marriage

Stump

“Honey, we’ve been walking for sooo long! I feel like we’re just going around in circles!”

Ralph raised the binoculars to his eyes and peered through them for the umpteenth time. The woods in the distance were dense. They were made up mostly of dark, shadowy pines, but the occasional maple dotted the way. The birds were both abundant and weird. Rather than chirp, they buzzed. One of them had picked up Spot, their old springer spaniel, three days ago, and flown away with him.

“You can see for yourself, we’re following the road, Martha.” He didn’t want to scare her, but he thought a couple of times that he’d seen the same tree twice.

“I think we should set up camp soon,” Martha said, tiredly.

“Sure, okay.”

“Do you think we could build a campfire tonight?”

Ralph sighed. “And where, exactly, are we going to get wood from?”

“We could just chop up a bit of the road,” she suggested with a shrug.

Great, thought Ralph. Then if we are walking around in circles, we’ll come across the hole in the road and Martha’ll go crazy.

“Please?” Martha begged. “It’s been weeks since we had a hot meal.”

“Yeah, okay.” Come morning, while we’re walking I’ll give her the binoculars and just change lanes when she’s not paying attention, he decided. The lanes both to the left and the right seemed endless.

***
Stump is the word of the day on the Daily Post, and our assignment for today on A Story A Day was to paint a vivid setting. How long did it take you to figure out where they are?

With Kids in the Middle

“Billy! Welcome home! How did you enjoy your birthday weekend with your dad?”

“Hi Mom. It sucked.”

“Hey. Billy just ran upstairs saying your weekend sucked. Did the two of you get into it?”

“You know how it is. He wanted to go fishing, and then he didn’t. Kid can’t make up his mind.”

“Huh. You going to take the twins with you next time?”

“Winnie, you know I don’t have room at my place for all three kids.”

“So why did you buy such a small place?”

“It was all I could afford. The support payments are killing me!”

“Well maybe you shouldn’t have fu… fooled around on me!”

“Mom?”

“Oh, Billy. I didn’t see you there.”

“Can I finish the cake in the fridge?”

“Sure you can, Honey. Dad was just leaving. I’ll come and join you.”

***

Today, we were to write a story all in dialogue as our prompt at a Story A Day. Julie suggested we use the two characters we wrote from the last two days, so that’s what I did. It worked out well.

The previous two posts here on my blog introduce you to the characters in this story. They are “Cake” and “Stones”.

Melody, Three

Dear Diary,

Today was my twenty-second birthday. It was also our wedding day. Marvin was fabulous as usual. He became proficient at sign language, just for me, even though he knows I can speak. He remained the only one who knew for eight whole years until today.

My first words out loud to anyone but him were, “I do.”

Mom and Dad think Marvin is responsible for a miracle. Only my husband (my husband! It’s going to take a while to get used to it!) knows my secret. He vowed today, privately during our first dance, to keep it to the grave, along with his everlasting love for me.

The end.

Our challenge at Story A Day September was to write in the first person.

Romance – The Learning Curve (Fiction)

In romance, there is a learning curve we all must traverse.

First kiss may seem like the ultimate in excitement, until it happens and we find ourselves liplocked with a drooling boy, with something hard shoved down his pants.

That first alien experience when we girls discover what that hard thing feels like directly. It drools also, much to our amazement.

The first time we let him fumble around – who knew bra straps were such a mystery?

And then, when we finally let him go all the way. For me that was to be with the altar behind us. Our wedding day was exhausting, with an evening spent socializing with everyone but him. I was nervous, naturally. Mostly because, despite the fact that all my romantic experiences up ’til then had not been what I expected, I had dreamed this moment would be perfection. Just like all the romance novels I’d read, where the heroine is worshiped by her man. Things always go so smoothly, don’t they?

I suppose my first mistake was thinking that a limo was a good idea, so he would be free to drink and not have to drive back to our hotel. Suffice to say my learning curve is complete: bra straps are even more a mystery, floors are hard, and drooling and snoring also go together.

This virgin bride will try not to step on him when I get up in the morning.

Dramatic

“Oh my God, Micky, I love your new living room! It’s so dramatic! Let’s make love in it right now.”

“But… George. You’re not gay.”

“Oh, right.”

“Or are you?”

“Of course not!”

“Because not only did you just suggest we have sex, but you used the word “dramatic” to describe my decorating job.”

“I did, didn’t I? Can we sit down for a minute?”

“Why, so you can tell me you’re gay?”

“Would that be so bad?”

“No. Because I am too.”

“Oh my God, really?”

“Uh huh.”

“When were you going to tell your wife?”

“I dunno. I thought maybe she’d figure it out when she sees the living room.”

***
The Daily Post word of the day is Dramatic.

for young mothers

your arrival is music
to my strained ears
relief for my nerves
that threaten to pop
the hair out of my head.
you’re the sanctuary of my mind
which struggles not to leave home
to escape the cries of your offspring

for every young mother of a newborn
who is blessed to have her mate
come home of an evening

Sanctuary

Happy Acres, 50 years later

“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Hannah read the sticker pasted over the Happy Acres sign at the end of the long, dusty driveway. She knew she’d been here before, but she didn’t remember why.

“Dad said there were hookers here,” said her husband, Jessie.

“Well, they’d better be male strippers, ‘coz if they’re female, you’re not gonna last long.”

“Pfft,” Jessie scoffed. They got back in the car and headed up the lane way to check themselves in.

________________________________________

Tuesday Use It In A Sentence is fun! This week’s word is “abandon.” Try it out! The link to join in is here.

Preachy – #AtoZ Challenge (AC – language)

“And here’s the tow truck. What did I tell you?” the man asked his wife rhetorically.

The tow truck pulled up in front of the man’s car and the driver got out. “Is this here your car?”

“It is, and you’re not taking it anywhere, young man.”

“I gotta. The police said so.”

“Do you realize who I am?”

“No, but I’m the tow truck driver and you’d better call a taxi.”

“I see.” The man slipped his hands in his pockets and took a teacher-like stance before the tow truck operator. “It’s not what you do for a living, young Sir, it’s how you deal with a crisis that shows your true character.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that got to do with me?”

“I hope to teach you a lesson today. You are about to tow away an absolutely priceless car, and yet I remain calm. What would you do if you were in my position?”

“I’d probably start thumbing.”

“An excellent answer for one who has so little money.”

“Uh-huh. Except you said it doesn’t matter what I do for a living. If I had a better job, I might take a taxi too.”

“I think you’d have far more fun thumbing a ride, don’t you?”

The tow truck driver smiled and nodded.

Just then, the man’s wife emitted a high-pitched scream from the direction of the ditch. The man hurried around his car, bent, and then stood to address the tow truck driver. “My wife’s in labour! Call a fucking ambulance!”

The tow truck operator whipped out his phone. Three minutes later, the man stood back as the ambulance attendant loaded his wife into the back, to transfer her to hospital. As the man moved to join her, the tow truck driver held out and hand to stop him.

“What do you do for a living, anyway?” he asked the man.

“I’m a priest,” the man replied.

Author’s Notes:

1. This started in my head with an opening sentence. By the time I finished and edited it, the sentence ended up in the middle. I find it a bit long-winded, but I’m too tired to edit any more. Hope you enjoy it.

2. I have no plans to write Adult Content fiction pieces for this challenge, but it happens, and it’s sometimes beyond my control if I’m to remain authentic to my muse. I will place a warning in the title of those posts which fall under the AC category.

games people play – a poem

all this cloak and dagger stuff
you love to play with your friends
around a raucous game board
with your milk and cookies;

you don’t fool me
i know when I leave the room, the beer comes out
and the music with the naughty lyrics
all that teenager stuff
perfected by a bunch of grown men.

none of you fool me
‘coz I set up the cameras
and rigged the board with a mic
because you see, i’m worse than you:
i’ve got nothing better to do.

#SoCS – greener grass

you’re here
he’s there
you’re real
so is he
but life with you
is not like life with him would be
life with you is mundane
he is exciting
our real life is ordinary
my life with him would be a celebration
day in, day out
night life, sleeping all day
work, boring
partying all the time
our life is lived together in the real world
his life exists in the spotlight, he is never bored
the dirt on which we sleep is hard
the grass over there is soft and green
we fight
he is always happy
we’re poor
he is rich
you’re here
he’s there
it’s surreal

socs-badge-2015

This post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link and you can join in too! http://lindaghill.com/2016/03/25/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-2616/