The Thumb Part 2: The Pebble
AKA The Weekly Whoop #4: Clue #3
STFU (So That Folks Understand)
I wrote a version of this story as a LinkedIn post to create some intrigue around the (then) impending launch of 'whoop!'.
It's one of many shorts I have written to tie in with one of the editions of The Weekly Whoop as part of the key (i.e. the riddle) or as one of the clues.
And now, I have retrofitted it to serve as Clue #3 to The Weekly Whoop #4. It follows from a previous entry that you can read here.
Please note, however, that you don't need the backstory in that link to use this short as a clue to complete The Weekly Whoop #4. Focus, instead, on the language I have used. It hides what you seek.
Enjoy!
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Useful Links: The Key | The Crossword (Interactive) | Clue #1 | Clue #2
“This episode contains depictions of self-harm. Discretion is advised.”
Hapa felt awake, watching a TV series that throbbed a disclaimer like an open wound.
Only, it didn’t feel like there was distress afoot. It was quite the opposite.
The opening sequence had the camera show a spring emerging from a place that evoked the Garden of Eden.
Hapa felt a faint voice whispering to him, but he couldn’t hear the words.
The torrents of spring gave way to a stream. A little later, the camera panned to show islands in the stream with hills like white elephants.
There it was again, the voice. It wasn’t faint anymore, but it was still garbled.
The scene then shifted haphazardly to a riverside restaurant, where men drank daiquiris and looked across the river and into the trees.
“Can you hear me?”
Meanwhile, kids laughed in the background. A disembodied voice shepherded them while a clown sauntered around, making balloon animals.
“Papa, papa.”
Hapa thought it was odd that the scene had men without women, and you would expect both at what felt like an outing for the children.
“Papa, papa. Can you hear me?”
Maybe they were there, just not there, there. But it didn’t matter because the setting changed suddenly, without warning.
“Papa, papa. Can you hear me?”
There was sawdust in the air, a violent ‘buzz,’ and pain in one of Hapa’s arms and extremities.
“Mr. Hapa? Can you hear me?”
And a ‘beep, beep’ that raised him from slumber, even though he was awake, watching a TV series that promised had throbbed a disclaimer like an open wound.
“Mr. Hapa? Can you hear me?”
The TV was gone. Hapa was no longer adrift in the sea of vivid signals. Instead, in what felt like a day’s wait, a clean, well-lighted place swam into his view.
It was a little too clean for Hapa’s taste. It was a dull and sterile room, a trademark of run-of-the-mill hospitals.
“Welcome back. How are you feeling?” The everydayness of the Doctor’s greeting betrayed its everydayness. He didn’t wait for Hapa’s response, saving Hapa the trouble of half-intelligible wheres, whats, and hows.
“You were in an accident. It was lucky your Janitor found you and your...”
The Doctor flicked his right hand subtly towards Hapa’s left hand, the one with a bandaged appendage, “...thumb. You have got to be more careful...”
The Doctor’s faux concern fell on earplugs as Hapa’s senses screeched to a halt just as he had started coming back to them.
He had cut his left thumb in his workshop.
“…you also have a cut a touch above the elbow. Any deeper, and it would have been a farewell to arms...”
But did he cut it, or did he cut it? As he juggled the two questions, the Doctor continued the soliloquy.
“...days and you should make a full recovery. There’s nothing to worry about. Let’s talk again when you have rested some more.”
Hapa watched the Doctor leave with a nurse in tow. He then looked at his bandaged hand, caressing it at length with his other hand.
“You and I both know it was no accident.”
Someone knew the truth. It was a janitor. Or at least that’s what the uniform, the bucket, the mop, and the trolley full of motley chemicals said.
“It WAS an accident,” Hapa angrily defied this scene’s direction.
“If you say so,” the interloper was nonchalant.
“Who are you?”
“I am the Janitor.”
“What do you want?”
The Janitor’s eyes bored into Hapa’s face with urgency, “It’s what YOU want, and what you want is to whoop the feed and keep your thumbs while doing it.”
Hapa’s nose tingled with pain. Where did he remember that phrase from?
“Take this.” The Janitor threw a small device at Hapa, who caught it with his good hand. He examined the device with admiration and suspicion. It looked and felt like a pebble, except there was a screen.
“Don’t worry, it won’t take ’em thumbs off...”
Hapa looked into the Janitor’s eyes. The gleam in them would have matched the shine of his left thumb ring if he had a left thumb ring... or a left thumb, for that matter.
Hapa’s eyes widened.
“...it might take your head off, though.”
The Janitor grinned.
The gleam in his eyes matched the glint of his metallic right hand.
He whisked out of the doorway just as he had whisked in. Besides the gaping hole that was Hapa’s mouth, the only trace the Janitor left was the Pebble.
And that trace buzzed.
“Howdy, Argonaut?”
There was a moment’s pause. Then...
“Welcome to The Hunt.”
STFU (So That Folks Understand)
This clue shifted the vibe. Hope it helps you decipher the key and complete the quest in time.
The Weekly Whoop #4 ends tomorrow, Nov 24, 2024, at 1800 hours PT. Happy hunting!