Stumble It!
Bar Code Number Please
Monday, March 31, 2008 at 03:56PM I have combined the Sunday Scribblings prompt: Out of This World and the 3WW prompt Bounce, Mysterious and Parallel (I wasn't feeling well when I wrote this and fusing the two prompts was the most I could do - so sorry).
I was so delighted by her long legs and her Japanese-inspired Harajuku fashion; with clunky knee-high boots and gothic petticoats, that I simply forgot the state of the world we are living in. Her car with the letters ZE (one of the largest multinational corps in the world) should have been a dead-give-away, but I foolishly attributed it to the weak dollar and her being of a foreign exchange rate. I was both wrong and right. I have been working as a valet now for two years and I thought I had seen all types until that moment when I saw her bounce out of that surreal car.
"Keys Ma'am?"
"Oh, no keys, I use my bar code."
"You mean you have a key pass code?"
"No, I have a bar code." She clarified in a louder voice and with sharper annunciation while waving her wrist at me in a mysterious 'hello' way. Her bangles clicked and chimed at me.
I started to think perhaps there was simply something lost in translation. I have heard of these new self-parallel-park cars and those fingerprint-key cars, maybe that's why she's waving her wrist at me.
"Ma'am, I have to park your car...so how would you like me to do that?"
"I have a copy of my bar code for you, it needs to be returned to me when I pick up my car." She hands me a piece of white cardstock around one inch by two inches in size that has no legible numbers on it -simply a variety of black thick and thin lines.
"Theres no number here Ma'am so what do I do with this?"
"My number is much too personal - you can only find that here," She moves her bangles up her arm and shows me the same black stripes but with a number imprinted like a tattoo on the soft supple flesh of her wrist.
"O.Righhtee then." At this point, I'm thinkin' she's just a wacked-trust-fund-babe, "So do I swipe this somewhere?" I asked incredulously.
"I get it, you've never seen a GE girl before have you?"
"Excuse me?"
"A G-E G-I-R-L, genetically engineered. My father is the ZE corporation and you should get used to my type. There's a whole battalion of us who have just been brought over. You'll never know when it's one of us your irking."
Ever since that day, I can't stop thinking about her. What it would feel like to kiss her, would she taste real/natural/ or synthetic?
http://sundayscribblings.blogspot.com/
Reader Comments (12)
If this is what you write when you are not feeling good, I can't wait to read what you write when you are feeling good! Fun, funky, and very, very unnerving. Love the picture too.
I love this - please keep it going - I'd love to see more of these GE girls and maybe some GE boys wreak some havoc in society. I love the imagery of her bangles covering her tattoo. Fun!
woman, you are the coolest person I know! How do you do it all and still find time for your beautiful puppies?
I like the vivid detail and how you wove the words in.
Sorry I can't spell under the best of circumstances, and my life's a bit draining right now
Very cool use of both prompts! Welcome home and feel better.
dang... that was excellent.. i am so not a sci fi person,,, and i loved it... every word....
Imaginative and lots of fun!!!
"What it would feel like to kiss her, would she taste real/natural/ or synthetic?" - good question :)
Absolutely fantastic combination of illustration and writing.
Loved it all!
Gemma
Very imaginative. The concept is quite fascinating. And I love the pic, too.
You have a flair for SF - must be your vivid imagination. The Japanese girl is a great character. Sort of reminds me of Blade Runner, one of my all time faves.
Thanks for your nice comments about my poem. :)
Fantasy! I like this a lot!