BB: “Captain of Sports!” AKA The Hammer Falls

September 16, 2018September 29, 2018 ~ Piece, of the Sky

JC come back to reality! Tyler is not going to win the POV for you! Kaycee won the POV. Sam is going home and then, next week, you’re going home, JC! Wake up! Do something!

JC and Sam have both been defeated by believing Tyler was exclusively their ‘person.’ They’re both on the bottom; they are the last of the misfit toys, now that all of Foutte has been eliminated.

What JC and Sam never realized – and still don’t realize – is that Tyler never belonged to them. Tyler made Final 2s with everyone. He doesn’t owe them anything.

Angela and Kaycee felt sorry for JC, until Tyler told them that JC has been gunning for them, for at least three weeks now. They then dumped JC and divested him as quickly as Level 6 cut out Brett.

Now that Angela and Kaycee know JC is going home before them, they are happy to admit, privately to Tyler, all the things that ever annoyed them, about JC and how they never liked JC, in the first place.

For JC, the Titanic has already sunk, and JC is just treading water, holding on to a raft or a rotting piece of wood, in the freezing north Atlantic, just waiting for the end.

Angela is winning comps and sitting pretty, but she has no plans, beyond the Final 3. She just hasn’t thought that through yet. Angela assumes that both Tyler and Kaycee will take her to the end, since she is so very much hated, by the jury.

Angela doesn’t know about Tyler and Kaycee’s Final 2. She may freak out, even more than JC, when she finds out that she is going to be betrayed. JC has been in a precarious situation for weeks – like Hay, before she went. JC understands the anxiety of not knowing where he stands and is ready for the hammer to fall.

Queen Angela has lived a mostly charmed existence, so far – so having her entire world turned upside-down will be far more unsettling to her, than it would have been for JC. JC’s only hope is that Tyler realizes this disparity, in the force of JC and Angela’s emotional reactions, and takes JC to the Final 3, instead of Angela.

Paging Dr. Peanut…Yes! Kaycee got the memo! I can’t believe it: another comp win! That’s how you do it! You hibernate, for the first month, so as not to put a target on your back – but maintain good social relations with everyone and not tick anyone off – and then down the homestretch, unfurl your fiery, phoenix wings!

Now, our Veto Goddess needs to grow a killer instinct! It’s good to be a beautiful Aphrodite sometimes, but at other times, a goddess of war, like Athena, is needed. Bring down the war hammer now, Kaycee!

This is the last chance to take a shot at Tyler! Kaycee’s self-preservation needs to kick in. Angela, Kaycee and Tyler can’t all win first place! It doesn’t work that way. Get four moves ahead, Kaycee. Get rid of the competition.

Control the Dream

February 26, 2018May 6, 2018 ~ Piece, of the Sky

Fuji Elsa-wave

Raindrops in the sea. Ghosts of mist and clouds floated out to the horizon, into the black night. The rain threw up little explosions of sand on the beach, constantly washed away by the waves. The sky was the color of slate, streaked with pewter, like a block of marble.

It was a warm rain; the gusts were controlled and mild. The palm trees sashayed in the wind, their fronds leaning back and forth, water sliding off the resin on their leaves. Ran and Alli watched this vista from the hardwood patio of Ran’s cabana. Their perspective was framed by the posts of the porch and thatch sticking out from the roof, providing a dry patch of sand for them to burrow their toes in.

Ran’s boat was moored in front of them, lashed to a log standing in the water, near the dock. They had covered it in blue tarpaulin, before the rain started, as the wind was chasing the clouds and covering up the moon.

They stared at the rain, their pants’ feet rolled up over their ankles. The boat lolled up and down in the water from another shore. Rocks and sand were carried out to sea, caught on currents meant for somewhere else.

Alli glanced at Ran’s yellow, fiberglass surfboard, leaning against the cabana façade, and said, “So, you surf too?”

“Yes, since I was a teenager,” Ran said, watching the darkness and leaning on her knees.

“Is that why you came out here?” Alli asked.

“Somewhat,” Ran answered. She turned to Alli, still hugging her knees, “Why did you come out here?”

“Well, Xen invited me out here,” Alli said. She crossed her arms and leaned on her knees also. She sunk her toes deeper into the cool sand. The rain pelted a smaller island, farther out at sea.

Ran turned and looked back at her feet, “You said I reminded you of someone. Who?”

Alli looked at Ran, “A friend from high school.”

“Is she still your friend?”

“Yes,” Alli said. She looked out over the gray water. A streak of lightning flashed, illuminating the distant island.

The rain picked up and it became colder, the dampness seeping under the thatch roof. They shifted together now, for warmth, yet still left a space between them – two hedgehogs in the downpour.

“What do you do?” Alli asked.

Ran smiled, crossed arms holding heat to her chest, “I work in a surf shop, of course. But I also write fiction. I wrote one novel that sold well, while I was still in college, but I haven’t been able to follow it up since. I just write short stories and book reviews now.”

“What was your book about?” Alli wondered.

Ran turned to Alli now, “The tendrils of love that still linger.”

“Romance, huh?” Alli said.

“Yes. I guess it just caught the zeitgeist of the age. Nostalgia for Generation X, or Y – or something,” Ran said. She looked back at her toes.

Alli moved so that her shoulder touched Ran’s. The thunder growled out beyond the tiny island, buffeted by the sea, lone palm tree swaying in the gathering gale.

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