Timothy E Jones
Bio
What is there to say: I live in Philadelphia, but wish I lived somewhere else, anywhere else. I write as a means to escape the harsh realities of the city and share my stories here on Vocal, even if I don't get anything for my efforts.
Stories (124)
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The Tabby, the Joker & The Box
I awoke with the knocking on the door to my apartment, the peperoni pizza and two lager I had the night before took its toll, and I wasn’t that quick on getting up and the dreams I had about some scantily dressed actress from the movie I had watched while eating said pizza I wasn’t too quick to get away from, but the knock was followed by the ringing of the doorbell. With mild hesitation I moved the 40 feet from my bed to the front door, making sure I had some semblance of clothing on for when I would finally open the door.
By Timothy E Jones4 years ago in Fiction
How do make de chocolate cake with the Swedish Chef
The Swedish Chef stood behind the prep table to his rather large kitchen chasing a headless chicken around with a meat cleaver, he had gotten as far as decapitating the chicken, but forgot to take into consideration that the nervous system of a chicken was such that they could still move around for a while after they were decapitated.
By Timothy E Jones4 years ago in Fiction
Wolf in the Barn
While on a road trip across the US with my wife Rachael, we came across an old ghost town in the middle of Nevada. Out of curiosity, Rachael and I decided to take a walk through the old western ghost town, so we parked our camper on the edge of town and began to wander around. Many of the buildings were such that the town itself was considered a sort of a landmark, so while keeping up with the intended look from the 1870’s, whoever it was who actually owned the town did a rather good job of keeping everything from falling apart. Of course, the old ghost town was turned into a roadside tourist attraction.
By Timothy E Jones5 years ago in Fiction
A new beginning
There was a war, another one of those wars where everybody was involved, but unlike other wars there were no side claiming to be the winners, everybody lost especially the common people who were caught in the middle of this meaningless war. Cities were devastated and the great skyscrapers all lie in ruins, not just one or two towers, but all of them in every city; Chicago, New York, Paris, Tokyo and even London were all in total ruin.There were survivors of the war, rich/poor, black/white, whatever/whatever; the playing field was leveled, all left to join one another in a common cause, it was an idea that worked on paper for exactly 5 seconds, then all went to hell in a handbasket. There were those who became lazy demanding to be served by others, but they soon died off. The more ambitious people became scavengers raiding and hoarding what they could, some of them making alliances with one another, with some of the alliances being short lived, while other alliances were only the beginning of something wonderful and new.Lara was once a famous actress with roles that were tailor made for her, she had long black hair a light complexion and a slender body with looks that won’t quit, she had partnered up with Jon, a man less attractive and articulate than she was, but still had a few things working for him. In his day he worked somewhere in the back of some old warehouse, but even buildings like that were destroyed.It was a week ago that Jon & Lara formed their alliance, and for the most part was still going strong with it. It wasn’t one formed out of love, but necessity; although when Lara’s movies were in the theaters, Jon watched the 3D versions of them at least twice and had a personally autographed picture of Lara because he had a crush on her. As for Lara, she didn’t find Jon too repulsive, and had even decided to do a little bit more than simply tolerate his existence, because literally her life depended on him and not the 20-million-dollar movies she made, not anymore. She certainly couldn’t depend on her fans, as far as she knew and cared, she only had one fan who remained true to her, and that took the form of Jon.Today, like the previous seven days, they were out scavenging for anything they could find that they could use, grocery stores were still a good source of non-perishable food and powdered drinks, while pawn and thrift shops were a good source for items they could trade off for ration cards they could use at the fresh food distribution centers or items that would make life in Jon’s one room apartment, which was still standing a little bit more comfortable. The police didn’t really bother them when they were found breaking and entering the thrift shop, and in fact for first dibs on what he could reach in and grab himself, he helped them to force the door open. He swiped a handful of expensive looking rings, wished them luck, then went back to his patrol.“Gee,” Jon looked at the officer as his squad car pulled off, “t-thanks for helping… yourself to the best sh-tuff.”“Oh,” Lara groaned out in a slightly irritated tone, then smiled slightly, “he still left us some good sh-tuff.”“OK, so he did,” Jon’s eyes scanned the 40x40 showroom, gold and silver necklaces were still available, most of which he shoved into a metal container where he could put it away for a rainy day when he needed to sell something for a ration of food at the food distribution centers. But there was one in particular that caught his eye, this was a solid gold heart-shaped locket with a diamond chip in the center. He took the locket, and instead of putting it into the box held it in his hand. “S-so, how do you think it’s w-working out?”“How’s what working out?” Lara poked her head out from the back area, there was a particular dress she was toying around with and was actually trying it on, but she didn’t want Jon to see it, not just yet.“You know,” Jon sighed, he wasn’t the most perfect person to get the thoughts that were floating around in his head to come out coherently, “o-our alliance.”“OKAY, listen Jon, to tell you the truth, I think I have a good thing going on with you, so as long as you treat me good and the like I wouldn’t mind making it a long term commitment,” Lara moved out of the back area with the dress she was trying on, it was a simple white wedding dress complete with the veil, “if you know what I mean.”“Uh--.” Jon looked at Lara, in her wedding dress looking like a beautiful bride on her wedding day, “I do…I mean.”Lara looked at Jon with a silly smile, then noticed the locket in his hand, “that’s beautiful.”“I-I was going to ask you…” Jon was beginning to hyperventilate, “to…to…m-m-m-….”“Breathe,” Lara then let out a sigh, as she pulled Jon into her, and het his head rest on her chest, “you know six weeks ago I would have kicked you through that wall while I was calling my lawyer so I could sue your ass off for even thinking about such an idea.”“But--? Now?” Jon looked up at Lara, his head still resting on her soft chest.“You’re all I got, I’m all you’ve got,” Lara looked down at the dress, fun-time was over, “we’ve got something good going.”“But… uh… marriage… isn’t… in the books for us?”Again, Lara sighed, “not saying that. Just not when we’re just playing around.”“I see,” Jon’s hand closed on the pendant.“However,” Lara placed her hand over Jon’s closed hand, “if you want me to wear that as a sign of commitment to you, I’ll do that.” “I do,” Jon’s hand remained closed, in fact it closed even tighter, so tight he could feel the pendant make an impression in his hand. “With fringe benefits?”“I knew it,” Lara didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out what “fringe benefits” meant. Oh yeah, six weeks ago she would have him locked up. “I’m sorry,” Jon frowned.“Don’t be,” right now Lara was in one of those moods where she wanted some of those “fringe benefits” herself. She looked at Jon, who half the time couldn’t form a complete sentence, and yet was truly devoted to her. “You can have those fringe benefits, but only when I offer them up to you.”Jon looked at Lara. “Really?”“Yes,” Lara saw that Jon was presenting the pendant to her, she let out a silly smile, “let me get out of this silly dress.”“If you want, I can help you get out of that dress,” Jon reached out to unzip Lara’s wedding dress, but noticed that she never really zipped it up in the back, but he did help her pull the top down. Having no bra on under the dress, meant she was momentarily topless and was bearing all to him. He couldn’t help but staring. “Oh, look at who is suddenly the smooth talker,” Lara pulled the dress off, and reached for a clean tank top from a pile of clothes she figured would fit her. The top was white and had a see-through quality, she then noticed a black leather jacket that would fit her, the shop was asking a lot for it, but today she was going to get it as a freebie.Jon let out a “Wow!” as he saw her.“Oh, don’t get too excited,” Lara looked around the shop, then gave one of her signature coy smiles, “well, not here.”“So,” Jon presented, the pendant, he had the clip to the solid gold chain open, “um…how do you want to d-do this?”“Oh, just slip your arms around either side of my neck and clip the two ends together,”Jon did just that, the necklace clicked together, and the pendant heart rested just where her cleavage began, he stepped back and looked at the beautiful woman that stood before him. He reached up and touched her face ever so gently.Lara wanted to give in to the moment; really, she did, but now wasn’t the place or the time. “We better stop pressing our luck and get out of here, I’m sure the next cop that comes by won’t be so helpful.” “Right,” Jon reached behind the counter and pulled out a couple of brown paper bags, “let’s just load up and get out of here,” he picked up the tin of necklaces and threw a few other small items in with them, then placed the tin of in the bag first then tossed whatever would fit into the bag. They had already spent way too much time in one place, while it was less than 10 minutes they were there, in reality it was 9 minutes too long. While Jon was filling his bag, Lara grabbed a few things from the other side of the store and a few seconds later they were gone. As they walked down the street towards the apartment Jon could still call home, Lara took one more look at the gold heart pendant that hung around her neck, noticed an old movie poster at some bus stop with her in an ornate costume in some action shot against some goofy looking bad guy who was shooting at her. She let out a laugh, that wasn’t her; not anymore. She was different now, now she was a domesticated woman who was in a committed relationship with the only man on earth who genuinely loved her for what she was and not for what they wanted her to be. Jon noticed the movie poster as well, the image of her was so airbrushed and the theme of the movie so fantastic that he quickly began to realize that the image was nothing more than a fantasy version of her. The woman on the poster didn’t exist, not really, but the woman, the real woman he had in her arms, and as he made his way home, he looked at the heart-shaped pendant that hung predominantly on Lara’s neck, knowing what it meant to both of them, not just a symbol of the fringe benefits that would come to him from time to time from her, but for the both of them it had become a symbol of a new beginning.
By Timothy E Jones5 years ago in Fiction
