Motivation

This Story was written for the barnesandnoble.com presents...Write & Win Contests, and the theme was based on a photo of a broken and smashed computer. The rules, in short, were that the story had to be about the photo, and be 250 words or less. This story recieved first place.

"Fix it."

"Do what?"

I was shaking like an unbalanced load of laundry in a washer. But not the old lady. Man, she held that gun steadier than a concrete wall. Straight toward my chest. Her grip was so tight that her fingers were flat on the handle, squeezed white from lack of blood.

The blood, it seemed, was all in her face.

She was flaming red … man-oh-man that crazy old biddy was in a rage.

"You heard me. Fix it."

"But lady, I can't fix it… nobody can fix it… it's in more pieces than the beach has sand! I wouldn't know…"

"Make it work, or the only thing you're gonna know in a moment is that you won't look much better than my computer does!"

I swallowed hard, and then dropped to my knees. How long did I work on it? Geez, sixteen hours at least. I bent that dang tower back into shape with my hands, and checked every circuit a hundred times until the thing was running. When I pushed the button and it hummed to life, I held my breath until the monitor gave her proof that she could get to her eBay once again.

When she lowered the gun, I fell to my butt, not sure whether to cry from relief or dance with pride.

She patted me on the head as she sat down.

"I knew you could do it! You just needed a little motivation!"

I'm getting another job.