Photo by WildOne at Pixabay’s Creative Commons
I haven’t the time and there is no point in you asking.
But you have a watch, a very old watch.
All show I assure you.
Then why if it doesn’t work?
It’s my pretentious character, I like people to think I know what I’m doing.
And do you know what you are doing?
Watch me and weep.
Written for: https://katmyrman.com/2017/12/26/twittering-tale-64-26-december-2017/
Image: © Enisa
When Alan enrolled in super hero school the choice of hero he would become was not one he anticipated.
He took on “Liquid Face Man” a character that was soon to change the nature of the super hero.
As Liquid Face Man, he discovered that he had the ability to change his appearance, he could be the debonair, suave business man one day and the hideous black lagoon man the next.
When it came to rescuing maidens in distress, he was always sure to put on his best tall, dark and handsome face as a hideous, repulsive image did little more than add to the already distressed maiden.
He developed the power to project his liquid face over his entire body which took some getting used to after finding himself being swept down the gutter during a storm.
Today there was trouble in the town of Gokillamoocow, and he felt empowered as he oozed his along on his way to save the day.
Written for: https://flashfictionforaspiringwriters.wordpress.com/2017/12/26/fffaw-challenge-week-of-december-26-2017/
Alexi watched the snowfall with narrowed eyes.
There was still a way to go and in the back seat of the car his wife was laying in growing discomfort as the arrival of their first child came closer by the second.
He worried about making it to the hospital, and if called upon did he remember enough of the pre-natal classes to know what to do.
Outside the snow was falling more heavily and he could see the windscreen wipers working harder against the steady build-up on the screen in front of him.
Behind him, his wife called to him to hurry. She was breathing more and more rapidly, and he was starting to stress more than he already was.
The conditions deteriorated to a point where he was reaching out the window and trying to push the snow off his windscreen, but it was becoming all in vain.
He saw a house away to his left and knew he needed help. He hoped there was someone home and hoped it was someone who might be able to help.
He drove the car through the ever-increasing snow drifts to the front of the house and beeped his car horn.
A man appeared who listened to his plight and directed him to back the car up to the barn behind him.
In the car, his wife was frantically asking him what he thought he was doing and why he wasn’t still driving to the hospital.
He tried to explain the impossibility of the situation, but she was way past hearing anything.
He lifted her out of the car and carried her into the barn where the farmer, an old man was standing beside a table and intimated he place his wife on the said table.
The farmer explained he’d delivered a lot of animals over the years and a human child would be no different. Though he looked a little worried at the man’s wife, who was by now showing signs of distress.
The young man held his wife’s hand remembering the instructions to push and to comfort. The old farmer had gathered up towels and was ready to deliver the child when the time came.
“What are we doing?” asked the wife wondering what had happened to all their carefully formulated plans.
“I could n’t keep driving,” explained the young husband, “the roads were getting too dangerous. This man is helping us.”
In the time after the birth of their first son, the young couple could barely remember the old man who helped them so caught up were they in the moment and excitement of the delivery.
Outside the snow continued to fall but by now the young man’s narrowed eyes had become eyes wide open in wonder.
Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2017/12/22/first-line-friday-december-22nd-2017/
Image – Kangaroo Paw (Labelled for Re-use)
As today is Christmas Day down under the earth, I’d like to wish all who read my blog my best wishes for this Christmas/Holiday season and into the New Year and far beyond.
I hope you all get to share this day with family and loved ones.
Thank you for reading my blog for the support and encouragement you give to me.
Let’s hope in 2018 the words can fall in the right places for us all.
Take care and have a good one.
Michael
A Fairytale with a Very Bad End
When Mia of the Ferns became romantically involved with Colin of the Cacti eyebrows were raised, and the gossip and rumours ran rampant through the fairy world.
The Ferns were soft, delicate folk who kept to themselves and who were for the most part hidden from sight. The Cacti, on the other hand, were a sharp and spikey lot of fairies more often argumentative and outspoken believing they were superior to most of the other fairy groups.
Mia’s parents were beside themselves with worry over their daughter’s dalliances with Colin who as they explained to Mia was a nice enough fellow but a Cacti fairy and no good could possibly come from any union between the two.
Colin’s parents were equally worried telling their son they held little hope of anything resulting from the relationship as the fern Fairies were a weak and indecisive group and in a skirmish, they didn’t like her chances of standing up for herself.
The Cacti fairies were known for picking fights, it was in their DNA, they were happy arguing, fighting and picking a fight at every opportunity. They liked to throw their weight around, or it might be said to stick it to you at every chance they got.
But Mia and Colin saw things different. Colin found Mia the most beautiful fairy he’d ever met, and Mia saw Colin as a handsome fey who said what he felt and despite his innate prickly personality treated her with great respect.
However, one day Colin found himself in a terrible situation. His family intervened and decided he should marry Clara Spikey of the distant Candelabra cacti a tall sharp-witted and demanding fairy. Clara had long seen Colin as a potential partner, they were seen as a very compatible pair, and there was an air of instant excitement among the Cacti fairies when the wedding plans were announced.
Mia was devastated when she heard Colin’s news. She cried a flood of tears and despite pleas to Colin to stop the wedding he was powerless as the Cacti Fairies were very strict about who could marry who.
Mia spent many a night alone looking out across the gardens to the distant Cacti world wondering if Colin was thinking of her or was she slowly being forgotten.
She grew more and more depressed such that on one occasion she was found climbing the giant tree fern threatening to throw herself off. Her mother rescued her and reminded her once again that there were plenty of eligible fairies among the ferns.
But it took many years before Mia looked at another fairy.
Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2017/12/24/sunday-writing-prompt-234-its-all-in-the-title/
The homophone sets are:
presence – the state of being present
presents – gifts
and
holy – with religious significance
holey – perforated, with holes
wholly – fully, completely
The Reverend Father surveyed his Christmas midnight Mass congregation and considered the presence of the dozen or so was better than expected.
Over the past year his and every other priest’s holiness had been seriously questioned and the fact anyone showed up was pleasing.
Mrs Karthups would have been there even if the priest was proved to be the devil incarnate. In her hand bag, she had a small present for the priest. A new pair of socks as she’d noticed the holey state of the ones he wore each Sunday. Her priest in holey socks was something she could not stand, and his presence in such attire did not fit the whole image she had her priest.
She shuffled on the hard church pew her mind on the cup of tea she’d make when she returned home knowing she would be wholly and completely in the state of God’s grace.
Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2017/12/23/saturday-mix-double-take-23-december-2017%ef%bb%bf/
Moyra pushed the pram down the street past the shops all displaying their respective yuletide decorations.
In the pram slept her two young babies, a year or so apart but fulltime work and she was sleep deprived and irrational, and she knew it.
Right now, was a period of respite for her. Her husband, Yul, was at work as he needed to work to earn enough to support his growing family. It was a good thing they loved one another as otherwise, life would be intolerable.
She tried to ignore the colourful displays around her and felt ok about the fact she was not able to decorate her house like her neighbours as her two were still too young to appreciate Christmas.
As it was Saturday afternoon most of the shops were shut, but traffic still buzzed around her. She speculated as to where they were going wistfully thinking of she and her husband taking the afternoon to enjoy themselves. Going out with her husband was not an option nowadays with two demanding children to deal with.
She reached the traffic lights and stood waiting for them to change. As she stood there watching the cars and trucks pass her by a wedding car passed her by and before she knew it she blurted out: “You’ll be sorry.”
Embarrassed by her outburst, she looked around to see if anyone had heard. She asked herself did she really mean it? At this moment in time she did. It was hard and exhausting work even though she knew it wouldn’t last forever.
As she approached home, she decided to dig out the old Christmas decorations her mother had given her and make an effort to smarten up the house. She was sure Yul would appreciate the gesture after all he had promised her a Christmas tree one year.
Written for: https://lindaghill.com/2017/12/22/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-23-17/
There was never a defining moment apart from the feeling that it was the end and that things had to change.
Like so much in life it was easier to think it than do it.
To leave a marriage after so many years when you truly thought the vows you took were sacred was not and never would be simple.
But when you saw the destruction that was happening not only to yourself but to your children the decision was a lot more manageable than you imagined.
To do so was to give up the person I was before, the cowering, compliant and pathetic self who had grown to hate life and whose day to day was all about fear. Fear of discovery, fear of retribution and fear of punishment on self and those who looked up to me.
I had to move away and become strong. I had to stop rolling over and rid myself of the feeling I was selling my soul.
It’s not a path I would recommend unless you are at the end of your tether and have nothing to lose other than the crumbs of character you cling to.
So, I left, and I’m sure my ex felt I would be back. She knew she could and did cripple me financially and as I walked the path of uncertainty a friend did ask me if all the pain and abuse I was dealing with was worth it. To which I replied, “Freedom is priceless.”
In the months that followed, I did seek some form of renewal. Wanting to find out if I could still function as a man, if the days of being my ex’s whipping post could be put behind me.
It was never plain sailing, it doesn’t work like that because there is so much that is part of you that it drags you back into your past and directs the way you react and feel.
For me it’s been a learning curve, I’ve made numerous mistakes but they say that’s how you learn and I think I have learned a lot about myself in the years since.
The one factor I hold most precious is I have now the opportunity to be me, to discover who this me is and to see if I can live comfortably with him. He is refined all the time, I try to keep him open to new things and not get too bogged down in routine, for I am a creature of habit.
After years of mistrust, it takes time to find trust in others. I have been fortunate to have the love and support of my children, and I treasure that. I have tried to form relationships and found they have gone the way of my past relationships, down the gurgler as I have not attracted partners who have seen me as me.
But I am fortunate to found one friend whom I value above all others who sees me for whom I am and with whom I can be me.
Life is far too short for regrets, so I try to be positive and compassionate to those around me. Being a person of integrity is what I’d like to be, but I know it’s part of developing the me I most want to be. Whether I reach the heights of “something amazing” I am yet to discover.
Written for: https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2017/12/22/reenas-exploration-challenge-week-18/
December 21, 2017 prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) include white flowers in your story. This is a repeat prompt, but one that has an ability to be emotive. Humor, drama, irony — go wherever the white flowers lead.
The weather had been unbearably oppressive with day after day the temperature climbing into the low 40Cs. Up early I would water the plants committed to keeping them alive even though around them the grass of the lawn died off under the relentless barrage of the sun.
It seemed a futile hope that anything might survive the harsh climate and I resigned myself to starting again once the hot days passed.
Then one morning as I desperately watered I looked down and saw a tiny white flower on my struggling capsicums.
That single white flower filled me with hope.
Written for: https://carrotranch.com/2017/12/21/dec-21-flash-fiction-contest/
We were ever so glad when the thaw arrived. It was the start of December and Christmas loomed high on the horizon.
It was, of course, the result of climate change, but the deniers continued to espouse their theories that it was just a glitch in nature, a one-off and never to occur again.
The day after the thaw began the temperatures returned to their normal December temps of high 30Cs and we all felt a tad better as we peeled off our layers of clothing and basked in the stinking heat of summer.
Our winter woollies shop had reaped in the profits with the unusually cold spring and beginning to summer but now faced shutting up shop and going into its seasonal hibernation in anticipation of an early return in the new year of the cold, snow and ice.
In the mean time, we cranked up our air conditioners as the heat set in and the memory of snow feet deep in our backyards faded from our minds.
Written for: https://scvincent.com/2017/12/21/thursday-photo-prompt-thaw-writephoto/
Morpethroad 