OLWG # 314- So…

This week’s prompts are at the bottom. Feel free to seize the prompts, twist them, form them, play with them as you will. All comers are welcome. The words below are just practice for me. I had a lot of fun writing them, and you know what I always say, “Practice makes perfect.”

Here’s how to play along, if you are unsure.

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Me and Emmeline been married now almost ‘zactly seven years. Our anniversary’s comin’ up in less than a month. I wuz worried about our prospects. Not sure she even loved me no more. Not cuz of any one thing she said or done really; just a conglomerate of stuff.

She quit smilin’ at me like she use to.
She wouldna hold my hand in public, no more.

I figgered I needed ta do sumpin to rekindle the spark.
I missed the spark.
I’d heard tell of a seven-year itch, so I took ‘er campin’
Emmeline loves campin’
I took her up into the mountains
Jadefire Canyon Campgrounds

 I wanted to feed ‘er something easy
something romantic
I wanted to win ‘er back
The first night at the campground I served ‘er an uncooked dinner, as we set around the campfire.

 beginning with Ajo Blanco that I prepared at home and brought along
It’s kinda like a white Gazpacho made with green grapes and garlic.
I decided to dress it up by adding a chopped green apple

 next up was a colourful salad of watermelon, crumbled goat cheese, and small heirloom tomatoes (cut in half),  garnished with tarragon, sprinkled with crunchy corn nuts masquerading as croutons, and dressed with a sherry honey vinaigrette.

 to contrast to the Sandia I plated a gin-cured trout atop grated tomatoes, garlic, and rosemary. I crowned the trout with onion slices and chopped black olives

 “I’m happy we’re both eating the same things,” Emmeline said as I cleared the dishes, “My breath is probably horrible after all the garlic, the fish, and the onion.” She smiled at me the way she used to do.

 I reached over and took her hand.
She leaned over and kissed my lips.
Sex by a campfire and beneath a canopy of stars is hard to beat, but
when we finished I reached in the cooler and retrieved pomegranate-yoghurt ice pops.

 They came in a close second.

 It wuz ‘bout a week and a half later when the divorce papers arrived in the mail, I thought about how she had trailed the melted pomegranate juice along my belly and figgered I oughta probably sign the papers.

 
It was all done and all over.

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This week’s prompts are:

1. she carves on the desktop
2. old men in wheelchairs
3. wind singing through the sycamores

 You can start writing whenever you want, just write, get the words down – and have fun! All the best!

OLWG # 313- A Short Story, Somehow Involving Bill Weatherly

This week’s prompts are at the bottom. Feel free to seize the prompts, twist them, form them, play with them as you will. All comers are welcome. The words below are just practice for me. I had a lot of fun writing them, and you know what I always say, “Practice makes perfect.”

Here’s how to play along, if you are unsure.

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Audrey Chesney worked at the booksellers on the High Street in Great Stukeley when the war broke out and she met Bill Weatherly. He was a handsome young First Lieutenant in the US Air Force who had only recently found himself stationed at RAF Alconbury; in a support/liaison billet. They began dating, and as these things sometimes go, Audrey soon found herself with child.

Audrey’s parents turned her out. Bill married her.

The young couple rented a ground-floor flat, near the station, in Huntingdon, and welcomed a son that they named Tad.  After the war, Bill returned home to Beartooth, Montana, with his new family and took a job with Mr Simmons at the funeral parlour. Tad started attending Beartooth Elementary School, and Audrey found a job at the Baptist church, serving as a clerk for Pastor Copelin.

Life was good. Bill and Audrey soon found themselves blessed with two more sons. Reese and Max.

When Max was almost five years old, Bill lost his life in a senseless highway accident just outside Cooke City. An ore truck turned over on its way down the mountain. This unfortunate event left Audrey a widow and a mother of three boys.

She continued to work for the Baptist church and Pastor Copelin, but some months were tough. The church helped out. Holidays were tough.

She had nothing to return to in Great Stukeley, though – Audrey determined to make the best of it in Montana. Raising her boys, working at the church, and volunteering at the park (when she could) kept her busy, and life went on.

Tad landed as a cowboy on a small ranch south of Philipsburg. Reese was almost done with High School and had an acceptance letter from Montana State University, Bozeman, scheduled to start in the fall.

And then there was Max.

Max was a sophomore in High School.  His whole life lay ahead of him. The world was his oyster.

Audrey was embroiled in a passionate love affair with Pastor Copelin that everyone at the church seemed to know about except Mrs Copelin.

 

We are shaped by places we go, the people we meet and things we do

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This week’s prompts are:

1. galactic
2. one of those rowdy girls from the edge of town
3. a little short on mercy

 You can start writing whenever you want, just write, get the words down – and have fun! All the best!

OLWG #312- Young Love

This week’s prompts are at the bottom. Feel free to seize the prompts, twist them, form them, play with them as you will. All comers are welcome. Mixing it up with a photo prompt today.

Here’s how to play along, if you are unsure.

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Madison was a buff, adolescent border mantis, born and raised in Owens Valley, California. She had spent the summer lunching with her girlfriends, bulking-up on grasshoppers and flies.

Roger was a young male mantis, smaller than Madison. He spent the summer playing football with his mates, Elias and Christopher. They flirted with the girls, like Madison and her best friend, Arabella. The boys and girls would meet at the Tastee Freeze Malt Shop and eat sweet treats. Roger would often let his hand drop to feel Madison’s thigh. She would only laugh coyly and brush his hand off her leg. Christopher and Arabella got along pretty well, but Elias didn’t seem to be able to make time with any of the girls.

The two couples, Roger and Madison, along with Christopher and Arabella, decided to double date one evening and go to a Crickets concert at the park. Elias stayed home to watch the Saturday night movie on television. The Concert was hopping. It offered festival seating on grass-covered hillsides overlooking the stage; and the couples got separated, but Roger and Christopher had each brought blankets, so no one really worried about it. Things got hot and heavy between Madison and her beau when the lights went down. He began thinking about how lucky he was when Madison twisted his head off and popped it in her mouth. She got real still and silent, doing nothing but chewing as Roger finished the task he had started when he was still alive. Finalising her feast after Roger completed his task; she licked her fingers. Then slept until the house lights came up again; as Madison made her way to the exit she spotted Arabella and Christopher. They told her that they were going to get a midnight snack at the Tastee Freeze and invited her to join them.

“Thanks,” she answered, “but I’m stuffed. I couldn’t possibly eat another bite.”

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This week’s prompts are:

1. 1. songs about truckers and trucks
   2. the furry ones
   3. strewn like gold nuggets

OLWG #311- Photo Prompt

This week’s prompts are at the bottom. Feel free to seize the prompts, twist them, form them, play with them as you will. All comers are welcome. Mixing it up with a photo prompt today.

Here’s how to play along, if you are unsure.

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This week’s prompts are:

1. 1. call the Devil partner
   2. rabble, aftermath, adhesive
   3. no one speaks English, here
      

OLWG #310- Liliwen Evans and Her 3G Grandaughter, Gwen

This week’s prompts are at the bottom. Feel free to seize the prompts, twist them, form them, play with them as you will. All comers are welcome. The words below are just practice for me. I had a lot of fun writing them, and you know what I always say, “Practice makes perfect.”

Here’s how to play along, if you are unsure.

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Liliwen Evans was the only daughter of Howard and Madlen Evans. She was from the Village of Tintern, in the shadows of an old Abbey, not far from the river Wye. In 1923 Liliwen was working at the University in Aberystwyth where she, and about 400,000 other women from Wales, signed a Peace Petition drafted by the Welsh League of Nations United, which called for a world sans war.  They rolled up the resulting document, almost seven miles long, stuffed it into a wooden trunk and shipped it to their sisters in the United States. Proclaiming a declaration of Peace and Solidarity between the women of Wales and America; it sat in America for almost a century before being rediscovered, in the bowels of the Smithsonian, and returned.

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Almost half a million women from half a world away demonstrated their commitment and belief, in and to, the world

Today, Gwen Reese read her Great, Great, Great Grandmother’s name, written long ago, in her own hand

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This week’s prompts are:

1. 1. the bars and the speakeasy’s
   2. they’re selling truth tonight
   3. so, now you know the difference

OLWG #309- FRIDAY NIGHT, SMALL TOWN, WESTERN OHIO

This week’s prompts are at the bottom. Feel free to seize the prompts, twist them, form them, play with them as you will. All comers are welcome. The words below are just practice for me. I had a lot of fun writing them, and you know what I always say, “Practice makes perfect.”

Here’s how to play along, if you are unsure.

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It was a cool evening, with the sun setting in the west when Raven met Hyacinth about a block away from the amphitheatre and they fell into step to walk the rest of the way together. They could hear the raucous tones of NETHER BUNNY, the opening act, but they hadn’t come to see an opening act. They were here to see SMOKER RED & the CRUSADERS.

Smoker Red’s kind of music didn’t often come to Grytt Township. There was no one like them. Hyacinth liked to tell the story of how she had lost her virginity while a Crusaders tune was playing on Revolution Radio, 95.5, in the middle of your FM dial. Raven didn’t believe her, but wished that she had thought of that story, and told it first.

The girls got to the venue, presented their tickets and had them torn at the east gate, got their hands stamped and pushed through the turnstiles. They followed the sounds of Nether Bunny towards the stage, where they wove their way to the front.

Leaning on the footlights was a big, mean-looking, Goth chick who wasn’t giving an inch to the pressing crowds. In a well-rehearsed move, Raven tapped the girl on the shudder and when she turned to yell, Hyacinth swept her legs out from under her and moved into the space she had been occupying, before grabbing Raven’s wrist and pulling her in before anyone else could move.

Nether Bunny played their big finish, which lasted for what seemed to be forever, and ran off the stage. The lights came up and the girls clung fiercely to their hard earned spot next to the stage while the roadies hooked up Smoker Red’s axe and all the other Crusader’s instruments. The roadies were good. It didn’t take long.

The arena got dark and the opening chords of Burlap-Love began to sound. Raven closed her eyes, leaned back and began to sway with the music. The Goth chick got up and reached for Raven’s hair. Hyacinth swept her leg again and she dropped like a rock. This time she stayed down so Hyacinth jumped up, onto the stage and began to run towards Smoker Red, but Security got between them. A big guy with long curly hair grabbed her around the waist and carried her off the stage. Raven stayed where she was for the rest of the set and three encores. When the concert was over, she stumbled back to the east gate. Hyacinth was there, waiting for her. She stood next to the big guy with the curly hair and waved when she saw Raven.

“Jack, this is my friend Raven.” She gestured, “Raven this is Jack.”

“Nice to meet you, Raven.” Jack bent slightly at the waist.

“And, it’s nice to meet you too, Mr Jack.” Raven curtsied slightly and extended her hand. Jack touched his lips gently on the back of it.

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This week’s prompts are:

1. 1. somehow they found us
   2. market towns
   3. muzzle monkey

OLWG #308- The Tessay Sisters

This week’s prompts are at the bottom. Feel free to seize the prompts, twist them, form them, play with them as you will. All comers are welcome. The words below are just practice for me. I had a lot of fun writing them, and you know what I always say, “Practice makes perfect.”

Here’s how to play along, if you are unsure.

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Audrey Tessay lived her entire life on the Reservation in the White Mountains, sharing a small cabin near the edge of the forest, with her sisters, Dorothy and Olivia; her older sister, Dorothy, worked at the tribal offices and the younger, Olivia, had a job at the Casino.

There was a bit of land around their home for gardening, and the girls made good use of it; they grew beets, carrots, lettuce, chard, Brussel-sprouts, black-eye peas, snap beans, chiles and tomatoes; lots of chiles, lots of tomatoes. They had a second plot about ten feet square where Audrey always planted melons.

Money was tight, but Audrey worked as a travelling nurse for the IHS. She was in better shape than many of her neighbours, and whenever she had a couple of days off, she headed home and worked the garden.

It was one such holiday that Audrey awoke early and went out to tend the garden. The day was warm, and as the sun climbed higher, the day only grew warmer. She removed her jean jacket and pulled her straw hat down lower on her brow to shade her face. Finishing her water, she was about to get more drink, and maybe change her clothes, to complete this section. She knew though, that if she went inside and cooled down, she wouldn’t want to come back out in the heat. She lay down her hoe and looked around. The house was remote; it was not visible from the road. Throwing caution to the wind, Audrey unbuttoned her blouse and laid it atop the jean jacket she had shed earlier. The breeze was cool and felt good on her bare skin. She went back to work, and the day wore on.

It wasn’t long before Audrey found herself working naked in the garden. The sun felt wonderful on her skin. The breeze, was energizing as it blew through her long black hair. The broad brim of her straw hat kept the sun off her face, and her mind wandered as she worked. She had lapsed into an easy rhythm of working and daydreaming. She was startled when she heard a noise from behind. She stood and turned to see her sister, Dorothy, standing at the edge of the garden. Standing next to Dorothy was Chise Akonye, who had been dating Dorothy off and on for years. He was smiling at Audrey, standing naked in the middle of the garden.

Audrey was mortified. She reached up and removed her sun hat from her head, lowering it, modestly, to her waist. She raised her other arm to cover her breasts. Dorothy and Chise stood staring, speechless. Audrey walked towards her sister and Chise, her right arm covering her breasts, her left arm holding the sunhat at waist level, as she passed them, aiming for the cabin, she shifted the hat to cover her ass. She walked inside where she collapsed, naked, at the kitchen table.

She sat for a few minutes, in the kitchen, before getting to her feet and making her way deeper into the house to her room. She pulled a clean dress from the closet, a black number with a plunging neckline and flowers embroidered at the hem. It was not the most demure dress in her wardrobe, but it was preferable, in her opinion, to full frontal nudity. When she came back outside Dorothy was laughing, out loud. Chise looked disheartened, dejected, derailed.

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This week’s prompts are:

1. 1. where the sailors come in
   2. fair and square
   3. a smoky bar

OLWG #307- Chupacabra?

This week’s prompts are at the bottom. Feel free to seize the prompts, twist them, form them, play with them as you will. All comers are welcome. The words below are just practice for me. I had a lot of fun writing them, and you know what I always say, “Practice makes perfect.”

Here’s how to play along, if you are unsure.

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This morning, driving to work, I stopped at the post office as I was expecting a box of books; new inventory for the store.

The books weren’t there, but about halfway up the steps from the pavement to the front doors was a prosthetic arm. It was just lying there, abandoned. It looked like it was built to fit snug, below someone’s elbow, with a leather cup and two ½” straps with buckles, like belts. There was a bifurcated steel hook fixed to the other end. Disappearing into the arm, were some thin, twisted, stainless steel cables. They had torn, ragged, ends as though pulled and broken. I assumed that these had been to operate the hook, but I’m no doctor. What do I know?

I checked for mail inside, but found no letters and no box of books. There was only a postcard from the city advising me that Property Taxes would be due NLT end of April. I saw Donna, the Postmistress, leaning on her elbow behind the business counter. She seemed to be waiting for customer needing stamps, or money orders.

I leaned into the room, “Hey Donna,” I hailed, “what’s with the arm on the steps?”

“What are you talking about, TN?”

“On the steps, out here; it looks like someone lost a prosthetic arm.”

She lifted the counter and came out to the lobby. We walked to the glass front doors and I pointed down the steps where the arm lay. I pulled the door and we both stepped outside.

Now Donna had served four years in the Navy. She’d worked on a tug boat in San Diego during the Vietnam War. She cussed like the salt that she was.

“Holy fuck,” she said, “that looks like Father Tim’s arm. He hasn’t been here today. What’s his arm doing on the steps? Grab it and bring it in. I’ll call the church.” Donna rushed back into the office, but I saw something that demanded investigation.

There were tracks in the snow. I thought they might be tracks of the legendary Chupacabra. I slid my phone out and snapped a couple of shots. I planned on showing them to Elsa Giannahtah. Elsa was an elder who lived on the outskirts of Mescalero, about halfway up the mountain

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This week’s prompts are:

1. 1. what I remember most
   2. nobody loves me here
   3. from Barcelona to Madrid

OLWG #306- Viemaphobia

This week’s prompts are at the bottom. Feel free to seize the prompts, twist them, form them, play with them as you will. All comers are welcome. The words below are just practice for me. I had a lot of fun writing them, and you know what I always say, “Practice makes perfect.”

Here’s how to play along, if you are unsure.

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Richard finished his bath and stepped from the old claw foot tub to the mat. He grabbed his bath towel, leaned over the edge of the tub. Carefully he hooked his index finger around the chain that held the stopper and pulled. He listened to the tub begin to drain and watched as the water spun down; down into the blackness of the pipe.

Faster and faster the water spun as the level got lower and lower. Richard continued to watch, but held his breath and backed away from the tub. His face transformed into a frightened mask, but he didn’t scream. He didn’t scream. His feet were frozen in place. He could not move.

When the last of the bath water swirled away and disappeared from sight, Richard stayed quiet, stayed still, watching, and waiting. He needed to make sure it was safe. Once, when he was about fifteen, he had let down his guard too early. He had almost been sucked into the vortex. He had almost perished.

Dr Simmons had talked him down that time, but Dr Simmons wasn’t around anymore.

Richard could feel his control slipping away. He wanted to blame someone, but no one was around. Goddamn-it! Where was Vickie, goddamn. He was so ashamed.

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This week’s prompts are:

1. 1. you’ve made your point
   2. red wine and dark chocolate
   3. mixed with bad luck

OLWG #305- When Henry Copeland Came to Town

This week’s prompts are at the bottom. Feel free to seize the prompts, twist them, form them, play with them as you will. All comers are welcome. The words below are just practice for me. I had a lot of fun writing them, and you know what I always say, “Practice makes perfect.”

Here’s how to play along, if you are unsure.

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Butch Sublette and Sally No-Horse had shared a table at Kaleidoscope Early Learning Centre in South Florida. When gay was a forbidden word, Governor Santería ruled the state. The two became fast friends. They ate their lunches together. They played together in the schoolyard. On weekends and afternoons, they had play dates. In middle school and high school, they would attend dances and mixers together. Everyone knew that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. They even finished one another’s sentences.

They were in grade eleven when Henry Copeland moved to town. Henry’s dad was in the Army and got transferred to Fort Meyers. Henry found himself attending Pinnacle High with Butch and Sally. The three fell in together and began to hang out. It was about three months after their meeting that Henry’s hand fell on top of Butch’s hand. They were watching an old Clint Eastwood movie on the television at Sally’s house. Sally was in the kitchen at the time, Butch didn’t move his hand, and neither did Henry. The boys sat like that for a few minutes until Sally returned, and Henry casually removed his hand. Sally did not notice.

Butch found himself haunted by the incident.

What did it mean? 
Was it an accident? 
Was Hank gay? 
Was he gay? 
If he was, how would he know for sure? 
How would he tell his parents? 
What would his friends think? 
What would Sally think?

Over time, Hank and Butch’s physical interactions increased in number and intensity. There was a passionate ferocity between them whenever Sally wasn’t around. The two boys did not talk about the affection, but they held hands often. Henry would touch Butch high on the leg. Butch liked it, but the boys didn’t address this obvious attraction. They talked around it and spoke in cryptic circles, avoiding meaningful discussions.

About three months after the initial contact between the boys, Sally dropped by Butch’s house. Mrs Sublette hollered up the stairs for Butch. Then she and Sally sat at the kitchen table. They discussed what was for dinner that night as they waited for Butch to come downstairs.

“Hey, Butch,” Sally started, “Henry and a bunch of the kids are meeting at the park. Wanna go?”

“Sure,” he said. Then turned to his mother, “Mom, me and Sally are going to the park. I’ll be back for dinner.”

“Sally and I,” his mother corrected him, “Sally and I.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Butch smiled as he and Sally slipped out the door and headed north on 11th Street.

At the corner, Sally reached for his upper arm, bringing him to a halt. “There’s something I need to talk to you about, but I don’t know how,” she said. “I’m just going to say it.” She paused, “I’m developing feelings for Hank. I think he’s coming on to me. I think I might want to pursue it, but I won’t if it would hurt you. Are you OK with that?”

Butch’s eyes widened, “Really?” Sally nodded her head, her eyes were earnest. “I was going to say almost the same thing to you. Do you think he’s playing us?”

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This week’s prompts are:

1. 1. behind the gauzy clouds
   2. runny eggs
   3. turn out the light