40 old salts and a banquet hall

Several of the 40 visionaries:

1)

Sparkman was what his friends called him. There was no logical reason for this really, but it made him paranoid nonetheless. He always thought they were laughing at him from behind the lunch counter. One day he went purely on his instinct and smashed his older model car through the front of the building, right into the office corridor. A red blood river reminded him of Sunday school. He puked.

2)

Stockyard Crossroads at Dawn:

He wrote this:

Lurching, screaming internally --> pressure
Dangerous pride
Invisible goals
Lack of ability

In 1982 he got out on his own, all smoothed out. He had been programmed to treat his deepest feelings programmatically. Ignore the aspects that made him inefficient, that is. He had missions laid out for him that he didn't have to think much about. He made a good career for himself and never said much when asked a specific question. This kept him on good terms with people, especially the elderly, and he went on without much trouble.

3)

She was part of a law suit; a long, arduous litigation of sorts. She had planned to get some quick cash, but was now bogged down with legal terms nobody understood. She was thankful, because, after all, she still had all of her limbs. She went home one night after a long day in court and ate Ramen noodles. She passed out from the heat of the stove and ate Pop-Tarts at 3 a.m. She never did forgive her father for feeding her that crap when she was younger. Three months later she lost the case and was expected, as punishment, to do 300 hours of community service. The job would be wiping down shelves at old man Flannigan's house.

4)

He had an ice-cold smile (if there was such a thing) like a blue popsicle in January. Before his entry into real life every morning he thought restlessly about what else he could become. He made a promise to himself that he would do this every morning... in a controlled fashion as to not become overwhelmed by the known fact that he was on a slow, unremarkable march to the grave. Each morning he realized this anyway, but was too tired to care or exercise any control. Fuck it.

5)

They met at Santos de la Rio last Saturday. He was an information junky and she was just a junky. They hit it off real well considering she took him for $40. They stayed up real late and watched shows like Grace Under Fire and I Dream of Genie. They hated those shows but were waiting for something to happen. He wished for someone that would understand him, and she was hoping he would fall asleep so she could take more of his shit. They ate some cold pizza and drank Tang. He got weird then and told her that he wished his nickname was Tanker. She got sick of his crap and smashed his bike into his music tower. He screamed and told her to get out. They never saw each other again, but they kept each other in mind. Both of them later contracted STD's from sleeping around.