History's Housekeeper

100 word story just for fun...

"Have mercy!" they'd cried. He was no angel.

"Give us a chance to survive!" they'd pleaded. He wasn't destiny's arbiter.

He was a maintenance man, a caretaker, fixing repairable breakdowns across space and time. He was about to leave when an unfamiliar hand gripped his arm. Steel-blue eyes pierced his soul.

"Fix it," she said. No plea, no cry, a demand.

"Sorry!"

"There's nothing you can do?"

He hesitated.

Before departing he manipulated their spaceship's life-support system. An act of mercy. They'd be asleep when destiny would strike. Some things couldn't be fixed, not even by history's housekeeper.

Author's Note

Just a bit of flash fiction. Any resemblance to fictitious characters, living, dead or repeatedly regenerated is purely intentional ;-)

Even if you have no clue what I'm talking about I hope you'll still enjoy.

All comments welcome!

Reviews

[Raylene]

I like it should be made into a book or a sequel I am interested to see what he is trying to fix I understand that is the point. I have to say it brings me some disappointment that it is so short I however understand that is the goal so I shall go easy and just say good job.

[Kaliope]

Thank you very much. Somewhere in my mind there's a whole series of novels lurking beneath this short glimpse, I'm not sure I'll ever finish it though ;-)

[Raylene]

i make notes of my stories my book I hope to finish one day ;)

[The Ink Chapters]

great imagination :), nice description and vocabulary. Keep up the work!

[Kaliope]

Thank you very much :-)

[Elliot B.]

Powerful. Well written but for some incorrect word choices, which do not distract from the story too much ("they'd" should be "they had" to improve reading).

[Kaliope]

Thank you very much for reading and your critique. I'll shamelessly admit that the contractions are kind of a cheat to reach the 100 word goal but I'll try to refrain from them in the future ;-)

[Woody]

yep, message received. some things cannot be fixed. so might as well soften the blow.
I wonder if your housekeeper can fix the world of today.
short but interesting.

[Kaliope]

Thank you very much. Oh, I don't think he'd be able to fix the world as it is now, I wish I was sure we'd eventually have the wits to do it... oh boy, ain't I a ray of sunshine today :-)

[Woody]

makes two of us :(

[Terpsichore]

The title drew me in and I'm glad it did.

Pray we are all asleep when the final curtain falls.

T

[Kaliope]

Thank you very much, fellow muse :-). Not sure I'd choose to sleep through the final moment, but it would probably be a mercy.

[Zoli Fern]

Way to go!
I'm definitely in the boat of having no clue what you are talking about, but I still loved this.
Have mercy!/he was no angel/Give us a chance to survive!/ he wasn't destiny's arbiter= brilliant.
Yeah. Good job.

[Kaliope]

Hehe, thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it even without knowing the background - was a bit of a gamble but I'm happy it worked out.

[Jyoti_Ablaze]

Wow! This is awesome!
Honestly, I don't know what you talking about. But the plot is spellbinding and fresh!
Enjoyable read!
Kudos!

[Kaliope]

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it even without knowing the background. It's actually about the main character of the British Sci-Fi show Doctor Who. He's a time traveler and tends to save a whole lot of people so I thought I'd give the usual plot a little twist ;-)

[Jyoti_Ablaze]

Cool work!
I enjoyed it.

[Solar]

A rivetting read - every nut and bolt in place to give a jolt.

[Kaliope]

Thank you very much :-)

[Leon C]

Very good.

A nice story and concept wrapped up in a minimum of words.

Well done

[Kaliope]

Thank you very much :-)

[Taylor]

I did enjoy the story and given the constraint of 100 words, you have doen a masterful job. I would have liked to see the ending "shown" rather than told, but you probably couldn't do that in only 100 ords

[Kaliope]

Thank you very much :-)