Fiction Friday! (Times 2...)
So, go figure. Just as I decide to do this Fiction Friday thing, I go and skip a week. Well, that won't do. So I'm doing two today. This week's and last week's.
Last week's assignment was to start with this sentence: "As soon as (the main character) arrived, (the main character) sensed something was out of place." Here it is:
As soon as I arrived, I sensed something was out of place. Sure, at a glance everything looked just as I'd left it. But the hair on my arms wasn't standing at attention for no reason. It was an instinctual feeling. Someone had been here. And recently.
I went in the study and stood behind my desk. It wasn't neat by any standards, but the mess had an organization that only I could understand. Only now, it was clear someone had tried to put the various papers and files back to the best of their ability. It wasn't good enough.
I sat down and shoved a too-neat pile of folders to the side. Did they find what they were looking for? I opened the top drawer on my left. The gun was still there. No big surprise. I'm sure whoever was snooping around had access to one, too. It was what was under the gun that I was worried about. I took the gun out and pressed the bottom of the drawer, releasing the false bottom.
Damn. I should have known false bottoms in desks are no longer a trust-worthy hiding spot. Thanks to detective novels and crime tv shows, everyone knows about them. Too late for regret now. I had to find a way to get that file back.
Trouble was, I knew exactly who had it. And getting anything back from that woman was next to impossible.
Hmm, that's one to come back to. I think I could get a good short story out of that...perhaps. Now, this week's assignment was to weave a story which uses this cliche: "Drown your sorrows."
I watched the trail of pictures float along, passing under where I sat on the old bridge. I still held a handful of memories. The next one to go featured two smiling faces I no longer recognized. They must have been happy people. People in love. They were vaguely familiar to me, as if I'd known them when I was very young. Or perhaps they'd been part of a dream. The girl was leaning into the boy, giving him a kiss on the cheek while snapping the portrait at the same time. The boy was smiling. Not just with his mouth, but all the way to his eyes. That's how you could tell someone was happy. If their eyes were smiling, too.
Next I released a holiday shot. A family gathered around a beautifully set table, full of food. I could practically smell the turkey and mashed potatoes.
I dropped the rest of the photos into the water and stood up. As I crossed to the other side of the bridge, they floated into view like a sad little parade. Slowly, one by one, they began absorbing the water and sinking under the surface. I don't think this is typically what they mean when people talk about drowning their sorrows. But it worked for me.
Yay! Two weeks of Fiction Friday for the price of one. Happy weekend, readers!
Last week's assignment was to start with this sentence: "As soon as (the main character) arrived, (the main character) sensed something was out of place." Here it is:
As soon as I arrived, I sensed something was out of place. Sure, at a glance everything looked just as I'd left it. But the hair on my arms wasn't standing at attention for no reason. It was an instinctual feeling. Someone had been here. And recently.
I went in the study and stood behind my desk. It wasn't neat by any standards, but the mess had an organization that only I could understand. Only now, it was clear someone had tried to put the various papers and files back to the best of their ability. It wasn't good enough.
I sat down and shoved a too-neat pile of folders to the side. Did they find what they were looking for? I opened the top drawer on my left. The gun was still there. No big surprise. I'm sure whoever was snooping around had access to one, too. It was what was under the gun that I was worried about. I took the gun out and pressed the bottom of the drawer, releasing the false bottom.
Damn. I should have known false bottoms in desks are no longer a trust-worthy hiding spot. Thanks to detective novels and crime tv shows, everyone knows about them. Too late for regret now. I had to find a way to get that file back.
Trouble was, I knew exactly who had it. And getting anything back from that woman was next to impossible.
Hmm, that's one to come back to. I think I could get a good short story out of that...perhaps. Now, this week's assignment was to weave a story which uses this cliche: "Drown your sorrows."
I watched the trail of pictures float along, passing under where I sat on the old bridge. I still held a handful of memories. The next one to go featured two smiling faces I no longer recognized. They must have been happy people. People in love. They were vaguely familiar to me, as if I'd known them when I was very young. Or perhaps they'd been part of a dream. The girl was leaning into the boy, giving him a kiss on the cheek while snapping the portrait at the same time. The boy was smiling. Not just with his mouth, but all the way to his eyes. That's how you could tell someone was happy. If their eyes were smiling, too.
Next I released a holiday shot. A family gathered around a beautifully set table, full of food. I could practically smell the turkey and mashed potatoes.
I dropped the rest of the photos into the water and stood up. As I crossed to the other side of the bridge, they floated into view like a sad little parade. Slowly, one by one, they began absorbing the water and sinking under the surface. I don't think this is typically what they mean when people talk about drowning their sorrows. But it worked for me.
Yay! Two weeks of Fiction Friday for the price of one. Happy weekend, readers!
Comments
Post a Comment