Das Hier Special #2

Sutheran has set the bar since I was last writing and that is good, because it's still just him and me, though surely once Franklin returns, we'll be flying high instead of just gamely treading water.

So the least I can do i reach the camp at the base of the mountain by the third, though that's a tall order seeing as it's late in the second, but Sutheran did give me an inspirational drawing for me to begin another great little story which makes it helpful to answer the call to writing that Sutherna has sent out with his three good peak days, two at the second and one at the first.

He could have scarcely done better. Okay, fine, he could have done better yes, but we're not at the point where what he did is anything but fan-damn-tastic!

"Yes! I am calling from Tree Farm Seven and there's a giant frickin' alien growing a tree way the eff faster than anything could and he doesn't seem to want to stop and I'll be damned if I'm getting out of my vehicle to tell him to stop because they ain't paying me enough to get my ass killed." Harry said shouted into his phone, trying his hardest not to sound like a hysterical crackpot.

"Sir, do raise your voice at me or I will hang up and notify the authorities about the crank call coming from Tree Farm Seven and all further calls from this number will be blocked. Do you understand me?" The operator replied, keeping their calm, but very clearly sending a message to him that he was being most disrespectful and that such behaviour was not going to be tolerided. Respect is all well and good and should be striven for, but wouldn't you be a little hysterical yourself if you'd just seen a big ass alien  growing up a tree and the 911 operator was being a dick and didn't believe you when you told them as calmly and politely as you could that there was an alien at your job and you needed help forthwith.

Harry lapsed into silence then, momentarily shook by the thought that his government would be so stupid as to treat a citizen in good standing  like he was some kind of crackpot when he was just a man, call his government for help. How do you by your own bootstraps fight a giant frickin' alien? He slumped his shoulders and sighed. "Look, I know what it sounds like but it's true, there's a giant frickin' alien at Tree Farm Seven okay? I am stone cold sober, have never taken any drugs that weren't properly prescribed to me and am not seeing things. Please send help before it's too..."

I don't mind saying this, even if some would roll their eyes at me and say that I shouldn't, but that's a nice little beginning to the story.

And Sutheran would certainly prefer I not mention that I have already written three times as many words in my 2nd as he did in his.

Though yes it's true that I am writing after I I slept and not before, based on the numnbers, I am killing it compared to him and I still have a lot of time to leave his second further in the dust.

So watch out Sutheran, you're not the only one who can knock out a second good peak day because I can too, even though I've got a lot of writing to do to catch up to your tally yesterday, which you accomplished late in the day, I'm ahead early and I'm feeling the flow is coming so like I said, watch out Sutheran.

The only thing about catching you is that I can't if I stop writing and let time pass without letting fingers flash over the keyboard, content that I had written three times as many words as you this quarter instead of continuing and aiming for six times, which is a good solid quarter considering how late into it I started.

That can't happen now because I let some time pass before,

How dang dumb am I?   

Ugh, I hate the misuse of dumb, even though I just misused it myself. Though to my credit I called myself out for doing it.

Would you?

Well, look at that. Thanks to everyone's friend, whether they want to admit it or not, math, I am well on my way to writing six times as many words in my second as compared to his and if I hadn't futted around a bit and let the time pass without writing, I had a shot at writing seven times which is dang near a thousand words which would have surely set me on the path to the second good peak of 4000 words.

And seeing as his second good peak days were just past the second, they are ripe for being surpassed.

It's going to be tough, but I think I'm the man for the job. Human though I be which he likes to mock even though he's on our world because the freedom of his was compromised.

But if we can't take some ribbing what kind of confident race are we?

So I welcome his jabs because by all accounts, he does like living here, as well he should.

Though we won't keep being this great place to live if we don't get our shit together.

Sorry deniers, but you're wrong. We are futted up if we don't do something that will actually help us.

Of course, some of the deniers are old so they probably think it will be okay for as long as I live, so who cares about the rest, even if the rest include their children who are young and have their life stretched out ahead of them.

Selfish.

We are  prone to being selfish futtheaded asses and this is going to have to stop.

Thank you math. I just counted again and it turns out I did have it in me despite that little break to reach a thousand words.

I will take my bow now, even though I could have reached nine times what he wrote without that break I took instead of the eight and counting.

Tut-tut Dalton. 

Oh well, the 3rd quarter is right around the corner and simply matching what he did in his 3rd is going to leave me well placed matching his day.

Well, I didn't expect that I would get an e-mail from Sutheran gushing about a drawing the good Petrie did, because he's not as good as Sutheran who himself has limits to how good he can be, but that's the e-mail that I got.

So it was a really good drawing then?

I wouldn't know, I haven't seen it yet because his phone is dead and he hasn't even charged it so that neither Sutheran or I can even see this supposed amazing drawing that he did.

But Sutheran is partial to the good Petrie so he's inclined to believe him when he says that he has in fact drawn an amazing drawing because he was so enthusiastic about it.  

I am not so inclined to him and doubt that he has drawn such a drawing because he simply doesn't have it in him.

That and he's not even going to come close to the writing a of a million words and will never write that many words in a single year again. And that was his only claim to fame.

So I laugh in his general dirction because we, as a goodly collective, are not only going to write a million words in this decayear, but for each of the next twelve and put his accomplishment to shame.

As it should be put!

Now math tells me that I have  not yet crossed the 30% threshold of what Sutheran wrote in the 3rd yesterday, but time is still on my side to match it and by god, that is what I am going to do by the end of this hour.

Whoa. 

Shit, why did I boast that loudly when I am 500+ words off that accomplishment and I don't think I have anymore of the morning's story to write to close the gap between here and there.

And even with the boast, why didn't i just change it to anfd hour from now, which is reasonable.

Oh bother, as Sutheran loves to write.

"Sir! Are you there? Please answer sir!" The voice of the operator got frantic as there was a clear sound of tearing metal as the line went dead. And the operator was afraid.

I don't much like the good Petrie, if I hadn't made it clear before today, I have certainly made it clear today. And I'll make it even clearer. I'd on;t much care for the good Petrie and take delight in laughing in his general direction.

That being writ, I don't want this to become a shit on Petrie posting because I'm not here to be negative about a nobody writer because that's punching down and I want to punch up.

So enough about the good Petrie today. he's yesterday's news and the collective is tomorrow's! 

Only what am I going to write about now? And will it be enough to provide me with another 300 words by the top of the coming hour?

"State your purpose in being here tiny Terran!" The big frickin alien said to the now doubly terrified Harry who'd seen his brand new car be wrenched open like it was nothing then been plucked out and be lifted high above the Earth. And being afraid of heights, there was little else that scared him more than this. Being high up in the open air. And his heart raced and he wondered if he was about to die.

So let me get this straight, I have to write hundreds of words in the next nine minutes and I got busy watching a drawing video on the interwebz when I don't even draw?

I wish that I could that I could but I don't have the talent and trying to learn when I'm not what many would call young is just crazy.

And I'm not crazy.

Yes, the good Petrie does draw, so he does something that I can't do. But it comforts me that he doesn't do it well at all and he'll never sell any of his drawings so that's enough to make me smile.

Dammit!

It turns out I wasn't done with the good Petrie after all.

Also, I didn't make it the point of matching with what Sutheran did in yesterday's 3rd quarter by the top of the hour like I boasted I would.

Mind you, I have two hours to not match it but better it by the hundreds, but the fact remains I failed to make good on my boast.

And I would have done it too if not for watching that damn video because I was short by a mere 18 words and that's so close that it ends up being an epic fail.

Can I blame the good Petrie?

I think I can.

Only that wouldn't be right as here I am. watching another video. About drawing. And I can't possibly blame him for my fascination with drawing, which is something that I will never do.

I'm back.

Wait, you didn't know that I went away because i didn't mention that I was going away?

Oh.

I did and I went away to draw. It wasn't anything special and many would say that what I drew wasn't good, but I drew and I liked it.

I think I'll do more drawing too. 

Yes, it does have to do with being better at something than the good Petrie. I can't let him have this, though he has a head start on me.

And now I don't feel like writing. Oh, I'll be back, don't you worry none about that. But I think I need to go and do something else other than write because I'm running low on the writer's drive and it's going to take some time and the doing of something else to regain the very important writer's drive.

But first, before I do that, I am going to get myself to a thousand words this quarter because I am that close to it that it would be a shame to fall this short.

"I work here. At this time and I was simply doing my duty because I would rather be home and in bed, than out here at this time of the day, especially in the colder months of the year. And I shouldn't have to die for just doing my frickin job!" He screamed at the giant frickin alien, as his heart raced even more wildly

That's it. I'm out but I'll be back later in the day, I just don't know when as I just have to beat the tally that Sutheran gathered yesterday.

And I don't even have to match his 4th to have a better day, which means I've done really well.

Have a good supper eh?

Two thousand more words before the end of the day is out of the question as I waited far too long into the 4th to get back to the writing as had a leisurely supper of a sandwich, an orange and cookies with icing.

Yes, cookies with icing is a good thing.

Try it, you'll thank me.

But I didn't get into the writing immediately after that light supper.

I'm writing now, but I didn't get going until a few minutes ago, which was closer to the second to last hour than the third to last hour.

And any storying that I am going to be able to write is not going to be enough to bring me up to half of whatever I'm going to write to.

So despite my better second and third quarters, his 4th was so epic that that alone is looking like it will keep him ahead of me to beat me in the weekend.

I do not like this.

Then again, all I have to do is write a thousand words and I win the weekend.

Surely I can do that despite the lateness of the hour.

Ha! I don't even need to write a thousand words and I take the weekend.

I've got this with ease. So much so that I dare say I will have this before the bottom of the next hour, which is right around the corner.

"Calm yourself tiny human, your heart is racing and if it continues to race, you will expire and that is not what I want." Tehramuth said as rubbed his chest above his heart which slowed until his breathing was normal.

"What? How? Why?" Harry said like he was not happy that Tehramuth had saved his life, which made no sense. How could you not be happy that your life was saved? Even it had been saved by a giant frickin alien that had terrified you into a state where you almost certainly would have passed in minutes if he had not intervened. Unless you were deeply set in your thinking and wouldn't be shifted away from that thinking.

How have I not accepted this as a fact? If I stop writing, I will not write more words than Sutheran?

Fortunately I still have time to gather myself up and pass him, but if I had any hope when I started writing this quarter of actually writing another two thousand words to climb to the second good peak and leaving his Saturday tally in the dust, that hope fell away when I didn't write for much of this hour.

So I'll simply have to be content with just slipping past him and laughing that I won the first two of our quarters with such a great lead that his amazing 4th still wasn't enough to give him the weekend win,

That's a victory to the human!

I just can't take my bow yet, but in the final answer, I will in fact take my bow.

Accept it and offer my well earned congratulations.

Math tells me however that I can still take the weekend with more time than I if I can just write another 300 words in eleven minutes.

That's a lot, but not so much for me when I am feeling the flow.

Am I feeling it now?

I don't think so, but I'll still have it and make it close, which is fine since I have the whole of an hour after this part of the day ends so I have no need for any concern that I won't win the weekend.

In fact, I could take off the better part of the rest of the night and still pass the total that Sutheran wrote yesterday, which is something I just might do because while I am noit feeling the flow, I am feeling the brag and what better way than to pass him in the final minutes by a hundred words when I waited until the five minutes because my fingers fly across the keyboard faster than his.

Yes, that sounds like a challenge that I will accept.

But only after we reach the final hour because if I can do what I think I can still do, which is to win the race in the dying minutes of this hour, than I won't need to write another word and I won't write another word.

I don;t know what I will do, but I won't won't write another word because I have earned the rest of the night of the night off if that is the case because writing 300 words in 11 minutes is a nice little doing.

"Please remain calm tiny human, I am here for the trees, not you humans. You have nothing to fear from me in fact because my people have long been disgusted by the idea of eating organic flesh of any kind and would never eat it even to save our own lives." Tehramuth said the words that in his head sounded reassuring. But were they really reassuring? He had just said that he was here for the trees. That implied all of them and if that was the case, that was a very big problem.

Or not, as it turned out. The second to last hour ended with him still in the lead.

I've taken it away from him in the final hour with most thahe hour remaining as i don't have to follow though on my bragging about how fast I am. I also don't have to wait until the final minutes of the night to write again because what do I have to gain from  it?

I also don't have to keep writing, though I'm not sure that I will.

I'd ask you, my few readers, but I know that you won't give me even a  stupid answer. You're just quiet.

Don't bother. I've just decided that I am done for the day.

I'll see you next week.

Charles Petrie


Date
02-23-20

Time
Who Knows Anymore

Word Count 

1078+1122+998=3198