Word: klaxon

 

klaxon

\ KLAK-suhn \  , noun;

1. a loud electric horn, formerly used on automobiles, trucks, etc., and now often used as a warning signal.

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Frank had no idea how he had gotten into his current predicament.  One moment he was simply doing his job and checking a prisoner’s cell for contraband, and the next, that same prisoner had his arms pinned and a crude but effective shiv pressed against his neck. 

               The loud wail of the prison alarm rang out in his ears, alerting any guards that weren’t already there to the escape attempt as the other prisoners that were still locked up yelled and jeered at him.  His captor held him fast with the small blade firmly pressed against his skin as they faced Frank’s coworkers.  Each of them had a small handgun pointed at the prisoner, but Frank was held in the way, preventing any of them from shooting.

               “Calm down, Miller, just let the man go and nothing has to happen.”  The warden said in a voice loud enough to be heard over the sirens. 

               “Yeah, right.  How’s about you all get out of the way and maybe I won’t stick this chump.”  Miller said.  He pressed the shiv a little deeper into Frank’s neck.  He could feel a drop of blood leaking out.  He held his breath, scared that inhaling would force the blade in deeper.

               “You know we can’t do that.  Look, how about we cut a deal.  You let Mr. Harper go, and I’ll see that you get some additional privileges.”  The warden said.  He said it as calmly as the situation allowed, but Frank swore he heard the nervousness in his voice.  This situation was just as knew to him as it was to Frank.

               “Why would I do that?  I’d rather just take this guy and leave.  That sounds a lot better to me.”

               “I don’t know.  We can make things pretty nice for you.”  The warden said.

               “Nah, I think I’d rather just leave.”  Miller said.  “Now, if you boys don’t mind, I think I’m pretty much done talking.” 

               Frank felt Miller start to walk and had little choice but to follow along.  The large prisoner led him back, away from the wall of guards and towards the nearest unprotected exit.  Frank tried to move as much as he could to give him coworkers a clean shot at the escapee, but he knew it wasn’t going to work.  None of them were sharpshooters, and if any of them tried to take a shot he was likely to end up dead, either from friendly fire or from Miller after a shot missed.  Still, he felt like he had to do something.  But the noise from the still blaring alarms and the shiv against his throat made it hard to think.

               Miller led Frank out of the cell block and eventually to the courtyard.  The sirens weren’t as loud there, so Frank’s mind was able to work a bit better there.  He went over his options.  Breaking free or overpowering the much larger man was out of the questions, as was trying to be less than cooperative.  So, the only thing he had left was to try and talk with his captor and convince him that escaping was a bad idea. 

               “You know this is a bad idea, right?”  He said.

               “Shut up.”  Miller said bluntly.

               “No really.  I mean, sure you can run now, but what happens after that?”

               “Simple.  I keep on running till you don’t chase me anymore.”

               “You think that’s really going to work?  I mean, even if you leave this jurisdiction, you’ll just be entering another.  More cops will chase you and put you in jail again.  It’ll never end and you know it.”

               “I’ll just head south of the boarder then.”

               “Oh yeah, great plan.  Except for the fact that we’re nowhere near the border.  Road Island isn’t exactly a great place to get to Mexico from.  You’ll never get on a plain because security will get you.  And even if you hitch all the way, it’s still thousands of miles and weeks of travel time to get caught in.  You’ll never make it anywhere you can really live without the risk of getting caught.  Look, we haven’t left the prison yet.  If you let me go now, you can still get off without much trouble.  So, what do you say?”

               Miller didn’t say anything for a moment.  But he didn’t stop moving either.  Frank began to get more and more nervous as they approached the tall chain link fence that surrounded the prison grounds. 

               “Now, how exactly are you going to get past the fence?”  Frank asked.  “You can’t climb over, not with all the razor wire on top of it.  At least, not with me.  And you can’t get rid of me, since then all the other guards will get you.  You can’t go through it either, since you don’t have any wire cutters or anything like that.  Neither do I, if you were thinking of taking a pair off me.  So, what are you going to do?”

               “I got something set up.”  Miller said. 

               As they got to the fence, Miller forced Frank to kneel with him.  The large man moved a rock that was set up next to it.  It was covering a hole just big enough for a person to squeeze through. 

               “If you had something like this, why not just get out during the night?”  Frank asked.

               “I got my reasons.  Now get in there.”

               Miller shoved Frank roughly into the hole.  It was a tight fit, but not very long, and it only took him a few seconds to get to the other side of the fence.  A few seconds after he was out, he felt Miller’s rough hands restrain him and the shiv again at his throat.  Miller forced Frank to resume walking, roughly turning him around to face the prison fence and the guards that were amassing there, waiting for their chance. 

               “Now then, you asked me why I need you.”  Miller asked when they were several hundred yards away from the prison.

               “Uh huh?” 

               “I need you to send a message.”

               “What kind of message?”

               “I need to you to let them know what’ll happen to them if they chase me.”

               “Which is?”

               Miller didn’t answer with words.  Instead, his answer came when he felt the blade of the shiv piercing his throat and sliding through his veins and arteries.  He felt his body run cold, and Miller release his grip on him.  As his vision faded, he saw Miller turn and run. 

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 Yeah, I got nothing to say right now.  Sorry. 

Word: cusp

  

cusp

\ kuhsp \  , noun;

1. a point or pointed end.

2. Anatomy, Zoology, Botany.  a point, projection, or elevation, as on the crown of a tooth.

3. Also called spinode. Geometry.  a point where two branches of a curve meet, end, and are tangent.

4. Architecture.  a decorative device, used especially in Gothic architecture to vary the outlines of intradoses or to form architectural foils, consisting of a pair of curves tangent to the real or imaginary line defining the area decorated and meeting at a point within the area.

5. Astronomy.  a point of a crescent, especially of the moon.

6. Astrology.  a. the zodiacal degree that marks the beginning of a house or a sign. b. Informal.  a person born on the first day of a sign.

7. a point that marks the beginning of a change: on the cusp of a new era.

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             “Ladies and gentlemen, we stand at the cusp of new era.”  Henry said as he ran his fingers along the top of his cards.  “One in which I am the champion.  Where I reign supreme.”

               He set his card down, adding it to his mass of colorfully illustrated cards.  Jessica sat on the other side of the table, unconcerned with the latest addition to the ever growing army set against her.  She simply peered over the top of her hand.

               “Sorry, little boy, but I have yet to lose to you, and have no intention of starting now.”  She said calmly.  Henry’s eye twitched.  He hated when she called him little.  They were the same age.  She had no right to call him that.  Well, other than the fact that she stood a full foot taller than him, but that hardly counted, right?

               “You can’t win, Jess.  You know that.  I mean, look at your paltry forces versus my mighty army.  How could you even think of victory under these conditions?”

               The playing field was heavily stacked in Henry’s favor.  He had a field filled with some of the most powerful creature cards he could afford, all backed up with numerous enchantments and other enhancement cards.  Jessica, on the other hand, had a mere three creatures, and none of them were anything special, nor did they have any kind of enhancements or other such support.  All she had were the cards in her hand.  The next turn would since it for Henry. 

               The two had played countless games before and he had never even come close to winning.  Now though, now he was one turn away from his first factory against the current champion.  A new era would begin, one where he was the person the new players looked up to.  It would be him who they all asked for tutelage, not her.  She would be old news, and all he had to do was play a single card on his next turn, and finish her off. 

               “I think I’ll play…this one.”  Jessica said.  She set her card gently on the table in the appropriate area.  Henry’s eye twitched again.  It was a defensive card that would nullify all incoming damage for a single turn.  It was annoying, but all it would mean was she would survive another turn, and he would get more powerful, making her defeat all the more potent.

               “Ah, staving off the inevitable, are we?  I see you must be getting scared.  Afraid of what’ll happen in the age of Henry?”

               “No, not really.  Mainly because that age is still a long way off.”  She said. 

               “Playing it cool, huh?  Well, it doesn’t matter.  Your loss will be sweet enough for me.  But for now, I’ll play these two cards and call it a turn.”  He had played another powerful creature, and attached an enhancement that would double its attack power the next time it did so.

               Jessica calmly drew her next card and discarded her last line of defense.  She looked him dead in the eye after looking at what it was.  Henry felt a chill run down his spine.  He knew that look.  It was the look she got when she had drawn the winning card.  But it was impossible, right?  There was no way she could win.

               “Let’s see, how about these two cards…” The cards she set down were worrisome.  One made it so that the next time she took damage, she would be healed for the same amount.  The next would make it so that the next time she took damage, he would suffer the same amount.  But he had both too much life and too many attacking cards.  He could easily weather that storm simply by hitting her with her weaker cards first.  “And then follow it up with a little thing called Sudden Death.”  She said, as she set the card down.

               Henry looked at the card blankly.  He could almost feel the color drain from his face.  It was a super rare card with an equally powerful ability if used correctly.  It dealt enough damage to each player to put them both at one hit point, making the match go to whoever could land a single hit on the other.  A real sudden death match.  The problem was the other two cards she had played.  Since the Sudden Death card did its job with direct damage, Jessica’s hit points had just gone up instead of down, and the damage she would have been dealt had been transferred to him.  In one swift move, she had beaten him and his powerful army.  He sat there in disbelief, looking at the three cards that had done him in.

               “See, I told you.”  She said as she started to collect her cards one by one.  “Your so called Age of Henry is still a long way off.”  She deliberately left the three victory cards for last, picking them up slowly and carefully, making sure he saw them as long as possible.  “But hey, if you want to try again with a different deck, be my guest little boy.” 

She stood up and left the table.  A new player eagerly went up to her, asking her opinion of his latest deck.  Henry just sat there, with two thoughts flowing through his mind.  One was the disbelief of his most recent loss.  The second was an idea for another deck.  One that was as unbeatable as anyone could hope to make.  He smiled as he mentally went over the list of cards he would need.  The Age of Henry would come, he would make sure of that. 

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If you couldn't tell, this would be a completely made up card game, which is why only one card has an actual name.  But it is based on real games of this nature.  If you don't know, look up trading card games.  They can be a lot of fun if you have people to play with.

Word: largesse

 

largesse

\ lahr-JES, LAHR-jis \  , noun;

1. generous bestowal of gifts.

2. the gift or gifts, as of money, so bestowed.

3. Obsolete.  generosity; liberality.

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Joe slumped down onto the nearest chair, which happened to be one of the least comfortable folding chairs in the place.  He didn’t care.  He was too grateful to be sitting.  The sounds of many small, running feet and the accompanying laughter and shouts wouldn’t let him have a proper rest though.  Heather, his wife, sat down next to him, equally worn out.

               “Whose idea was it to have twenty kids over for this thing?”  Joe asked.

               “We accepted because Nathan wouldn’t stop asking, remember?”  Heather replied. 

Their son’s seventh birthday party was large, to say the least.  Not only had they allowed him to invite twenty of his classmates—which he had told them were all his friends—but there were relatives to deal with as well.  The second category was not all bad though.  Some of the older cousins that still had some energy left were still doing their best to corral twenty seven year olds that had been loaded with cake, ice cream, and other assorted junk foods.  It was an uphill battle though, and the adults were losing ground by the minute as the hyperactive kids ran circles (literally in most cases) around them.

“Oh, right.”  Joe said, regretting that decision even more than when he had made it.

“Should we try again?”  Heather asked.

“Five minutes.  Let them run around a bit more.  Maybe they’ll have burned off some steam.”

“You’re kidding, right?”  Heather asked, looking at her husband with a deadpan glare. 

“Just a bit.  Still, you have to admit, five minutes sounds real good right now.”  Any amount of rest sounded good at that point.

“Ok, five minutes it is.” 

Several other worn out adults, both relatives and parents, came to join them, finding as much sanctuary as they could.  They all knew it was temporary, but it was something they needed.  Soon though, Joe and Heather nodded to each other.  Heather slowly got up out of the chair and headed over to the basement where the kids were playing.

She was instantly assailed by the noise of twenty kids all shouting at once.  The older cousins who tried to keep them in line looked at her hopefully.  She looked for something to get their attention, eventually finding it in the form of the TV which had been turned on at some point in a futile effort to maintain order.  Heather turned it off and the lack of background noise drew some attention.  Not all, but enough.

“Ok, it’s time for presents!”  She said, trying to act happy about it.” 

It was like a stamped.  Nathan was, of course, the first one up the stairs, blowing past his mother like a storm.  The others followed.  Heather thought she would be trampled by tiny feet as they roared past her.  Fortunately most of them moved around her, but a few did bump into her.  All in all, the announcement went better than she hoped.  She followed them up stairs to see what was happening.

               Nathan was already tearing into his first gift, one from a classmate—or his mother at any rate.  It was a small little RC car, but Nathan seemed to love it.  The next gift was similar, only in the form of a motorcycle.  The room seemed to fill with torn wrapping paper as Nathan devoured his many gifts.  Most of them were toys or books, but clothing was represented in considerable amount as well. 

“Here we are, you can open mine next.”  Said Vicky, one of Joe’s older sisters as she handed the boy her colorfully wrapped box.  Joe and Heather looked nervously at each other.  Vicky was quite well off, and loved to flaunt it by getting the most expensive things she could, playing it off as generosity. 

“Oh wow!”  Nathan cried out when he saw what was in the box.  It was the latest video game console, something that the boy’s parents had not wanted to see.  Not only had Vicky gotten the system, but a small library of (thankfully age appropriate) games.  The other kids ooo’d and aww’d when they saw what he had gotten.

“My, wasn’t that…nice of you.”  Heather said, looking at the gift giver. She eyed Joe, who returned the looked with an equally annoyed one.

He gave a subtle signal to his sister to speak with her in private while Heather managed to keep the unwrapping process going.  Vicky looked confused by the act, but followed anyway.

“Something wrong?”  She asked smugly.

“I thought I asked you not to get things like that.”  Joe said.

“Really?  I must not have gotten that e-mail.” 

“Seriously Vicky, we’re trying not to get Nathan hooked on video games, and you get him that thing?”

“Oh please, a few games every now and then won’t hurt the boy.  My kids play regularly and lead perfectly healthy lives.”

Joe blinked at that.  Her older son was nearly blind from playing all hours of the day and her younger son weighed as much as Joe did, even though the kid was barely four feet tall.  He desperately wanted to call his sister out on that one, but he was too polite to say anything.  At least while there was company around.  He would make sure to let her have it after the guests left though.  But, there were a still a few things he could say right then and there.

“We’ll take about that later.  But still, I know you got the e-mails.  You responded to them.  I specifically said no video games, and you agreed.”

“Did I?  Huh, I guess I did.  Well, if you want you can say it’s from Henry.  Will that do?”  Vicky’s husband was not the type to make decisions.  In fact, he was something of a fall guy for situations exactly like this one.  Vicky simply blamed him when she did something contrary to what others wanted her to.   Nobody but the two of them felt they had anything like a healthy relationship.

“You already said it was from you.  “  Joe said, crossing his arm.

“Ah, so I did.  Oh well.  You can’t exactly get rid of it now, can you?  Nathan would be so disappointed.”  She looked at her brother, her already smug smirk becoming even more so.  Joe couldn’t really counter that in any polite way.  Just then, Nathan came tearing into the room, clutching a new action figure like it was made of precious gems.

“Dad, dad, look what Tommy got me!”  He said excitedly, holding the still unopened box up.

“That’s great buddy.”  He said, giving his son a half hearted smile.  “We’ll talk about this later.”  He said much quieter to Vicky.

“Of course.”  She said.

Nathan grabbed his father’s hand and pulled him back out to the living room, more than ready to open the last few presents.  

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I'm sure every family has one person like this in them.  Maybe not quite this...exaggerated, but still there.