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.
Raymond woke in a hospital bed. His entire body ached, and he began taking stock of his various appendages, starting with his head, which hurt like a motherfucker. There was a cast on his leg (hanging in traction). His left buttock was numb although the feeling returned about halfway down his thigh. He glanced downwards and pulled his hospital gown out of the way. Bruises and red discolouration wrapped around his hip from the back and almost reached his manly parts. There was a lingering sulphurous odour permeating the air. He tried to move, he tried to get up but the elevated leg precluded that. An alarm began to sound.
A nurse hustled into the room; shaking her finger at him, “Please Mr Avendano, stay in the bed, you can’t get up. Not yet anyway.”
“What the hell,” Raymond said as he eased back onto the bed, plastic crinkling noises almost masking his question. “What happened? Where am I?”
“You’re at Pinnacle General, but you know that.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know that. Who are you?”
“I’m Nurse Manners, but you know that too. We visited for almost an hour last night.”
“Nurse Manners? Is that what I should call you?”
“Yes. That would be fine.”
“Well, Nurse Manners, even though we have already discussed these things, my original question still applies. What happened and why am I at Pinnacle General?”
“You don’t remember, do you?” Nurse Manners shook her head slowly back and forth, pityingly. We’re not sure of all the details, but Carter James told Sheriff Meeker that your little European convertible went off the road just this side of Blanket Creek. The verge is pretty smooth there, so you went all the way to the Rosillaquipo Ranch fence. That’s at least fifty yards or more. You took out five fence posts and hit a power pole. The pole broke and one of the wires caught a rattlesnake. The snake was killed or almost killed, right next to your car.
“By the way, Roger from the service station towed your car into the shop. He says the front end is busted up pretty bad, and he wants to talk with you before he starts working. I told him we’d let him know when you felt well enough to do that.” She paused and looked at me, nodding her head with a questioning look haunting her eyes.
I waited for a few ticks and figured that she must be waiting for me to acknowledge something. “OK,” I said, and she picked the narrative back up, ‘Well then, where was I? Oh yes, Carter says that you shook your head and stood up on the seat. When you went to jump over the door and get out, he saw a big flash, like lightning. The doctor thinks that you probably hit the power wire with one hand and touched the metal car body with your foot. You got electrocuted, and that’s probably when your hair caught fire. You know that nothing smells worse than burnt hair.
“You fell, broke your leg, and landed on the snake. He bit you on the butt. Carter James called 911, and that’s how you ended up here, at Pinnacle.” Nurse Manners reached over and patted me on the leg, “Can I get you something, anything? Maybe some ice chips or a drink of water?”
This week’s prompts are:
- got a job, dealing faro
- she was a ‘good girl’
- in a town this size
You can start writing whenever you want, just write, get the words down – and have fun! All the best!
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