Chanicker

The Prompt

Invent a word, then write a microfiction story that encapsulates its meaning.

Chanicker: noun: One who panics, realising they have only minutes left to enter a Vocal Challenge.

The music is "Panic" by The Smiths

Chanicker

For a change, he checked his email.

People were always berating him for not reading his email.

His attitude was if they needed something they could ring him, except his phone was always on silent and he never answered calls anyway.

They could always text him.

He treated texts like emails.

There were hundreds that he had never read.

He never cleared them now down, but he seldom read them and didn't respond that often either.

He was a misanthrope.

But today he checked his email today, and there was one from Vocal nearly fourteen hours old. This was it for the Neolomicro Challenge.

He needed that money and though he had known about the challenge for weeks he kept putting off and putting it off.

He had twenty minutes to create a word and write a story and get it submitted, but he was now panicking, his mind was going b;ank but he started up his computer and then to his complete horror he saw the message:

"Windows is configuring your computer update. Do not switch your computer off 1%"

Feck!!!

He needed his computer now, but he couldn't stop the update.

Feck!!!

Feck!!!

Feck!!!

He looked again, it was up to 5%

At this rate, it would take an hour to update.

He didn't have a smartphone, and the computer was the only way he could submit the story.

He was in a funk, a panic. Though he didn't know it, he was a chanicker.

He looked again, thirty per cent!!!!

There were five minutes left, and there was no way he could do it now.

He needed to check his emails more regularly, or actually enter the challenges when they were put live.

Never mind, the chanicker thought, there's always the "Arid" challenge and that was more money anyway, he would start on that when the Windows update finished.

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