The Adventures of Griffin Sue
I was at work today, wretched and miserable
from my cold, wishing desperately that I were home in bed, when
this occurred to me. I can't take credit for creating it; it
just appeared, full-blown, in my head. I wrote it down, now I
have no idea what to do with it, so I'll share it with you.
The Adventure Begins
by Griffin
I was alone in the darkroom, or so I thought.
I finished reloading when, from behind me, Jim said "Griffin".
I did what any reasonable person would do in that situation:
I shrieked and jumped about a foot into the air. The box I was
holding flew out of my hands and across the floor. I whirled
around and faced him. "Dammit, Jim! Are you trying to give
me a heart attack? And you should count yourself damn lucky that
box was empty, cause my boss would have been seriously pissed
if I dumped a hundred dollars worth of unexposed film all over
the floor!"
Jim was making weird choking noises, and I
realized that just because the room was dimly lit for me, the
safelight undoubtedly made it bright as day for Jim, and I had
probably looked totally ridiculous. He was trying, not too successfully,
not to laugh. He seemed to have gotten himself under control
when he said "Sorry. I wanted to talk to you, and now seemed
like a good time since you're not distracted."
He had a point. Loading film is one of those
activities that keeps the hands busy, but allows the mind to
roam. My hear rate was returning to normal, and I never can stay
mad at Jim for long, so I asked "What's up?"
"It's the new story you're working on..."
"You're not upset cause I didn't work
on it this weekend, are you? Cause I was sick, I really felt
terrible."
"No, that's not it at all," said
Blair as he stepped out from behind Jim. "It's the sex.
Or rather, the lack of it. It's already longer that anything
you've written so far, and nothing - no kissing, no touching,
not even any loving glances."
I could hear the frustration in his voice.
"Oh, that," I replied. "It's not that kind of
story."
"Oh my God!" Jim exclaimed. You're
not writing Gen?" Even in the dim light, I could see he
looked horrified.
"Gen! No! I don't think I could, even
if I wanted to. Nope, it's an Old Married Couple story. You two
get to kiss and cuddle later on."
"Just kissing and cuddling?" Jim
asked.
"It's a PG story, OK? No wild hot monkey
sex!"
"But I like wild hot monkey sex"
he grumbled.
"I don't know why you're complaining.
I just posted a story where Blair couldn't keep his hands off
you."
"Yeah! That was nice." Jim's voice
sounded indecently pleased.
"Look, guys, this is nice and all, but
I have to get back to work. How about if you help me with my
current story, and I'll write sequel to my last one. A nice vacation,
steamy sex...I have an idea - a cabin, some snow, and a bunch
of stranded nuns..."
"Nuns!" Jim yelled.
"SNOW!" Blair shouted.
"Okay, no nuns." I said.
"No nuns! No snow! No psychos in the
woods! No cabins!" Blair was working himself into quite
a tirade. "I want room service, dammit! And sunshine! I
need sunshine!"
"Shh, shh! Okay! Room service, sunshine,
I can do that."
"Surfing would be nice," Jim quietly
added. "And wild hot monkey sex."
"All right, I'll see what I can do. But
you have to give me some time here, okay? I have to make cookies
tonight, and I'm the Brownie Mom tomorrow, then it's Thanksgiving,
so I'll only be able to write in snatches this week. But I'll
get to it as soon as I can, I promise."
Just then Lois, my coworker, pounded on the
darkroom door. "Almost done!" I shouted, and looked
back at the guys to say goodbye, but they were gone. I picked
my empty film box off the floor, grabbed my film magazine, and
opened the door. As I blinked at the sudden brightness, Lois
asked, "What took you so long?" "I dropped some
film", I said. It occurred to me as I meandered back out
to work, that I should not take this new cold medication at work.
I felt a lot better, but the side effects were a doozy!
I had this funny little idea for a story, so I wrote it. But
I thought it would be fun to see what some of you could do with
it, too. Wanna play?
Further Adventures of Griffin in the Darkroom
I was in the darkroom, running QA tests, absently
singing "Smooth" only slightly off-key, which was all
Aly's fault ("Smooth", not the off-key) when there
was a 'thud', then a 'thunk'. "Ow!" exclaimed a very
familiar voice from my left.
"Don't move, Blair, the cabinet door
is open. Gimme just a sec, I'm almost done." I put my film
in the processor, shut the film box, and returned it to the cabinet.
"You could turn on a light, you know!"
"Sandburg, it's called a darkroom
for a reason," I said.
"Griffin, they have safelights
for a reason, too!" he retorted.
I snapped on the safelight at looked at him
in the dim red glow. Beautiful as always. I sighed. "Where's
Jim?"
"A new writer has him. She's doing a
kidnapping story, and right now, she's got Jim all angsty, searching
all over Cascade for clues."
"What about you?"
"My scene is later. I get to be tortured
by a madman from Jim's past," he said glumly.
"Well, surely you get some comfort to
go with the hurt, right?" I asked.
"It's smarm," he said.
I winced. He looked so sad, I had to do something
to cheer him up. "Well, what can I do for you? A PWP, something
really hot? I haven't managed one yet, but I could try..."
"There is something..."He gave me
a quick glance, and from the smile on his face, I knew I had
just been manipulated by a master. "Those cookies, the ones
you made for Christmas, Jim really liked them, but he only got
a couple...."
"You want me to bake you cookies?"
I asked. That was strange, even for Blair.
"Don't be ridiculous. I want to bake
some for Jim. You have to write it, so I know the recipe. It
doesn't have to be very long."
"Blair, that's so sweet." I couldn't
tell for certain in the dim light, but I thought he was blushing.
"No problem, I'll write you a little cookie story. You know,
Jim's a lucky guy."
"Me too." Blair replied as he stepped
back into the shadows. "Thanks," he called softly,
then he was gone.
A cookie story. I smiled. I can do that. I
stepped out of the darkroom, and started my busy day.
*****
So my challenge is simple: a story with
Jim and Blair, involving the making of cookies. Bonus points
if you include the recipe. I'm going to post my cookie story
tonight, with the recipe at the end. Whether you are in the mood
to write a cookie story or not, enjoy!
Happy New Year,
Griffin
See Just Another New
Year's Eve for the cookie story
My humble contribution to the Muse Challenge.
The Darkroom
by Griffin
I carefully eased open the door and looked
in. So far, so good. I slipped into the darkroom and shut the
door. I knew I had to move fast. I grabbed my box of film and
loaded the magazine. I collected the wrapper and empty box and
threw it in the trash. I made it! I was gonna be home free...
"If I didn't know better, I'd think you
didn't want to talk to me."
Uh oh. Nailed. "Hi Jim."
"Griffin." The curt way Jim returned
my greeting told me I was in big trouble. "Well?"
"I'm always happy to see you," I
explained. "It's just that, well, my co-workers are starting
to worry. They hear my talking in here, and they're starting
to worry about my sanity."
"Haven't you told them that you haven't
been on speaking terms with Sanity in a very long time?"
Oh great, Blair too. I set my film magazine down. This was gonna
take a while.
"Blair, I can't just tell my co-workers
I'm crazy, they'll think I'm nuts!"
I looked exasperatedly at the two men now laughing at me. "Well,
I'm glad somebody thinks this is funny. You can laugh, you aren't
the one who had to spend a whole morning trying to explain to
Magnolia why I couldn't drop everything and write 'WonderPoodle
of the Great City'."
Well, that didn't help any. Jim was laughing
so hard he had tears running down his cheeks, and he was barely
holding Blair up. Blair was just making strange squeaking noises.
"Is he okay?" I asked. Blair waved one hand weakly
in my direction, which I interpreted as an affirmation.
I gave them a few moments to compose themselves,
then I asked "Why the darkroom?"
Jim had recovered enough to answer. "It's
quiet here, and there're no distractions. What you do here is
so routine that your hands do the work and leave your mind free
to roam."
"If it really bothers you," Blair
added, "we don't have to come anymore."
"No!" I interjected. "I would
really miss you if you guys didn't visit. I suppose I just get
a bit frustrated. This is the perfect environment for communing
with the Musae. But out there," I gestured to the door,
"it's a mad house. And I can't write down these wonderful
stories here on the workstation, and I don't get enough free
time to write them out longhand, and I have to wait 'til I get
home, and there's the kids and dinner and chores, so half the
time, by the time I get to sit down and write I'm in total brain
lock. So then I have to wait until I calm down and a writing
frenzy hits."
Blair looked at me doubtfully. "But you're
cool with us visiting you in the darkroom?"
"Yeah." I smiled. "It's kind
of like the algae shakes, I've gotten used to it. It adds a little
excitement to my day. Even the damned poodle. But, guys,"
I added as they turned to leave, " if you ever let
Magnolia in here without you again, I swear I will write you
a gen story and make you brothers.
Both men shuddered, and I knew we had an understanding.
"I've got to get to work, guys. See you later?"
"Count on it, Griffin. C'mon Chief. If
we hurry, we can catch a PWP with a little light bondage."
"Can I be on top?"
"Whatever you want, Chief, wherever you
want it."
"Warm, I want someplace warm..."
I smiled as I headed towards the door. Just
a little excitement to the day.
end
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