Odd Prompts: The Code Came Through Just in Time
Welcome to the second Odd Prompt, via More Odds Than Ends, and Becky Jones. Let’s see how I can sink my teeth into this one…
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Ben finished fiddling with the email he had been writing via his phone’s app, and hit send. It zipped through the ether, containing an idea for a writing prompt that he secretly hoped would make someone else’s life faintly more difficult. Chocolate in the taps, what a notion! He smiled to himself, pleased with his offering, and set his phone back down on the desk at work, pretending to busy. He caught a glimpse through the office window of his wife, heading to collect their daughter from school, and waved to her from up on high. She waved back, carried on walking, and eventually disappeared among the buildings and shops of the town centre.
His email app pinged him, and Ben sneakily checked it. He saw his prompt had been given to Nother Mike, but the email was broken. He could not see what prompt he had received. Ah well, I have a week, no rush. Ben busied himself with his spreadsheets and documents, putting to one side the glitchy inbox on his phone. The working day drifted, far too slowly, to its inevitable conclusion, and as closing time arrived, the world had turned dark. Everyone said their goodbyes, and Ben threw on his thick green winter coat. As the last one out, locking up fell to him, and Ben fumbled with the alarm fob for a few seconds. Once set, he stepped out into the frigid drizzle, the kind of rain that somehow felt extra damp, and set off on foot for home.
He got home, greeted his wife and daughter, and enjoyed a Chinese stir-fry for dinner, in honour of Chinese New Year. After playing a spot of FIFA, Ben settled onto the sofa, curled up and ready to write. He attempted to access his emails, and yet again could not read the one about the MOTEs. Shrugging, Ben typed in the site address. It flashed up with an error message.
“Huh, weird.”
Ben tried again, via the WordPress Reader, and met with further technological gremlins. ‘Error Code 4471148’. He typed in the message into Google, and the search engine kindly informed him of requiring an authorisation code, before he could continue accessing More Odds Than Ends. With a frown, Ben tilted his head.
“It’s never done that before,” he muttered.
“Done what?” his wife asked.
“Oh, it’s a website where you share story ideas, but for some reason I can’t access it properly, I need some kind of authorisation code, like a login, or something. This didn’t happen last time.”
“Huh, weird,” she repeated his earlier statement, and resumed tackling the day’s Wordle. Ben got into his emails, and fired off a code request to MOTE. Stabling the matter, he resumed work on his latest novel, gleefully cracking the 60,000 word mark, but also conflicted as to where to go next with the story. His efforts to write were not assisted by his needy cat, who kept brushing against him, hoping to lure Ben to the kitchen. Ben rolled his eyes at his fuzzy-wuzzy booboo, not falling for his charms. With some background noise from the TV, and the chatter from his wife and daughter, Ben eased into his post-work, post-dinner routine, and before he knew it, the evening had given way to bed time.
The next morning, Ben blearily shut down the alarm, and sleepily checked his emails. There was nothing about a code for MOTE, only confusion as to why a code would be necessary, and thus Ben shrugged, and sent a new email, to WordPress themselves, advising them of some sort of glitch. He got dressed, brushed his teeth, and wandered downstairs to put the kettle on. Thoughts of writing prompts vanished from his mind, and the intrusive thoughts of work replaced them. After cajoling his daughter into getting ready for school, Ben, his daughter and his wife left the house, in the pouring rain, and resumed regular service. Rinse and repeat, for the next few days. Ben more or less forgot about the MOTE prompt until the weekend, when he checked his emails for a response from WordPress. Nothing.
Work got in the way of his ruminations. A steady trickle of calls, and unwelcome tasks placed at his desk, occupied Ben’s day. He would end a call, only for another to come in a moment later, leading to some colourful, aggressive metaphors. Unwelcome interruptions kept disrupting the flow of Ben’s day, and he found himself growing increasingly irritated. Thoughts of writing prompts and codes fell from his brain, replaced by resisting the urge to snarl down the phone at each and every new diversion.
Work remained busy for the next few days, and each day followed a similar pattern. Ben forced down his revulsion for the British public, plastered a smile on his unshaven face, and soldiered on. He forgot about his writing assignment, until he fired up the work PC, greeted by a message about a passcode needing updating.
“Oh no! The MOTE prompt!” Ben exclaimed, to confusion from his colleagues. Ben sheepishly shrugged, and quickly, cheekily, fired off another email to WordPress. He checked the date. Tuesday the 4th. He only had twenty-four hours to get the code, get online, check his prompt, and write a compelling piece of fiction. I can’t fail at my second ever prompt, I just can’t!
Ben resumed his regular working duties, but kept an eye on his phone for any emails coming in. The usual junk about free toasters, holidays, and all the other spam rubbish, kept getting in the way.
It seemed WordPress would fail him. The hours ticked away, with home-time fast approaching, and the night sky closing in. The working day ended, and Ben walked home, nervously keeping everything crossed, more in hope than true expectation.
“How was your day, babe?” his wife asked.
“Too long, as always. Too many people to deal with, not enough time. How’s madam?”
“She’s fine, she’s reading upstairs. Dinner is in the microwave, she couldn’t wait for food so I had to make something.”
“No worries, smells like, jacket potatoes?”
His wife made a face. “It’s mac and cheese.”
“Ah.”
Ben reheated the mac, went upstairs and got changed, then came back down to eat. He absent-mindedly checked his phone.
“Aha, yes, at last!”
His wife looked at him over the rim of her glasses. “What?”
“I got that code to access More Odds Than Ends, I can do the prompt! Just in time too.”
She smiled, and shook her head. “You and your projects.”
“Hey, you never know, this could be my pathway to becoming a famous author.”
“Yes, dear.”
Ben shrugged, grinned, and finished eating. He sat down to start writing, and forced himself to ignore the lure of The Traitors USA, focusing on developing what he he hoped would be a witty, entertaining short story from Becky’s prompt…
I almost thought this was a snippet from Real Life, until I noticed that it was posted on the 31st – well before the (soft) deadline of the 4th. 😀
Heh, I was sort of going for that, and nearly left it till today to post it, just for effect, but I didn’t have the patience to wait. It was however intended to be very meta, which hopefully shone through 😀