The Anomaly by Jo Zebedee

[Glitch]

Another step and I’d have walked by without seeing it, but a quick stumble drew my eyes to the ground and, there, lodged in gravel, was a half-hidden penny. That day I needed luck to get a job before I lost the damn house, so I overcame my concern about the dirt that would spread onto my hands and potentially into my mouth when I ate, and picked it up. I dusted it on my trousers, wiping the worst of the germs away. I expected to see the Queen’s head – my dad called her the ‘Jelly Bean’ in some kind of convoluted not-Cockney slang – but she wasn’t there. Instead, it had a lizard’s head, briefly, before the Queen came back to replace it.

That’s how strung out and jittery the stress had made me: seeing dinosaurs instead of our Queen. But I kept the coin with me, mostly for luck. I took it out of my pocket and gave it a clean. Out of the corner of my eye, the lizard reappeared. I got better at spotting it with time: there was a knack to staring and not-staring at it, like a Magic Eye puzzle. With practice, the lizard grew easier to see. It was some kind of dinosaur, I reckoned, wearing a tiara that pulled its feathers into a frond.

Now, I’m no paleontologist, but I’m pretty sure T-Rex never evolved to wear tiaras.

Read more...

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I *love* the coin!
(@redzwritez - you’ll dig this) here’s the story of how I came up with this (I’ve shared some of this on my personal timelines and will agsin)

my youngest daughter had a big operation this year - one as a mum you want them back to you asap and know all is well.

While it was happening I went for a walk for sanity (the op was half a day at best) to a nearby park and saw a penny (pick it up...) but felt I was tempting fate too much to consider it good luck. I’d recently read the excellent Sea Of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel and was pondering the nature of reality and... there we go.
thanks to @The Judge who saw past a very raw story to this. I kind of love it now.

 

[Danny McG]

And, as it's well known that the Royal Family are the secret lizard people, your tale can be viewed as a timely warning that there's going to be a rumble soon as they jockey for the throne.

 

[Danny McG]

And, as it's well known that the Royal Family are the secret lizard people, your tale can be viewed as a timely warning that there's going to be a rumble soon as they jockey for the throne.

Please note that this was posted as a jokey comment days before the Queen took ill.
I really don't think she was a lizard person, so don't associate me with the awful Jacki Picket and her views.

 

[Droflet]

Terrific concept, wonderfully written. Bravo, Jo.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

This is terrific, Jo. Great concept, excellent characterization and a 'killer' ending. Well done!

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Thanks all - @Danny McG - I know. I’ve been thinking exactly that!