Years are sneaky
they slip on by
in the crisis of life
in the wink of an eye
within all the strife
there goes your last sigh
Long time no write… I’m working six days a week and any spare time I do get my brain is that of a zombie! I hope you enjoyed this…
My co-worker quit which means I have tons of extra hours, but only one day off each week except this week because there is a holiday, yet my immune system tanked which it never does and NOW my nose is raw from blowing it all damn day!
“Three limbs on the mountain at all times,” That’s what my brother had told me. He was one step farther than me at all times while we scaled the 30 ft. mountain and my eyes were only focused on his moves that way I could exactly replicate them.
The mountain sat 100 ft. from shore and when low tide came the hidden rocky passageway would appear allowing access to any who dared to make the climb.
My forearms, biceps, triceps, shoulders, thighs, calves were on fire, but it was the burn the tells you your alive. Just keep moving.
We were more than halfway up. The next hand hold was out of reach.
“Jim. What do I do?”
“You have to Jump for it,” he said.
What a simple solution. Why hadn’t I thought of it? Well, because it was insane of course. I looked down. I could make my way back down. I looked up. Jim had pulled himself up and over onto the top of the mountain and was now looking down on me. This was the last step.
I couched, sprang, grabbed, and held on for dear life. My heart rate went from upbeat to overtime in two seconds. I scrambled over the edge onto the top. I had made it and it was so worth it.
Do you have any tales of Perseverance? Comment if you do!
View from the top!!!
Here is my contribution to Ermilia’s Weekly Picture it and write prompt.
“Did I advise you that this is a bad idea,” I said.
“Did I advise you that we haven’t eaten in two days,” she replied.
“But did I advise you that people seldom make it out of situations like this?”
The wooden porch creaked under our boots, but the crashing waves from the shore below along with the pounding rain quieted our noise to my liking. The castle had the greatest percentage of keeping extra food lying about in this time of shortage. I could likely withstand nine more hours without nourishment, but Rose needed it presently.
The bright moon was high and allowed us to see more proficiently out on the cliff then under the canopy of the coastal forest. The milky light showed a long deck that wrapped around the entirety of the castle. Why you would need a second floor wraparound porch seemed pointless to me, but nevertheless there was a replica porch on both the second and third floor. The floors didn’t end there either. Above the two pointless decks, there were three more housing levels.
“Should we try the door or a window,” Rose asked.
The front doors were solid oak with intricate carvings. I looked at the magnitude of windows. There were too many to count whilst your stomach makes regrettable noises even though the number would be simple to find, for If you took each window on the first floor and multiplied it by the number of replica floors above and then added that number to the multiplied amount of the different floors above the replica floors, you would get the number of windows for the front of the castle and since the front of the castle had a high chance of matching the back of the castle you would take your total of the front and multiply it by two, but then you would also need to do the same arithmetic procedure for the side of the castle and multiply that number by two and finally you would add both totals together getting the exact number of the dusty dirty windows on the structure, but I was lacking far too much nutrition to waste time on such frivolous calculations.
“Okay, from the annoying silence I’m going to assume you thought way too much about that question,” she said.
Rose kneeled below the door and rolled out the shiny toolset, one of our only possessions of value. I could pick the lock faster, but I appreciate the secret smile she has every time the lock tumbles in the chamber. Right then the wind howled, whipping her blond curls into the air. I also appreciated her curls.
What if this time the home owner was an excellent shot? If only the climate hadn’t turned for the worse, maybe we would have had better hunting along our journey.
“There might be someone home,” I said.
“Michael, didn’t you notice the chimney smoke?”
“Didn’t you notice the 2,682 windows?”
She stopped and turned slowly towards me. I don’t particularly like it when she stares at me blankly with those large green eyes.
She cleared her throat and said, “Is there more or is this one of those statem—“
“Of course there is more. If we happen to become trapped within this monstrosity, window fifteen on the first floor is a great escape route due to the fact that a hedge lies beneath the window.”
She did one of those one eyebrow raises with squinty eyes. I asked her what that meant once before and she told me it meant she believed I was making up things which I told her that I do not in fact make things up, ever.
“I believe you’re in a foul mood due to undernourishment,” I said.
She huffed, gathered the tools, pushed past me and stomped off the deck. I thought she was going to keep walking back into the shadowed forest. Maybe she would want to go hunting instead, but then she turned right back around, up the stairs, and into my face.
“Don’t you want to eat,” she asked.
“Yes.” I let out a breath. My brain sometimes blanks when rose gets close to me. I’m not even sure if it was me talking. “Please except my apology. I was in fear for your life, but now I know no one should anger you when you’re in a foul mood due to hunger.”
She knelt back down to her station and said, “If you say one more thing about my malnutrition or hunger I’m going to punch your pretty face.”
The door clicked and inched open, but she was looking at me instead of her progress. I frowned.
“What now,” she asked.
“You didn’t smile.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Are you hungry or not,” I said and strode past her inquisitive look and into the waiting darkness. We would find something to eat and not talk about smiles or hidden feelings.
I love these prompts. They are fast, fun, and It’s a great way to keep practicing writing skills without the stress of struggling with plot structures and all the other stresses of story making. 🙂 Babbling here, but my point is if you enjoy reading them you should really try writing to them! Just click HERE and it will take you back to Ermilia’s blog who posts the prompts every Sunday. Hope you enjoyed, feel free to leave a comment, and come back again! –Katie
“Most heroes or heroines have a tragic beginning… Most people suffer some sort of tragedy… All stories need forgiveness and the urge to push forward.”
Who runs really hot when they sleep? Well, this morning I woke up irritated from the heat and threw every blanket off the bed and as I laid there cooling down I kept having random thoughts about tragedy and pushing forward. I don’t know why. Eventually, I was cold and realized I’m an idiot for throwing the blankets so far from the bed. The blankets were recovered, but my mind wouldn’t be shushed, so now I’m up making a quote about tragedy. I hope you enjoy my restless brain at 5am.
My weekly response to Ermilia’s weekly Picture it and write prompt.
How could he take his off? We all have to wear them. We are kept under surveillance around the clock, for “our safety of course”. The law for woman and men to wear the electronic bracelets went into effect many years ago before I was even born. It’s just a part of life for me, but for my grandma it is so much more. Every time we see her in the institution, she talks about the cruelty of the bracelet.
The bracelet always fits just right due to its resizing technology, so technically there’s no reason it should ever need to come off. Well, unless the bracelet happens to malfunction which I’ve never heard of happening.
That was until this morning when I saw Darian running into the forest. I thought he was up to another prank. It was a little soon, since we were both still on shavings clean-up for the rest of the week. It was a harsh punishment, but I guess that’s what you get for sneaking into the generators to disable all power. I’m not even sure why I went along with such a prank. Usually he has a hilarious reason behind our escapades, but this last time he wouldn’t tell me any of the details. Well to be fair, he told me he was testing a theory and then he slid one of those wicked smiles on me. I know… I’m pretty dumb sometimes when it comes to Darian, but those smiles could probably make me run a mile and I hate running.
I stalked him for a while through the forest, but then he disappeared out of sight. I was trying to pick up his track when BAM something or someone really heavy charged me from the bushes. I ended up on my back, eyes squinted shut, hoping it wasn’t a hungry animal sitting on me. Until, I head a familiar voice.
“What are ya doing,” asked Darian.
My eyes snapped open and there he was looking down on me with a familiar grin.
“W-w-well I could ask you the same thing!”
“I’m running away.”
My heart stopped. Nobody leaves, ever. Nobody leaves because there’s nowhere to go and… My eyes slid to his right wrist. For all my life, sixteen and half years, there has been a blue bracelet with gold flecks on his right wrist.
“Yep,” he said. “They can’t stop me know.”
My eyes snapped open. It was early morning, the sun hadn’t risen yet, but the cell was lightening. Someone was trying keys in my cell lock. I hadn’t been fully asleep. It was too cold to actually sleep. The mist rolling off the sea every night seemed to bruise my bones even further than the hard cobble stone ground. I was in a cell awaiting my verdict, I had no Idea where I was, and it didn’t matter because I didn’t even know who I was.
The cell door cracked open and in stepped a tall man. In one hand was a ring of keys and in the other a sword which left no room for a meal. It’s been two nights and three days since my last meal. The meal consisted of an onion potato watery broth and a small bread roll. They were trying to starve me or maybe they were just cruel.
Maybe he had come to take me to my death. My mind began to race with alternatives. Maybe I could plead for my life or maybe I could fight my way past him. I’m not sure how far I would get, but it would be better then not trying.
He walked into the dawn light and that’s when I stopped breathing. With a dirty long coat, high boots, and layering of a red sash around the waist, the man before me was a pirate.
He smiled or grimaced, I’m not sure, but it was probably because I was shocked to see he had all his teeth. There were many toothless people running around these parts.
The pirate cleared his voice and said, “He was right ’bout ye, but if ye ready to be off now ’tis the hour.”
Who? Who knew about me, I woke up three weeks ago in this strange land with no memories. I didn’t know my own name and I was all alone.
“Who are you talking about?”
“We can speak ’bout that later. Right now we hurry or did ye want to die here?”
I raised my hands from my lap. The shackles clinked and slid down my raw forearms. “What about these,” I asked. The sun was beginning to rise and I could see his eyes were a jade green. He was good looking in this dim light, but as he got closer his stenches were overpowering. The dirt, grime, old booze, and faint smell of dried blood forced me to back up against the wall.
“Don’t be a-feared lass, I won’t hurt ye.”
“I’m not afraid, you just really smell.”
“If ’tis a problem I’d gladly just be off,” he said.
The things you put up with for food…and freedom. I raised the shackles again and he got to work. He also kept mumbling to himself. I think he said something about an ungrateful wench, but I wasn’t sure.
Chapter one~Part One.
So, I jumped the gun and poste a poorly written draft of this yesterday. I was just so excited to share this new idea, but the first draft was riddled with too much back story. I will try to be more patient in the future!
-Katie
After the emergency room they move you upstairs
once they know you won’t die right away,
it’s always just better that way,
It’s 3am and the ambulance is still bringing guests in
well, tonight the place is booked like a five star hotel
I wish for once it was like a shanty run down motel.
The nurse just came in and informed us
we will be stuck with a curtain as a door
And old blood stains upon the floor
His Gurney was wet,
he was uncomfortable,
but the least of his worries was this small detail.
Dirt and blood stained the pristine white sheets
but soon to be gone
when the new bed could be retrieved.
Even the bed was one of their last.
Where is our ticket home you might ask?
Well, it comes with an x-ray at nine am.
Nine am is when we shall see
exactly how terrible the two holes in his lungs actually might be.
Nine am is when we shall see
exactly if he might need surgery on his wrecked right knee.
the nurse asks on a scale of one to ten,
but I believe the sale is unfitting
by my calculations, where I’m sitting-
11 for the broken leg,
5 at least for the broken rib
3 apiece for the two holes in the lungs
my addition is sound,
and to me,
22 it looks to be around.
This is a poem I’ve been working on for some time about my brother’s stay in the emergency room early this august. I sat by his side through the night in fear about his situation which magnified my frustration at the circumstances.
You’ve got to be kidding me
.
I had closed my eyes and rested my head against the unyielding door. How could the key work in the dead bolt, but not the bottom lock? I didn’t know it was an actual possibility when the woman from Wal-Mart warned that sometimes keys don’t work and I needed to keep the receipt just in case.
.
My phone rang and I fished it out of my purse. The screen was dimmed and the red blinking light informed me the battery would soon die, great another problem. It was “Home” calling. Well home is two hours away, so they really couldn’t help me, but they could probably get a hold of someone that could.
.
“Hello,” my mom said.
“Hi mom, my phones dying and my spare key isn’t working, so I’m locked out. And I really have to go pee.” Sometimes I just blurt out everything I’m thinking in stressful situations or under the influence of major caffeine.
“Oh, do you want me to call your brother?”
“Yes, thank you.”
.
We hung up and I jingled, jimmied, and seriously begged God that the key would work this time. No luck.
.
My breath came out in puffs of white and I seriously regretted wearing a dress today. Even with thick tights, the cold air seeped in, as the night air dropped in degrees.
.
I bent down to collect the contents of my purse. I had dumped them all over the front porch searching for the other spare key. I had made two just in case I lost one in the future. It was probably sitting on the kitchen table where I left it.
.
I also threw my phone into the purse since it had died and headed to the curb. My brother would show up soon with the third key or my sister would show up to rescue me, again. I waited and waited, but after an eternity 20 minutes of waiting I thought I should make a phone call.
.
My downstairs neighbor’s car was parked at the curb and I could hear the TV, so I knocked on her door. I took a step back and prepared a speech, trying not to sound as stupid as I probably seemed, but she didn’t answer. Maybe she couldn’t hear, so I knocked a little louder, but still no answer.
.
I walked to the small complex across the street and played eeny, meeny, miny, moe with the doors. A middle aged woman answered the selected door in red pajama bottoms, a big doggy t-shirt, and pink slippers. Even though I was super angry I had a real smile on my face.
.
Explaining the situation, she let me in and I dialed the only two numbers I know by heart. The down side of having a cell phone is you don’t memorize numbers.
.
My sister didn’t pick up and I really didn’t want to bug my friend, but called anyways. She answered, but I could tell she had been sleeping, so I just told her I’d call her later.
.
The woman saw my frustration and was probably afraid for her phone in my angry hands, so she offered to plug in my cell phone.
.
I called my mom and she told me she thought I got in. Are you serious? If I didn’t call you back wouldn’t you be worried. I wanted to take all my frustrations out on her, but it wasn’t really her fault.
“What do you want me to do,” she asked.
“Nothing,” I said.
“Okay.”
“I’m not mad at you, I’m just in someone’s house and super frustrated. I’ll call you later.”
.
After hanging up with her, I called my sister again, but no answer, so I called her husband Kevin.
“Domino’s pizza”
“Kevin, I need to talk to Mary.”
“Mary? I don’t know who you’re talking about. Would you like to hear our specials?”
“Can you just give her the phone?”
“Is it an emergency because she’s reading to Emily?” Emily is my four year old niece.
“Yes, it’s an emergency.”
“You’re always in an emergency, how extreme is the emergency?”
“KEVIN!”
.
When I got off the phone with Mary, I declined the cup of tea from the serial killer nice neighbor, and went outside to wait for Kevin. She probably wasn’t dangerous in the least bit, but you never know.
.
I was waiting at the curb, again, when I noticed a man walking down the side walk. Great! I didn’t want any creepy conversation on top of everything else. Maybe he’d just walk bye. As he got closer, his outfit became familiar. GREAT, it was a cop.
.
He walked over to me and asked if I was knocking on the downstairs apartment. She called the cops, really? I guess her door doesn’t have a peep hole and she was a little scared. I should have called out to her, but I don’t even know what her name is. What was I going to say? Hey downstairs neighbor, it’s me your upstairs neighbor.
.
“Yes, I live upstairs,” I told the cop. I explained the situation, again. I hated tonight. The cold, the door, the neighbor, the four letter key, and especially Wal-Mart for giving it to me, but most of all I hated myself, for not trying it in the lock before I left my house this morning.
.
The cop waited with me until my brother-in-law, Kevin, the jokester, showed up. I think the cop was just bored. He probably thought it was going to be a bogus call and then had some adrenalin when he saw someone standing outside, and then became super bummed when he realized it was the idiot girl who lived upstairs.
.
He asked me about living in apartments, noisy neighbors, and the neighborhood. I think he was fishing for information about the last disturbance call made on this address, but that’s a different story.
I’m a stuffed bear with one eye. The lack of my glassy eye is the first thing everyone notices about me. They might not say it right away, but I catch em staring all the time. I really don’t see the big deal. Ken, the barbie doll, is missing his whole left arm. He says he lost it in the Great War, but he also says he’s an action figure. I’m sorry, but action figures don’t wear plaid shirts, khakis, and flip flops. He’s a very confused toy.
A giant fairy wand had been thrown across my brown fluffy chest and no matter how hard I pushed I couldn’t get the blasted thing off. Blond curls had bounced all over the place earlier, as isabel, my owner, had tossed toys randomly in the chest. I’ve been with her for six years now since the first ride home from the hospital. I no longer sleep with her, but usually she places me at the top of the jumbled mess in the dark chest.
The chest slowly started to brighten in a pink glow. Someone had turned on the glow bunny. A bunch of rusling was going on to my left and then a loud bang went off as a letter block tumbled into the darkness. The chest went silent. Who ever was messing around was an idiot. If they woke Isabel she would spend the night in fear of boogie monsters, again.
“Hiya Sarah, you need some help?”
I looked up into a white fuzzy bear face with two perfect black eyes. Of course, it was lucy making such a racket. She was kind of clumsy. We had the closest friendship formed over the last two weeks.
A Dark brown face popped up beside lucy’s smiling face. Johnny… He is new to the toy chest and boy is he dashing. Plump face and soft fuzzy hair. Well, in teddy bear standards he was someone you wanted to smile at. Lucy and I had giggled and blushed everytime he shuffled by or played with the little cars handed down to Isabel from her brother. When he smiled, the cutest dimples appeared for all the female bears, Lucy and I, to faint in awe.
Yesterday, Lucy and Johnny decided to hangout. I felt a little left out and then angry when they started laughing and sharing secret smiles. After the unbearable two minutes since they started hanging out, I decided to make a plan.
And then here they were standing over me and asking if I desired their help.
Of course not I wanted to shout, but instead I let them lift the wand off me. Lucy invited me to tea, which I guessed could only be “unimaginable hours of fun”, but it would be the perfect moment to put my plan into action.
“Johnny,” I said.
He turned to me, jumped in surprise, and said, “Oh. You scared me. Your missing eye is a little haunting… Anyways, what can I do for ya?”
It didn’t really faze me. His reaction I mean. I’ve only know him for two days, but this was his reaction every time he saw me even if it was only a few minutes ago. He was so reliable and perceptive.
“I hate to tell you this, but luchy said some astounding things about you.”
Johnny frowned and threw the toy car he had been holding at the chest wall with such force it came back and hit him in the head. It was such a surprise I opened and closed my mouth a couple of times and was at a complete loss for words.
It must have been the shock of her fake betrayal. I mean, Lucy and Johnny have been in love now for the last five minutes. His heart was literally ripping at the seams and I was having second thoughts, but then I saw Lucy in the background bouncing around collecting the tea cups and plates for the fake scones with her two sparkling beady eyes.
“Well, Lucy said you were nice to look at, but your head is just filled with stuff and fluff,” I said.
His face grew dark, and he stomped his way back to Lucy. He then raised his hand and slapped all the tea cups back to the ground. They scattered, bouncing and rolling out of sight. After some arguing Lucy went to the corner and slumped to her soft knees. Dust puffed around her, she rested her head against the chest wall, and soft cries began to shake her now cobwebbed shoulders. It was pitiful and sad.
I had won, but at what cost. Actually, Lucy and Johnny’s heads were both filled with stuff and fluff. They kind of belonged together.
I went to Johnny and came clean about my little lie that had just happened to destroy their love. He didn’t throw a car or slap anything which kind of disappointed me. He just walked over to Lucy and picked the pitiful bear from the ground. Lucy fell into his grasp, nuzzled her head under his chin and I suppressed the rising fluff of disgust in my throat.
Seven long, horrible, never ending minutes later the bears with fluff and stuff in their head came around Inviting me to tea again.
Lucy cleared her throat and lowered her cup of tea, “Hey Sarah, I saw a dolly in the corner with buttons on her dress, maybe we can fix the scary hole in your face.”
Johnny choked on his imaginary tea and I chucked the pink teacup in Lucy the beautiful white bear’s direction.
The end
Morals
My Fictional Truth 