She rushed into the room bringing the outdoors chill with her. Shrugging off coat, boots, hat and mittens, she cast her eyes around in pleasure. Ah, home at last!
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Trifextra Week 2 Challenge: Write a complete story in three sentences only. Whew! This, however, is how I feel when I come home from work.
And, now I am off to read the other submissions. Won’t you give it a shot this week?
Ooooh, Gypsy Woman . . . she hummed as she bent over her work. Gold bangles encircled wrists and dangled from her ears. Their musical tones beat an off-tempo accompaniment to her voice.
She turned another card and paused to consider its import. This reading was important to her; this client not like those previous.
Jason shifted his weight in the too-small chair, and tugged at his earlobe. What were the words to the song she was humming? His thoughts went back to that summer long ago. The tent was the same – the chair as uncomfortable then as now. He had held the image of the gypsy in his mind for many years and now here they were together again.
She looked up, catching his crooked grin, then placed the last card on the table and took his hand in hers. After all these years her heart’s desire was back in her life. She only hoped the cards’ tale would not frighten him away again.
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Here’s a fiction piece for the Trifecta Challenge: Image.
It’s my image – the one I see in the mirror – the one in the photographs. I recognize it from the hint of a smile followed by hearty laughter. I know it from the twinkle of eyes and gaps in teeth. I know it from snarky comments and knowing winks.
I see me multiplied in the camera’s lens as each daughter and grandchild can attest: all apple cheeks and blue-eyed blond images of me – my descendents – my blessings.
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Trifecta’s challenge this week is IMAGE. I think every parent’s dream is that their children mimic them (in only the best ways, of course). The above picture is of my oldest daughter, my mini-me, and her three children, her mini-mes.
We hated at 15; married at 19. Our friends set us up – really, SET us up – for failure. We dated toward success. 43 years come May I will still say I love you.
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The first TRIFEXTRA challenge: write a love story in 33 words – no more no less. The above is a true story.
May 10, 1969
Sally you can do this. You know you can. You’ve worked hard to temper the beast – this is just a test. You always – ALWAYS! – ace tests so why not this one, too?
Sally’s shoulders sagged. The inner encourager was right and she knew it. But it’s hard! So hard she wanted to shout. Why can’t I be like the others? Why must I keep falling down when they just skip merrily along?
Her eyes slid back over her shoulder for another look into the bakery case. Sally could feel the saliva begin as she eyed tray after tray of brightly iced cakes, cupcakes and meringues.
“Steven if you don’t get me out of here this minute I cannot answer for what will happen. Dieting is a bit. . . , erm, beast and your daily stops for “just one cupcake and a mocha†are about to do me in. I almost cursed just then. That’s how upset I am. You say you love me? Then show it and get me out of here right now.
Steven paid for his snack, placed it into Sally’s lap and pushed her chair out into the sunlight. “Fine, Sally, we’re going. Look in the bag; I bought you a cookie, too. It’s your favorite kind.â€
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Author’s note: Every nine seconds a woman in the U.S. is abused in some fashion. Abuse is insidious and can be verbal, emotional, physical, sexual, and a myriad of other ways. Caregiver abuse is often more under-reported than abuse of the “able bodied.†Even tempting someone with forbidden sweets, taking them places over which they have no control can be an abusive action.
If you are – or if you know someone who is – abused, the national hotline number is 1-800-799-SAFE.
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Trifecta’s Week 11 Challenge is BEAST, using the third definition.
beast noun \ˈbēst\
1 a: a four-footed mammal as distinguished from a human being
b: a lower animal as distinguished from a human being
c: an animal as distinguished from a plant
d : an animal under human control
2: a contemptible person
3: something formidably difficult to control or deal with