Chuck Wendig flash Friday round robin story....
I added the part three section below to the story started by Paul Baughman....here is the link to the blogpost...http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/12/06/flash-fiction-challenge-200-words-at-a-time-part-3/
Fiction: Joe’s Bar (Part 2 of 5)
Part Two of Chuck Wendig’s Latest Flash Fiction Challenge. A continuation of Mr. Urban Spaceman’s story: Joe’s Bar.
I gave a snort, took a long swig of my G&T, and turned my attention back to the game being shown on Joe’s decrepit TV.
“Go on,” he insisted, in a voice ravaged by years of strong alcohol. “It’ll be worth it.”
Glancing around, I looked for help, but none of the other patrons of the grotty bar were paying attention to me being pestered by the old loon, and the bartender was very focused on cleaning a glass. The old man’s eyes bored into me from beneath his dirty mop of hair, and in the dim light of Joe’s Bar I saw the dark red stains on his grey trenchcoat.
“Alright.” The game was dull anyway. “What’s your poison?”
“Scotch on the rocks.”
I nodded at the barkeep, and the old man watched hungrily as the amber nectar was poured.
“Go on then,” I prompted him. “Tell me how you broke the world.”
He took a sip of his drink, gave a happy sigh, and looked up at me with those bloodshot eyes.
“It all started in 1939…”
Part 2
“Wait,” I said. “1939? That was over two hundred years ago!”
“This is the story you paid for,” the old man grumbled. “Let me tell it.”
I nodded for him to continue.
“I could see what was coming,” he said after another sip of his scotch. “It was obvious. So I did what I did to cut it short.”
He shuddered. “I forgot about consequences. No, that’s not right; I thought about consequences, I just didn’t think they’d be this.” He waved behind us.
I glanced at the only unique feature of Joe’s–the window–and jerked my head back. Everyone looks out that window, and no one can stand the sight of the shattered planet hanging above the lunar surface for more than an instant.
I drained my drink desperately and waved at the bartender for a refill. He cocked his head at the old man and I nodded for his refill too.
“Do you believe in magic?” the old man said quietly.
“No, of course not,” I said.
He jerked his head at the window.
“That’s not magic,” I said, “that’s just physics we haven’t discovered yet.”
He snorted his derision. “That’s what everyone says, but no one has yet explained the physics.”
Part 3
Like no one has ever said that before I thought. 'So how did this start in 1939?' I regret the question once its out of my mouth. The crazy eyes catch mine over the drinks the epinomius Joe set in front of us which I coughed up for. He was the third Joe that I knew of here and the first I knew by name actaually was named Joe.
The physicists today said that in some thousands of years the old moon now home to the local remnants of humanity would have a ring of what used to be earth. A ring system that might locally rival that of Saturn.
'Physics like magic ain't a fixed point' he took a sip of his drink this time rather then downing it; scotch wasn't cheap to make so I hope he'd get to the point before my spending limit was met.
'And what's that supposed to mean?' I followed his lead and only took a sip of my drink and hoped this would at least be an interesting fantasy, one I could use he next time I was the lost one at the bar sharing bullshit for a ver needed high he at the ass end of the human race.
'Recall when the astronomers found that the universe was expanding faster then it sould have been, exponentially faster, sometime last century?'
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