication regulation lobbyist approached the groups with an idea.

It occurred to this person that the aliens were probably on some kind of survey mission and probably had some form of ambient scanners to try and pick up anomalous signatures that might direct them to what they were looking for.  Radio transmissions might be confused for some kind of spike in the electromagnetic field, but if people were to do some kind of local data transmission all at once, then they might show more interest.  The idea, then, was to have everyone on Earth send texts all at once at regular intervals.

It was crazy.  People were worried about their wireless bills.  But the human race said what the hell and did it anyway.  Never was there a more worthy excuse to stay up until the wee hours to send cat pictures to all of your friends.  And sure enough, after ten intervals of mass texting, the word went out: the ship was changing directions towards us.

No one got any sleep when it was announced that there was a shuttle from the ship touching down.  Everyone was waiting with bated breath, wondering what new horizons would open up from our first contact.

But that’s a story for another time.

Describe a “first”

"Describe a “first” (first apartment, first kiss, first time driving a car, first lie, first big success, first roller coaster ride, first time in this setting). Include as many details as possible, being sure to include an aspect relating to each of the five senses."

The first thing I remember about my first apartment was just how big it was, which comes as a bit of a surprise considering how small it really was.  There was barely enough room for my bed and desk, so it was lucky that I didn’t have a lounge chair.  Luckily, there was enough space in my sliding closet that I could fit my dresser in, but barely.  The kitchen was also positively tiny, but it was my own, so that stuck with me.  Everything was quite cramped from the wooden table to the stuck sink and over to the refrigerator that scraped against the wall and wouldn’t always close all the way.  If two people were in there, cooking was difficult, to say the least.

A stolen ring, fear of spiders, and a sinister stranger

"Give me the ring..."
 
The voice carried on the wind and across Tiffany's neck.  She turned around to see a mysterious figure shrouded in a long coat and many scarves.  She frowned at him before saying, "I'm sorry, what ring?  I don't know what you're talking about."
 
"Liar," the stranger whispered.  He spread his arms as he started moving towards her.  Spilling out from underneath his cloak in waves like dark water were thousands of spiders.  Tiffany made to gasp, but it chocked in her throat.  Spiders were her number one fear.  "I'll not say it again: give me my ring."

What’s behind the door? Why is it closed?

No one really liked to talk about the door in Grandma’s house.  Everyone know about it; it sat at the end of the hallway by the radiator, leading to a room that no one had been in.  But for some reason, it gave everyone just a horrible feeling, so much so that they didn’t even like to look at it.  But one day, little Roland made the brave leap forward.

Despite all of his instincts telling him to leave, he went to the door one day and peeked through the keyhole.  There was nothing to be seen but a dim yellow light, yet even that sent shivers down his spine.  After several deep breaths, he gripped the handle and opened the door.

Inside was a dark room that was designed completely differently from the rest of the house.  It seemed to be made up of warped wood that had been waterlogged for too long.

Be careful out there...

“Be careful out there,” your mom said as you grabbed your duffel bag and headed on a camping trip with friends. “You know that tonight is the anniversary, don’t you?” You nodded, then shut the door behind you before getting in the car and taking off.

“Be careful out there.”  It wouldn’t normally be such a contentious phrase in my mind, but I know what it’s implying: she’s afraid of losing another son, just like she did five years ago at this same spot.

Getting in the car, I felt myself pressed against Tamara because of how cramped the car was.  Not that either of us minded.  As we started driving off, I felt her head on my shoulder, her long red hair tickling my arm.  From the front seat, I heard Josh and Cam arguing over what tunes to listen to.  And on the other side of Tamara, Grant stared out the window, completely lost in thought.

“Something on your mind?” I asked.

This seemed to shake him out of her reverie.  “Hm?” he said, looking over.  “Actually, I was thinking about you.  You going to be all right?”

A significant person

Describe a significant person (teacher, neighbor, mentor, coach, parent, sibling, sweetheart) with as many physical details as possible, but no clichés! (If you’ve heard the expression before, don’t use it.)

David Pope.  Rarely has such a heavy boot come along to leave such an imprint on my memories.  He was my tenth grade math teacher and one of the few I performed well under in high school.  He had a voice like a very pleasant kazoo and could captivate you with it using the tales from his younger days.  It certainly helped that he wasn’t intimidating at all, standing barely an inch higher than my head and carrying a large sack of calories in his stomach for all the world to see.  His think-lensed glasses also gave him a distinct appearance as well.

All the wrong ideas...

Sometimes people look back on their lives and wonder how they got there.  For John, it was a series of terrible ideas that all stacked on top of each other.  It all started out when he dropped out of high school to run away with a girl he took to prom.  Three months later, a Vegas wedding took place between them and their new life began.  And right off the bat, it was frought with problems.

The first thing he did was invest all his money in a start-up venture in the Silicon Valley.  “It’ll pay off,” he would say.  “We’ll get back ten times what we sunk into it.”  Unfortunately, the start-up crashed and died a horrible death, leaving both of them penniless at the worst possible time: a child was on the way.  Sure enough, Lila was born and they had no way to really support the three of them.