SoCS

#SoCS – Panic

I wanted to go. I was ready to go, to cut the cord between me and my family. Scholarship in hand, I stood with my mom, dad, and baby sister in the cool autumn breeze at the bus station. It was going to be my first time away from them apart from the occasional sleep-over at my best friend, Sharon’s house. At least I had Sharon. She was already on the bus. She knew to give us some space to say good-bye.

I hugged them each in turn and pasted a happy smile on my face. Dad might have bought it, but my mom and sis weren’t fooled. I could tell by their own fake happy faces.

It wasn’t until the bus started moving that the panic began. What if I never saw them again? What if I wasn’t happy at college, if I hated my professors, my courses… my life? I started to cry, but then Sharon put her hand over mine on the glass.

“It’ll be okay,” she assured me. “Just like when we were having sleep-overs.”

She smiled a real smile and I relaxed. Only then did another thought occur to me.

“What if we’re not in the same dorm room? Or the same dorm even? How will I survive without you?”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” she whispered.

We both cried all the rest of the hundred miles to college.

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This horribly bleak Stream of Consciousness Saturday post (which is totally unedited) was brought to you by the prompt here: https://lindaghill.com/2016/09/23/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-2416/
and The Daily Post prompt here: Panic

#SoCS – Together

I think the wind blew us together, one stormy night. How else would you explain the randomness of our meeting? I, alone at the bus stop and you, pulling up in your car to give me a ride. You told me I’d missed the last bus. And it was raining so hard. When we got to my house you offered me your umbrella. You came back to get it the next day. And then, we kissed. It was the best kiss I’d ever had.

We were meant to be together, you and I. But for a fair night, it would never have been.

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This post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday. You can find the prompt here. Check it out and join in the fun!

Recharge – #SoCS

The close-minded man is mortified when it turns out that the world has two moons. One is the same which the men land on – the other hangs outside his window at night and is made of cheese. He views it at first as a figment of his imagination, but being close-minded, that only last for a few seconds. Then night after night he opens up his window and pulls it down and eats it, only to find it hanging there again the next night, as if it has recharged itself.

The cheese moon has no cycles he realizes after a week. It is always full, and after a month, when he has grown three sizes larger, he sees that it will not go away.

The close-minded man’s mortification eventually turns him to petrification: his unwillingness to believe in the cheese moon transforms him into a petrified chunk of cheese, staring out his window at the cycles of the moon, and a piece of cheese hanging from a string, held by his upstairs neighbour.

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Brought to you by The Daily Post and Stream of Consciousness Saturday, which you can find the prompt for here: https://lindaghill.com/2016/09/09/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-1016/

#SoCS – Your Mistake

Your first mistake was thinking I’d care if you committed a small felony. Shoplifting is nothing – I know you did it for the kids.

Your second mistake was having a party to which I wasn’t invited. Yeah, it was for your kids, and your wife was there. But I wanted to come anyway. You told me you cared about me.

Your final mistake was telling me you cared about me… in the end. I made sure the cops found out who stole all those electronics. Now the kids don’t have a daddy. And your wife…

Your first mistake was thinking I’d care to keep your secret.

Mistake is the word of the day on The Daily Post.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday has a three-word prompt this week: your/you’re/yore. You can find it here: https://lindaghill.com/2016/08/26/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-august-2716/

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#SoCS – Shine

Youth of today, you have a date with the future. Go, create beautiful things. Follow in the footsteps of the masters: pay attention now. For what is to come is entirely up to you.

Shine on.

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Stream of Consciousness Saturday – find it here: https://lindaghill.com/2016/08/19/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-aug-2016/

Reach – #SoCS and The Daily Post

The cash is sitting on the table. I watch on the closed-circuit camera set-up to see if she’ll reach for it. I trust her – we’ve been together for five years. I hope she won’t do it.

Trust is essential in a relationship. It’s the one thing that will make me cut out, lack of trustworthiness.

I’m just about to get up and go back into the room when she does it. It takes her under two seconds to grab and pocket the cash.

I go to confront her: “Why did you do it?” I ask.

“Why were you watching me?” she counters.

She’s got a point.

Reach is the one-word prompt from The Daily Post.

Cash is the one-word prompt from Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

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#SoCS – The Dog Days

I want to accept,
except accepting means
having to walk away
from having to walk
a mile in somebody else’s shoes
and let’s be honest here:
shoes don’t fit me.
I’m a dog, you see
although my owner thinks
I’m soft
I really don’t need
those rain boots she
keeps shoving on my feet
and the rain hat and cape?
Give me a break!
How does any
self-respecting dog
go out dressed like a human
and not expect
the other dogs not
to laugh?
Is that the front door?
My leash?
My… oh no, don’t tell me it’s raining…
I want to accept,
except accepting means
having to walk away
from a walk…
The shame!!

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This unexpected poem is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2016/08/05/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-aug-616/

Slowly you turned…

You move with devastating slowness. How can you not hear it? Instead of stepping off the tracks, you turn to look at me, and I’m screaming and screaming, “There’s a train coming!!”

And I wake up in a cold sweat, my legs cramped and my lungs devoid of air. As the seconds turn to minutes I relax. It’s got to be the taco I ate for dinner. There’s always a trigger*.

The Daily Post prompt today is Slowly. The Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt is second. Click the links to check them out and join in.

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*Author’s note: “Slowly I turned…” is a reference to a series of old comedy sketches. Worth the Google search if you’re not familiar with them.

#SoCS – Unpredictable

If I wrote a story about you,
I would use words like “mystic” and “crazy.”

I would get a hand from the gods
because the gods are my friends.

I could choose a few anecdotes –
ones that would make people laugh.

I might bake a cake and call it you,
just so I can share you with my other friends.

If I clap my hands and you come running,
I will praise you, my friend, for that means you love me too.

I might circle the globe with you,
and we might just have fun.

Even though you’re afraid of heights
and I don’t need a plane to fly.

We could ride elephants and catch heffalumps:
it’s the Pooh thing to do.

And when we get home with all our treasures
we will place them on shelves and forget they exist.

If my enthusiasm for you dies,
I will probably die.

If I decide suddenly that I shan’t drive you to the airport when you need to go
(because that’s what friends do)
you might disown me, but I’d deserve it.

And if the water of my endless ocean of devotion for you dries up,
I will be left with a salty taste in my mouth.

But chances are that’s the worst case scenario,
because you’re as crazy as I am, and us crazies need to stick together.

If I wrote a story about you,
then it would definitely include me.

This is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday, because it’s totally stream of consciousness writing and it contains this week’s prompt, “if/then.”

This is part of The Daily Post because it was totally Unpredictable.

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Concentration through Glass

This post is a combination of the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, Concentration, and the Daily Post prompt, Glass.

If I watch a raindrop upon my window, as it runs down causing a rivulet of light and shadow, in it I see the world in inverse. Is it that rain turns the world upside down? Or is the contrast of the dry inside and the wet on the outside so opposite that it flips my mind on its head… so to speak?

Mind blown.

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