http://slow.writerscafe.org/TheMoldy1 The original writings of author TheMoldy1 en-us Copyright 2026 WritersCafe.org 1775985515 WritersCafe.org RSS Generator 15 Ernesto Heinemann’s cell phone buzzed. He always kept it face down on his desk. That way, should he be extraordinary busy (which he always was), he could legitimately say he hadn’t seen the call. But this was the special buzz he had programmed into his phone just under two weeks earlier... http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889515/ Ran Eun Kyung stared out of the window of the military bus taking her to Kumgang National Park. Her husband, Chang-su sat beside her. Neither said anything. Many years had trained Chang-su, and he knew better than to interrupt her when she was thinking. Ran was remembering when the phone on her.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889512/ “You didn’t tell the Hanawon center that we were coming?” Gail exclaimed to The Orb. She stood outside QT1, feeling exhausted. Her body clock told her it was past 3 AM in the morning, whereas the North Korean sun told her it was mid-morning and she should be up and at it. She felt .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889510/ Christina had nicknamed the stealth modules QTs (short for ‘Quiet Things’), which Nathan thought was so obscure a reference that it was safe to discuss them at the dinner table. The three of them had completed the training designed by The Orb, which had begun with simulations in each of .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889509/ Nathan was sat at the meeting table as Gail emerged from the privacy cave. He’d been amazed that, as promised, he couldn’t hear a sound escaping from the cave’s entrance. The Orb had said that a ‘dampening field’ (which presumably did what it said on the tin) enclosed t.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889507/ “How the hell did North Korea get its hands on a nuclear bomb?” Christina sat down, satisfied at this telling contribution to how they were going to sort this mess out.“Actually Christina,” The Orb said, “North Korea’s nuclear capability is not a mystery to the in.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889506/ Christina was a pragmatist. One of the reasons she excelled at football was her ability to focus on a line of attack, or particular tactic, and blinker everything else. If something got in the way of her plan, she sidestepped it or came up with a new plan. This wasn’t to imply that she couldn&.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889505/ Gail was nervous. At least what her stomach told her resembled that feeling. She looked at her watch. Christina was late, as usual. She caught the waitresses eye and ordered another Coke. They had agreed to meet after school, about an hour before Nathan had asked them to be at his house. The outer s.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889484/ Nathan paused as he was about to open the door to his house in the Copenhagen suburb of Gentofte. His father’s Audi was parked outside, and its impressive presence caused two problems to manifest themselves. Why they hadn’t bothered to appear during the lengthy journey back to Copenhagen.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889483/ Nathan ended the call on his phone (which now had an excellent signal), and looked at The Orb. “Well, that went mostly as planned.”“I assume that your disappearance was more pressing than the matter of your team?” The Orb said.“You could say that,” Nathan replied... http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889482/ Nathan caught himself picking his fingernails. His mother would have been furious, had she seen him doing this in front of an alien Orb that didn’t have fingers.The Orb pulsed. Its whole body changed to a light shade of grey and the tabletop, which Nathan had assumed was just made of the same .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889469/ The shock of meeting The Orb having worn off, Nathan took stock of his surroundings. He stood in a Cavern so enormous it could have held one the airliners he took to California. A soft, pearl light created friendly shadows. Nathan couldn’t spot the light’s source, it simply was. It cradl.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889468/ The morning was fraught with problems. A bad storm had risen overnight. High winds had shrieked across the huts’ roofs so loudly that many of Nathan’s classmates and, not least by the looks of it, the adults had slept badly (although he, mercifully had slept dream-free through it). Elect.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889467/ Nathan looked forward to school field trips with the natural anticipation of students, although he realized that the adults involved probably had the opposite view. Mr. Priest, their class teacher, was naturally part of the adult team as was Mr. Harris, the other classes teacher (and Nathan’s .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889384/ Christina Jensen was gay; at least she suspected she was since all she did was think about Gail Knitter. As a seventeen year-old in 2030 she intimately knew what ‘gay’ meant, at least as far as TikTok had taught her. In the school circles she frequented, which (other than Nathan and Gail.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889383/ Nathan Stromberg was Gail Knitter’s hero. At least practically speaking, not in the style of watery actors  sobbing about someone they’d never met but adored from afar. Nathan had become Gail’s hero when he’d jumped into a lake in the Haerskov Forest to save a drowning d.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889382/ Kopernikus, Ignacio. (1066 ACE), ‘An Introduction to Nathan Stromberg’, The Histories of Orbean Cosmology (pp. 132-34), Nova Britannia: Oxbridge University Press.2030 CE was a turbulent time on Earth. The memory of the Islamist attacks in the city of New York on September 11th, 2001 CE, .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889343/ Ernesto Heinemann, Secretary General of the United Nations sat hunched over his desk massaging his temples. Trying to affect the General Assembly was like trying to control a schoolroom full of unruly students that spoke different languages, with the added complication that some were armed with weap.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889342/ It began as a whisper that careened off concave surfaces to orchestrate itself into the Sound. The Sound was amazing and awful. It heralded a beginning unlike any since the Universe’s creation, before lapsing back into the silence that had birthed it. The Sound had lasted less than a second, .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889341/ Part 11 - Appleton, Wisconsin and Rockport, MaineCaroline was back in the land of soap operas. With school a dimming memory (her mother had absolutely forbid it), she was re-discovering how much it sucked to be disabled. Her time spent frolicking in life’s lesser interests had washed away the .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889204/ Part 9 - Appleton, Wisconsin and (eventually) The Unicorn QueendomSex and drugs and rock and rollIs all my brain and body need.Sex and drugs and rock and rollAre very good indeed.Ian Dury, 1977 Caroline took a long drag on the joint and allowed the popular smoke to swill around her lungs. The boy, s.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889202/ Part 8 - Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida and The Unicorn Queendom Finn had swum aimlessly in and around the reefs offshore of Ft. Lauderdale thinking about Caroline. She had become the most important thing in his life, replacing (yes it was true) his mother. His world had become Caroline-centric, the.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889201/ Part 7 - New Atlantis, Bermuda TriangleSkagen spent the trip back to the palace contemplating how he would pull off a miracle to create a miracle to beget a miracle. If you stacked these miracles on top of each other they looked impossible. But this was wrong thinking. The way to accomplish this was.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889200/ Part 6 - The Unicorn Queendom and New Atlantis, Bermuda TriangleFinn watched a dolphin emerge from the portal and recognized Lord Skagen’s feigned gait. It confirmed his suspicion that his mother was setting him up to fail. This had been implied from both the tone of her message and her refusa.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889199/ Part 5 - New Atlantis, Bermuda TriangleValeena studied the message glimmering in front of her with an apprehension bordering on paranoia. Her son’s communication was brief, all too brief in fact. It did not instill in her the confidence she had propelled with him when he had left. She read the.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889198/ Part 4 - Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida and The Unicorn QueendomCaroline lay in bed watching the ceiling fan distort the murky air. It squeaked once every rotation, as if a mouse were being honked on the nose at each pass. Caroline hated rooms with rhythmic sounds: ticking clocks, dripping taps, sno.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889197/ Part 3 - New Atlantis, Bermuda TriangleThey all felt it. From the lowliest dolphin tending the Californian kelp fields, to Queen Valeena who was having her beak buffed in her coral garden. The lady-in-waiting who had been shining the royal beak stopped mid stroke. She stared at her Queen.Valeena sti.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889195/ Part 2 -  Miami, Florida, and The Unicorn QueendomThe bitching about the weather started five minutes after leaving the airport. Uncle Anton was, it had to be said, not dressed for Florida’s winter. He had opted for departing Wisconsin’s winter, thus being toasty warm between h.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889194/ Part 1 - Appleton, WisconsinIt is a writing convention that no story should start with, ‘Once upon a time.’ But for a fantastical tale there is no better beginning. So, f**k it.Once upon a time in a land called Wisconsin there lived a Unicorn Princess, and her name was Caroline. Car.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889193/ The Matriarch and King Julian floated across from each other in the Matriarch’s office, sipping at their respective drinks. Julian was sucking through a pressure straw inserted into a coconut in an H2n0! bubble. The Matriarch had allowed herself a rare treat (under the circumstances) and was g.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889067/ Mare flexed her flippers and wondered for the thousandth time why she had gotten this job. Human Studies was a joke in some parts of the Dolphin Science Academy. Perhaps that was what had attracted her to Tube, especially considering his…well…she dissolved this thought before it could .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889066/ The Matriarch of Pod1 watched a morsel of sardine drift past her face, envying how ignorant the fish had been of its impending doom. Deftly, she snatched the portion with her beak and re-examined the top-secret report shimmering in the water above her desk. Her fluke started to twitch, a stress habi.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2889065/ A short story inspired by a real-life event (not seeing a mermaid, sadly!). Like Alfred Hitchcock, I make a small appearance in this story. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2888707/ A report of Cross’ visit to the hospital had been completed by the unit responsible for following him and now lay open in front of Jeff Banks. His initial reaction had been that there must be some connection between the club’s drug supply and the hospital; maybe someone passing ingredien.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2888573/ Diane Cross found herself remembering the terrible experience that giving birth to Martin had been. There had been several complications and she’d experienced pain beyond belief. The labour had seemed to go on forever. They’d told her that they’d both been very lucky and could easi.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2888571/ Cross’ brain struggled to pull itself up the beach of consciousness.  Once again he understood the relationship between drink, mouth and birdcage. But he had a mission to accomplish and feeling like s**t wasn’t going to stop him. He showered, dressed and left the apartment on his wa.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2888570/ It was nearly nine when Cross thrust his Porsche into its parking space. He felt good today, which was amazing considering the terrible weekend he’d had. He needed to get his s**t together though; in an hour he had the final planning meeting for the Transcendental Invitation, and everything ha.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2888569/ Cross awoke with a jerk, as if having kicked an imaginary football in his sleep. The memory of a dream faded quickly, leaving nothing but a residue of unease. An image persisted in his mind, but when his consciousness tried to catch it in focus it would come close to the lure, then dart away when he.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2888567/ It was a quarter past six in the morning and Stuart Longman, head of security at KGB, was finishing his sweep of the club on Level 4.Longman was six feet two inches of muscle, developed through years of solid gym workouts in his native Belfast. He hadn’t worked out for pleasure, only to develo.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2888566/ ‘I run KGB.’With a Russian accent the loss of the definite article wouldn’t sound implausible, but when Martin Cross said it in his East End dialect it placed him out of the top echelons of the Soviet old school. But he wasn’t lying, at least not yet.It was his favourite chat.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2888565/ Maya’s illusion is like the foamWhich mixes again with the sea.No one is mother, father, or relative;Like the sea foam, they remain a short while only.And, as the sea foam merges into the sea,This precious body of five elements disappears.Who can say how many ephemeral formsThe embodied soul h.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2888431/ My idea for a remake, based on using a Star Trek crew (Enterprise) to replace the C57-D crew. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2888301/ The climax of the film and, critically, the climax of why this book existed in the first place! http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2888145/ The action ramps up to the max., as the monster attacks the ship and kills several of the crew. It's clear that Morbius is creating it, although there's some confusion about how Alta can detect it. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2887863/ We move into action-mode with this scene, and finally meet our 'real' (or imagined?) antagonist: the beast of unlimited power! The body count begins, and our hero learns about the Krell (poor things). http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2887724/ This scene is what I believe Hollywood calls 'business'. No action, lots of fun and frolics (literally). It doesn't move the plot forward, other than to establish the foundation for the love sub-plot. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2887592/ Time to meet the film's antagonist, Dr. Morbius...or is it? The answer is, sort of! http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2887431/ Covers the landing of C-57D on Altair IV, and the crew's first encounter with Robby the Robot. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2887263/ We switch gears for the second half of this short story, away from meta fiction and the FEM to more 'normal' fiction, at least up until the final sentence! http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2886878/ The first part of the story, which was the original FEM exercise. A large chunk of struck out text after this deletes an extension that was not published in the Collection. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/TheMoldy1/2886758/