Center of Center (5)
a serialized novella-in-flash by Chris Wiewiora
Torideo is a mashup of tornado and ride.
The Tornados are all of Center University’s athletic teams. C.U. got the name when it was Center Agriculture College and they played an arenaball game against University of Windy. They were expected to be pummeled behind the line of scrimmage, but they moved plays as quickly as twisters.
Jay is the name of C.U.’s blue jay mascot. Jay is in honor of James Doogle—a Center Polis person forgotten other than his name scrolling around the university’s Alumni Center for donating money to build it. C.U.’s official logo shows a frustrated blue bird with crunched eyebrows stuck inside a swirling storm system.
I walked back down the hallway to my last class. I opened the door. Amanda and Kyle and the rest of my students all crouched behind their desk chairs. They were frantically vid-scrolling on their digi-cuffs trying to get news from anywhere about what was going on here.
I wanted to be able to slide a steel sheet from my classroom’s ceiling to the floor of the door’s threshold and from the frames to the sills of all the windows. I wanted to gather my students into a circle like when we did group activities, but then hug all of them closer. I wanted to say, We are all safe.
I didn’t, because we weren’t.
I stop at the entrance to Center Circle’s first main set of connections on campus. As the gate’s bar to the road lifts with my dashboard remote transponder, I pick up the intercom’s mic and announce the ABCs: Attention Getter, Bus Stops, Connecting Routes. Attention passengers, we’re approaching the Knowles Library with transfers to…. Since I’m running the circuit with BLACK I rush through the list of connections in one breath, BLUEGREENYELLOWandRED.
CENTER of CENTER is a serialized novella-in-flash by Chris Wiewiora. Go here to start at the beginning. Paid subscribers have access to every installment of our serial fiction.
Installments: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32
Fiction Attic Press accepts submissions from emerging and established writers. Go here to submit your novella-in-flash.