Dick Rocks
#5 of Little Nothings
Not as dirty as it sounds. This one was an in-class writing, with a prompt to write off a single photo as inspiration. Don't ask me about the photo, it had almost NOTHING to do with this story. I DID create a whole plot behind this though, and it was interesting, so I might do more.
"I'm telling you, we were there before."
"When?" Inquired Mel, almost belligerently.
"I don't know... before."
Terry seated himself between the two bickering men, handing each a cup of steaming coffee before sipping gingerly at his own. "What's he on about this time?"
"Keeps saying we've been to 9842 before."
"We have, I recognized it."
"It's all rainforest," stated Terry flatly, "how in the hell can you recognize one bit of it from another?"
"It had that rock. You know, the one that looks like a..." the youth gestured vaguely, "...you know?"
"... A dick?" Offered Mel finally.
"Yeah, that one. You don't forget a dick rock."
"Maybe you don't. It's a fairly natural shape, Jimmy-boy. There's probably dozens of dick rocks in this zone alone."
Terry nearly spat out his coffee, offering a short laugh that was more a scoff, finding this new topic to be entirely ridiculous. "Dick rocks," he shook his head. "I swear, I'm working with school children."
The two older men shared a chuckle at that while Jimmy-boy scowled into his cup. "I'm telling you, we were there before."
"Alright, I'll humor you." Terry said at length with the slow patience a parent might adopt. "If we were there before, how come the- the 'dick rock' was back? How come the rainforest was back? How could they be back if we'd already been there? We don't leave nothing but muck."
"I dunno, that's what's bugging me."
Mel sighed and gulped down the rest of his coffee, seemingly unaffected by the heat of it, and rose to his feet. "Whatever. You're either crazy or stupid, boy. Even more so if you keep wasting our break with this nonsense. I'm going to go talk to Sandy, you get your head on straight."
Watching as the large man left, Jimmy-boy made an obscene gesture behind him, and sat with Terry, looking at him with those large eyes that begged vindication. "I'm telling you... We were there before. We cleared 9842 before."
The grizzled worker sighed. "Alright, maybe we did, maybe we didn't. What of it? Does it change anything? We still have to get our pay, we still have to work, we still have to go back to work in..." he glanced at his watch, "three minutes now." Terry gestured helplessly, eyebrows raised. "What does it matter?"
The youth's lips moved silently as he tripped over words he couldn't find, stammering as eyes moved about as if the answers were hovering somewhere among the rafters. "... I guess it doesn't."
"Well, forget about it, then." The two rose together through some unspoken agreement, finishing their own drinks and donning their workman's caps once more. "Not worth the energy it takes to worry over it. Come on, no rest for the wicked."
On their way out, Mel joined them, giving a half-bow to the stout woman he spoke with, chuckling to himself as they stepped out into the sun. "... Dick rocks."