Word: uncanny

   

uncanny

\ uhn-KAN-ee \  , adjective;

1. Having or seeming to have a supernatural or inexplicable basis; beyond the ordinary or normal; extraordinary: uncanny accuracy; an uncanny knack of foreseeing trouble.

2. Mysterious; arousing superstitious fear or dread; uncomfortably strange: Uncanny sounds filled the house.

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             Jake’s brow was furrowed in concentration as he stared at the screen.  Ben just smiled smugly at his friends determination.  Jake was putting all he had into what he was doing, but it was making no difference at all.  Ben was still winning, just like every other time they played.  After the current game ended, Jake almost threw his controller down in frustration.  It was his game, so how did he keep losing? 

                “Problem?”  Ben asked, watching his friend struggle to not throw something. 

                “No.  I’ll just get you next time.” He vowed.

                “Yeah, sure you will.  Kind of like you were going to beat he the last five times we played.”

                “I just need to practice more, that’s all.”

                “You just keep telling yourself that.  Maybe someday you’ll even believe it.” 

                “You’ll see, it’ll happen.”

                “Not in a million years.  Face it, man, you suck.”

                “I do not!”  Jake said defensively.  He really didn’t.  In fact, he was considered a very good player and usually won online matched.  It was just that Ben was simply better.  And not by a small amount either.  While both were experienced gamers with years of experience, Ben just had that certain talent that Jake lacked.  A fact that Ben never stopped rubbing in Jake’s face, even after ten years of playing together.  “Let’s go again, and I’ll prove it to you.  I’ve been working on a secret move that I’ve been saving for a special occasion.  I guess I’ll show you before it’s really called for though.”

                “Uh huh.  You know, and trick you may have I probably already know, right?”

                “Not this one.  I guarantee it.”  Jake said, triumphantly.  They started up a new game and Ben got off to an immediate advantage.  Ben’s brows once again furrowed in concentration as he set himself up for his last ditch effort.

                “Hey, this looks like fun, can I play?”  Said a small voice from behind them.  Both guys stopped playing instantly, their concentration ripped from the screen by the sudden presence of Jake’s ten year old sister, Amy.

                “How does she do that?”  Ben whispered to Jake, referring to the girl’s uncanny ability to sneak up on people.

                “Didn’t I tell you?  She’s part ninja.  I swear she got switched at birth or something.”

                “I can hear you, you know.”  Amy said.  She was still smiling, knowing that they probably did that on purpose. 

                “Does it matter?” Jake said.

                “Not really.  I just thought I’d let you know.”  She said, giving a quick, pseudo innocent smile.

                “Gee, such a good little sister.”  Jake said mockingly.

                “Aren’t I just?”  She said.

                “Hey can we get back to the game now?”  Ben said, having seen enough of the sibling’s antics for one day.

                “I want to play.”  Amy said, running around the couch and planting herself between her brother and his friend.

                “Sorry, sis, no can do.  This is a guys’ game.  Besides, it’s only for two players.”

                “What, so just cause I’m a girl means I can’t play?”  She looked at Jake, and squinted up at him.  Jake couldn’t refuse his sister when she got like this.  Besides, it wasn’t like she knew how to play, and would probably get bored soon enough.

                “Ok fine, you can play.”  He said, offering her his controller.

                “Nah, I’ll step out.”  Ben said, “It’s no fun beating a little squirt like this.”  He said, handing the girl the controller.  She let the squirt comment slide, joyfully taking the controller.  Jake gave her the list of controls, just enough to get her up and going anyway.  She would have to find out the rest on her own.  He was a good brother, but not that good.

                As the game got under way, Amy strove to get the hang of the game.  It wasn’t enough to beat her brother, but by the end she was giving him a surprising amount of trouble.  When she wanted to play again, the same thing happened.  By the end, she was definitely playing better than she had been at the beginning.  Jake looked at his sister as she smiled up at him while setting up another round. 

                The trend kept on going as they played.  Ben couldn’t help but notice the family resemblance.  Both got the same exact look on their faces when they were concentrating.  However, even he was surprised when he saw how quickly the young girl was picking up on all the little tricks the game offered, and steadily got better.  She might even win soon if things kept going as they had.  A fact that was reinforced by the fact that the tenth round the two had played ended up in a draw.  As did the next three rounds, but by increasingly narrow margins.  Amy was slowly but steadily pulling ahead of her brother.

                “Geeze kid, have you played this before?”  Ben asked between rounds.

                “Nope.  This is my first time.”  She said.  He didn’t quite believe her though.  He looked to Jake, who was apparently just as stunned at his sister’s abnormal skill gain.  If his reaction was any indication, this really was her first time playing.

                “Ever play any other games like this then?” Ben asked, wanting to find out the source of her rapid progress.

                “Nope.  The only games I’ve ever played were the games mom and dad get me.  And those are all boring games about cooking and raising animals and stuff.”

                “It’s true.  You should see her game collection.  There’s so much pink there, I swear it looks like it’s been covered in bubblegum or something. 

                “So then, what’s the deal with this?  You going easy on her or something?”  Ben asked Jake.

                “Maybe a little.” He admitted.  He had been going easy on her a bit, intending to be nice to his sister.

                “Don’t do that.” She said, staring at him.

                “Ok, fine.  I’ll play for real now.”  He said.  He didn’t want to admit it, but at the rate she’d been going, even that may not be able to stop her for much longer.  They started a new game, this one ending up in a distressingly narrow win for Jake.  The next round once again ended in a draw.  The next few rounds ended in the same way, but she was still pulling ahead by small amounts.

                Ben watched the next round intently.  He wanted to see if there was any trick to it.  But there wasn’t.  In this round, she was actually beating her brother.  Not by much, but she was going to win.  And he swore she was getting a little better as she played. 

                “You sure you’ve never played before?”  He asked once the match ended in her first victory.

                “Nope.  I do sometimes watch him play though,” She said, pointing to Jake, “Maybe that has something to do with it.” She said smugly, clearly enjoying her victory. 

                “Don’t get too cocky kid.  I still have a few tricks to play.”  Jake said.  Being beaten by Ben was bad enough.  He’d never live it down if Amy started beating him as well.  However, each time they played, she won by a larger and larger amount.  Finally, Ben made his move. 

                “Ok move over loser.”  He said, shoving Jake away as he stared dumbly at the screen, which showed a very decisive loss on his part.  “This is getting embarrassing.  Let me show you how it’s done.”  He took Jake’s controller and started another match.  Ben managed to win, but not by as much as he thought he would.  When Amy insisted on another round, she closed the gap even more.  And, after only ten matches, Ben had finally met his.  Somehow Amy had managed to beat him.  He wasn’t even holding back on the ten year old.  The two guys simply stared at the screen, dumbfounded at Amy’s win.  Somehow both of the experienced gamers had lost to a ten year rookie.  She just looked at them, giggling all the while.

                “Hey thanks, maybe mom and dad will get me some real games when they see what I can do.”  She said, dropping the controller and running off happily to find her parents. 

                “Ok, so we never tell anyone about this. Ever.”  Jake said.

                “Agreed.”  Ben said. 

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I admit it, I had some fun with this one, could you tell?  There are just some words that I have more fun with than others, and this is one of them.  But I guess that's the point of this little endeavor, isn't it? 

Word: fulgurant

 

fulgurant

\ FUHL-gyer-uhnt \  , adjective;

1. Flashing like lightning.

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               The air around the young couple was cold, crisp, and damp with the low hanging mist.  It was almost too dark to see, but the occasional flashes of lightning granted them momentary views of their surroundings.  Enough not to run into any of the gravestones at least.  The sounds of their footsteps echoed around them, adding to the sounds of the hollow wind and thunderclaps.  A lone crow called out from somewhere around them, apparently indifferent to the thunder and lightning. 

                The small, thin girl let out a small yelp of surprise as she ran into a thin spider web hanging from a scraggly tree branch she had passed under.  She scrambled against the thin white material, trying to pull it out of her hair.  Her boyfriend simply laughed at her antics, but did eventually move to help her pull it out. 

                “You were laughing at me.”  She said, teary eyed once she had been detangled.

                “Sorry, sorry.  You have to admit though, it was kinda funny.”  He said.

                “It was not!”  She said, her voice rising in pitch ever so slightly.

                “Come on Lucy, you got caught in a fake spider web.  Even you have to admit that was funny.”  He said, still trying not to start laughing again.  Lucy huffed and started walking down the path outlined by the fake gravestones, pouting as she did.  Then came another flash of the strobe light ‘lightning’ and recorded ‘thunder’.  She was back on his arm almost immediately.  This time he couldn’t keep from laughing.  All he could do was keep it at a quiet chuckle and avoid her pouting glairs. 

                “Tom, you’re laughing again.”  Lucy said, not moving away from him for an instant.

                “Yeah.”  He said through his chuckles.  The look she gave him just made him laugh louder.  When her eyes started tearing up he did his best to stop though.

                “I don’t know how you convinced me to come here.”  She muttered, more to his sleeve than to his face.  Tom had convinced her to come to a local haunted house for Halloween.  He did it for her sake really.  Lucy was not someone who went out very often, and he had to work to get her to do anything which could be considered fun.  He would probably pay for it later on though, since Lucy could find some very creative ways to get back at people for things like this. 

                “You know, like I do everything.  Butter you up with cake and ask when your mouth is full so you can’t say no.”  He said, a wide smile glued to his face as he looked down at her clinging to him.  Lucy didn’t say anything, since she knew he was pretty much right.  He had even managed to get them to wear themed costumes using this method. 

Of course the genre he had chosen had been fighters of some kind.  For Lucy, this meant ‘borrowing’ her older brother’s old karate uniform.  It was an interesting sight to say the least.  The white cloth hung off her small, slender body so much that she had to use white strings to keep the thing from falling off.  Combined with her shy looking face, big, circular glasses, and brown hair done in a simple braid, she seemed more like some kind of character in a cartoon than anything else. 

                Tom’s costume seemed to fit him better, if only just.  He had used the opportunity to dress up as a ninja warrior.  For him, this meant wearing a black sweat suit, sneakers, gloves, a black t-shirt wrapped around his head, and a set toy ninja weapons from the dollar store.  It was only the fact that he was of Japanese decent that let him pull it off only a little more than Lucy did hers.

                Lucy began pulling on his arm as they walked down the room, shivering from more than the air conditioning that had been turned up to full blast for the event.  She was eager to get out of there as quickly as they could, go home and probably eat some candy.  It was a wonder she didn’t get fat from all the sweets she ate.  Tom for his part, was enjoying the moment. 

He had to admit, the group that did the annual haunted house had really gone all out this year.  Usually they just painted everything black, stuck a few cob webs around with plywood partitions, and had people in masks jump out.  This year they had really put a lot more into it.  Each room in the building they used had a different theme to it, and each was very well done.  The current room was a poorly maintained graveyard.  So far nobody had jumped out at them, but it was only a matter of time really.

Sure enough, just as a simulated lightning bolt flashed, a man dressed, very convincingly, as a zombie right in front of the couple.  As he made to grab at them, Lucy shrieked and lashed out with her fist in a wide arcing punch.  Her blow struck the man just above his jaw.  He staggered back a bit, and a slew of curses and swears that would make a sailor proud issued forth from behind the zombie mask. 

“What the hell!?”  He asked quickly removing the mask.  Lucy had retreated behind Tom’s back, cowering behind him like a five year old clinging to her mother on the first day of school.  “What was that for?”  He asked, rubbing the place he had been hit.  Tom raced to think of something to say.

“I guess you just did your job really well?”  He said, hoping the cloth in front of his face would hide his panic.  “See, she’s kinda skittish, and well, that is a really good mask you have.”  The man didn’t seem convinced.  Tom turned to face Lucy, who was hiding behind him as best she could, rubbing the hand she had used.

“I hurt my hand.”  She said weakly.

“You hurt my face!”  The guy said over another round of recorded crow caws and thunder claps. 

“Ok Lucy, we’ll deal with your hand later.”  He said, ushering her around in front of him.  “Let’s deal with this now.”  He said quietly.  Lucy couldn’t bring herself to look the man in the eye.  Instead she cast her gaze down at her own feet, wringing her hands nervously.  Her eyes were tearing up again and Tom could swear her heard her whimpering slightly. 

“S-sorry.”  She said, like a child who had got caught with a hand in the cookie jar.  It was really hard to think that she was in her mid twenties acting—and dressed—as she was.  Yet, it was this very quality that seemed to work to calm the man down a bit.  Still, he wasn’t exactly please with them.

“Yeah, yeah.”  He said, “I think it would be best if you guys left now.”  He said, obviously trying to keep himself angry despite the display Lucy was putting on. 

“Right.”  Tom said, placing his hands on her shoulders and leading her away.  “Come on Karate girl, let’s go home.”  Lucy nodded silently.  The two walked side by side, Lucy still hanging her head and rubbing her hand.  Another flash of strobe lit lighting and recorded though, and she was once again clinging to Tom’s arm.  He sighed, smiled at her and led them out, into the more natural cool October air.

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I can be so mean to my characters sometimes, can't I?  Well, when the story calls for it any way.  

Oh, and just remember, Halloween is now exactly two weeks away (no really, it's two weeks to the day at the time of this posting).  You know what your going as yet?  'Cause I sure don't.  Although...I do have some ideas that I can pull off on short notice if I need to...   

 

word:zeugma

 

zeugma

\ ZOOG-muh \  , noun;

1. The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words when it is appropriate to only one of them or is appropriate to each but in a different way, as in to wage war and peace or On his fishing trip, he caught three trout and a cold.

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               Flowers.  Zack needed to buy flowers.  And time.  As much of each as he could.  He had a few hours while Cindy was in the gym, and that was it.  He had messed up big time in the morning, he could not afford to screw up the evening. 

                Zack had committed one of the cardinal sins of a relationship:  he had forgotten his girlfriend’s birthday.  When Cindy had woken up, and he had not immediately wished her a happy birthday, she had not exactly been happy.  He had gotten around it by saying that he had something in store for her later in the day.  So now he was scrambling around trying to find something that would keep him safe.  Cindy was not a girl one wanted to anger. 

                Should he buy chocolates?  No.  No he should not.  That would only make things worse for him.  Cindy was a very dedicated athlete, and had a strict diet.  One that chocolate was not a part of.  If he got her some, she would probably see it as insulting her by trying to undo the effort she put into her body. 

                Cindy was not just an athlete.  She was a fitness competitor.  That meant she spent quite a bit of time in the gym in addition to her diet.  While she was by no means going for strength or size, since those in her line needed a more toned, fit look, she was still not exactly weak.  In fact, she could bench press almost as much as he could even though she weighed twenty pounds less.  As such, getting on her bad side was not something that would end well for him. 

                Perhaps treating her to dinner would work.  The only problem was that restaurants that were both upscale enough to satisfy his current need and catered to her dietary needs were slim to none.  Certainly none existed within his price range.  Maybe he could cook something for her.  That would work well if he got it right.  Both of them usually cooked for themselves, since they ate so differently.  Zack did however, watch Cindy cooking for herself closely enough that he knew what to do.  More or less anyway.  Maybe he could even use some of them methods used in the creation of his own meals for this one to give her something new and (hopefully) satisfying.  It was a long shot, but it was all he had.  After all, flowers could only get him so far.

                He passed by a bakery and had an odd thought.  Maybe they had some kind of low fat cake or something.  No, that probably wouldn’t work.  Even if they did, Cindy probably wouldn’t believe it.  He would have to make do with a nice dinner and hope for the best.  He headed to the supermarket and picked out everything he needed, picking things out both on his gut reaction, and what he had seen her using in the past.  He would wing it when he started cooking. 

                Having bought what he felt he would need, he headed home and hoped that she hadn’t gotten home yet.  Luck was not on his side today, as Cindy’s car was parked in the driveway.  No doubt she was waiting for him and his excuses.  Well, at least he could give one with reasonable believability and hopefully certainty.  After all, most of what he had bought was fresh and so he could just say that he was waiting to get only the freshest things for the romantic dinner he had planned.  He got the bags of food from the car and took a deep breath, reading himself for the onslaught that was about to happen.      

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Blarg.  I didn't like this one.  This week hasn't exactly been good to me for words of the day.  So it was either this or hope Saturday gives me something better.  Not sure if I made the right choice here.  Heck, I'm not even sure if I made use of the word properly, since the word structure it describes was only used once or twice.  Well, it is what it is.  Hopefully you all like it in spite of its faults. 

Word: agita

agita

\ AJ-i-tuh \  , noun;

1. Agitation; anxiety.

2. Heartburn; indigestion.

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             “Mom, Kevin kicked me!”  Sally shouted.

                “Did not!”  Kevin shouted, doing his best to shout louder than his sister did.  Their parents groaned at the pseudo argument their children had gotten into, which consisted mainly of very passionate calls of “Did not” and “Did too”.  This was the third such argument the kids had gotten into, and they had been only driving an hour.  And every single one of them had been due to something Kevin had or had not done.  The six year old boy adhered very strongly to the unspoken rule of being a younger brother:  Always do whatever it takes to pester, aggravate and ultimately annoy your older sister.

                 “Kevin, stop bothering your sister.”  Mary said from behind the driver’s wheel.

                “But I’m not doing anything mom.”  Kevin said, faked innocence coloring every word.  The car chose then to hit a disturbingly deep pot hole.  Kevin took that opportunity to lash out with both his legs, one of them aimed squarely at Sally’s. 

                “He did it again!”  The seven year old girl said.

                “Nuh uh, it was cause the car hit a bump.”  Kevin said triumphantly.

                “Kids behave.”  Adam said, turning back to his kids, “Don’t make your mother turn this car around.”  Somehow he managed to say it with a perfectly straight face.  Even though the kids arguing did a better job of annoying him than each other, he still had to find a way to make some kind of joke around it, even if it wasn’t very good.  Otherwise the two would drive him up a wall.  Most of the humor was lost on the kids, but Mary turned a brief, amusedly quizzical eye towards her husband before returning her gaze to the road.  His choice of words was not lost on her, even if it went over her children’s heads.

                “Okay.”  Both of them said sullenly.  While they did understand their father’s rather unique sense of humor, they learned long ago not to encourage him by acting dumb.  It seemed to work for the most part, but not all the time.  There were even times when it seemed like he made a joke just because they acted like they didn’t know it was one.  Still, they also knew when to keep still.  Or at least Sally did at any rate.  Holding still was still something Kevin had yet to master.  He was already planning things he could do to her even while restrained by the seatbelt and limited space he had to work with.  Still, he did manage to keep all his limbs to himself though for a good ten minutes.  He was about to make his move when Mary saw something that should keep even Kevin still, if only for a few extra minutes.

                “Who’s hungry?”  She asked, having seen a sign for a rest area coming up soon.  Both kids perked up at the mention of food, both voicing their desire to eat something.  Adam was not nearly as thrilled when he saw the options that this particular rest area had.

                “Do we really need to stop here?”  He asked quietly, “This place is like heartburn central.”

                “You don’t have to get anything if you don’t want to.”  Mary asked, equally quietly.

                “Dad, is heartburn when someone sets your heart on fire?”  Kevin asked.  Adam had no idea how his son managed to get such good hearing, since it certainly wasn’t for him.  The disturbingly vivid imagination was all him though.

                “It sure feels like it, but no.”  Adam said

                “Then what is it?”

                Adam fumbled with his words.  He had no idea how to explain heartburn to a six year old. 

                “Well you know how some foods are really spicy?”  Mary said, coming to her husband’s rescue as she pulled into the parking area.

                “Yeah.”

                “Well, heartburn is what happens when the rest of your body tastes spicy things like you mouth does.”

                Kevin seemed satisfied with the answer; although both his parents knew they would probably be seeing crudely drawn crayon pictures of various body parts eating Mexican food for the next few days.

                It only took a few minutes to get their food and pile back into the car.  Both Sally and Kevin had opted for a big name fast food meal, while their parents went for much simpler sandwiches and coffee.  As Mary drove off, the sounds of the two children eagerly eating their cheap greasy meals filled the car.  It was a much better option for the parents then listening to them arguing, so they were quite content with it.  The kids even managed to keep relatively still for quite awhile.  Adam even started to root around the car for a CD, which he would never have had a chance to do while dealing with the kids.  He had just found a good one and was about to put it in the stereo, when:

                “Mom, Kevin pinched me!”

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I'm sure every parent reading this has such fond memories of the days when their children's arguments consisted of two or three word sentences.  Good times for all, I'm sure.