This week’s prompts are at the bottom.
Practice makes perfect. Let me know what you think.
Here’s how to play along, if you are unsure.
Wayne dropped the shot glass into the mug of beer that sat in front of him on the bar. He lay his head on the bar and watched it drop like a stone, then savoured the ‘clink’ of glass against glass when it hit the bottom. He smiled a sad smile and glanced down the bar where a guy was watching. Wayne picked up the mug and downed it in one go. The guy was still watching. It was at that moment that Wayne realized that this guy had been watching him for a long time.
“You got a problem, buddy?” Wayne asked him.
“No… no, I don’t, but the way you’ve been drinking I think you may.”
“You think I have a problem? You’re right. My problem is a cute little spinner with curly dark hair who goes by the name Belinda. That’s my problem.”
The guy picked up his drink and moved down, “Mind if I sit here?” he asked.
Wayne waved his hand and the guy sat down.
“Wanna talk about it?”
“No.”
“OK,” the guy said, “I’m Steve. Let me buy you a drink.” He signalled the bartender, “Another boilermaker for…”
Wayne piped in, “Wayne, I’m Wayne.”
“Wayne here and a whisky, neat, for me.”
The barman nodded and turned away, getting to work.
“So what happened, Wayne?” Steve asked.
“Belinda happened. She’s a one-woman wrecking crew.” Wayne began to warm to the story. “I met her about a month ago at the track. One thing led to another and pretty soon she had a key to my apartment and was talking about moving out of her place across town.”
“I don’t hear a problem yet,” Steve said and he put some money on the bar. He saw the drinks coming.
“No, it was great until she got a call from an ex-boyfriend named Leyland. She didn’t tell me about it for a couple of days and when she did, she explained that he told her he had found this great investment deal and wanted to let her in. Low risk, high return, you know. Just one catch – only cash. She told me that she sampled the deal with a couple of hundred dollars and it worked exactly the way he had said it would. She got back almost fifteen hundred bucks in just a couple of days. She wanted to know what I thought. She said that she could most likely talk this guy into letting me in on it too.
“She invited him over to meet me and, he agreed, but suggested that I do like Belinda had done and go with a couple of hundred dollars at a time. I said OK. We all shook hands and he left with the understanding that we would bring him the cash before that weekend.
“Belinda and I talked about it that night, in bed. We talked about it over the next couple of days too and, by the time Friday rolled around we’d both decided to go all in.”
Wayne stopped talking and picked up the shot that the barkeep had left next to the foamy mug of lager and dropped it in. Again he put his head down to watch the two liquids swirl together. Again he smiled and this time he raised his glass towards his new friend, Steve.
“Cheers,” he said.
Steve lifted his whisky and raised it as well, silently coaxing Wayne to continue his story.
“Anyway, Friday morning, this morning, Belinda and I went to the bank. We went to her bank first and she closed out her account. She had almost ten thousand dollars. She showed it to me. Then we went to my bank, the one over on 17th street, across from the tire store. I started to second guess myself when I went inside. I had about eight thousand dollars in savings. I took out five thousand, but then as I was walking to the door, I thought ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’ so I went back and took out the rest.”
Wayne sat silent for a while and stared at the shelves filled with all the colourful bottles of booze decorating the wall behind the bar. He was kinda spacing out.
“What?” Steve asked anxiously, “what happened.”
With a monochromatic voice Wayne picked up the story again, “We were on our way over to Leyland’s when we stopped for fuel at the Valero station on West Cliff. Belinda sat in the passenger seat and I got out to pump the gas. I got things started and decided to step into the store there and buy a pack of cigarettes. When I came out she was gone.”
“Gone?” Steve almost shouted, “What?”
“Yeah, she was gone. She took my Land Rover too. The cash was in the door pocket in a bank envelope. She got it all.”
“Nooo,” Steve wailed, “What are you going to do now?”
“Not much I can do.”
“Well, you don’t need her anyway. Us guys, we should stick together. Who needs women?”
“What?” Wayne asked, kind of taken aback.
“Who needs women anyway?” Steve repeated, “All they are is trouble. Men can do anything a woman can do. You should come home with me. I can introduce you to some of my friends and we can party tonight.”
“I don’t think so,” Wayne said, “That’s not me. I’ve never done anything like that before. I don’t think I want to start now,” Wayne said hastily, “but I don’t care if that’s what you’re into.” he added, being politically correct.
“Suit yourself,” Steve stood, he looked longing down at Wayne, “Pity though. It would’ve been great fun.” He threw some bills on the bar and headed slowly towards the door. Wayne turned his head and watch his new friend walk away. When Steve reached the door he paused and then leaned in, to open it with his shoulder.
“Wait,” Wayne called after him.
This week’s prompts are:
- call in sick
- the diary beneath her pillow
- we can share a tic tac
-
Go ahead and dive in, set your imagination free!
Write something
Ready, Set, Go – you have 25 minutes, but if that is not possible, take as long as you need and, have fun!
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