Five Sentence Fiction - Sacred

Alison walked around the apartment assessing what should be shipped off to Jeff’s family back east, and which items should be donated to charity - awful decisions to be making on a Friday morning when it felt like the rest of the world would be busy looking forward to the weekend. 

Looking forward was something she couldn’t imagine ever doing again. 

She went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea, and while filling up the kettle she saw Jeff’s favourite mug waiting to be washed, dried coffee inside, sitting in the sink.

Alison picked it up, closing her eyes and, though she knew she would never see him again, in her mind she watched Jeff getting out of bed early in the morning, getting dressed, drinking his coffee, kissing her before he went out the door.

She pressed the mug to her lips and, for the first time, she began to say goodbye.

Yearning for Wonderland Writing Contest Entry: Leprechauns

There once was a boy who believed in leprechauns.  He didn’t think about them all the time but when he was scolded by a teacher or pushed around by Billy the mean kid, he prayed that leprechauns would somehow help him out.

One day while walking home from school, the boy  was surprised by Billy jumping out from behind a rose bush.

“You really are dumb, aren’t you?  Didn’t you see me standing there?” Billy said, shoving the boy, knocking him onto Mrs. Wilson’s lawn. 

“One of these days you’re going to be sorry, Billy” the boy said, standing up and brushing grass off his pants.

Billy laughed, “Yeah right, I’m so scared of you. You’d need an army!” Billy grinned as he walked away.

It was unfortunate that Billy himself had not considered leprechauns because just then something quite unusual happened. Small green sprites with wings, one by one, appeared out of flowers and from behind blades of grass. They flitted and floated, forming a humming line right in front of Billy, though he didn’t see them. When he reached their line, he lifted his foot up in step, looking like he was going to squish them under his size 4 shoe.  But squish them, he did not.  The weeones worked together, hundreds of them, picking Billy up, rolling him around, turning him upside down!

“What’s happening?” Billy cried. The sprites weren’t mean, they put him back down, gently, onto the sidewalk.

One of the little fellows turned to me, with a frown on his face, and said “We would have been here sooner but some of the guys were angry that you kept calling us leprechauns.  We’re fairies, damn it.”

Ol’ Billy still sends me a Christmas card each year, but he avoids St. Patrick’s Day altogether.

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I've met the challenge...

A week or so ago, I challenged - at least I think it was me doing the challenging - KD Rush , KD_Rush on Twitter to provide a listing of his top 100 songs. He mentioned his love of music and noted that when he's  on the road, driving for hours on end, music keeps him sane. Of course, this meant that I should also provide a top 100, a task that seemed overwhelming when I started to think  on it.

Music really is a life rolled up into a strangely neat package.  Almost every song I hear reminds me of a time, or a person, an event, or a hope.  As an aside, if I could sing I would want to have kd lang's voice.  Everything she sings sounds like a hymn.  If I could write poetry, I would want to write like Paul Simon.  Everything he writes reads like a hymn.  Hmmm....perhaps I should have included some actual hymns?!

The list doesn't include any jazz favourites because, shock and horror, KD doesn't like jazz.  I stuck with rock and pop. I didn't even include crooners like Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald. My selection criteria: favourite songs that I could listen to over and over on an imaginary road trip across Canada. It's an alphabetical list because I'm not crazy enough to try and number them in order of preference - though if I had to pick a true favourite it would probably be: Round Here by Counting Crows.

I've linked a few, just for variety sake:

Alanis Morrisette You Oughta Know
Annie Lennox    Why
Aretha Franklin    Natural Woman
Beatles    Hey Jude
Beatles    In my life
Beatles    Long and winding road
Bee Gees    How can you mend a broken heart
Bill Withers    Aint no sunshine
Boz Scaggs    Love look what you've done to me
Bruce Springsteen    Born to run
Bruce Springsteen    Meeting across the river
Bruce Springsteen    The rising
Buggles    Video killed the radio star
Carole King    You've got a friend
Cyndi Lauper    Girls just wanna have fun
Cyndi Lauper    If you go away
Cyndi Lauper    True Colors
Counting Crows    Round here
Creedence Clearwater Revival    Fortunate Son
Crosby Stills and Nash    Woodstock
Deep Purple    Smoke on the Water
Dire Straits    Brothers in Arms
Don Henley    Boys of Summer
Don Henley    Heart of the Matter
Doobie Brothers    What a fool believes
Dusty Springfield    Son of a preacher man
Eagles    Hotel California
Earth Wind Fire    September
Elton John    Levon
Eric Clapton    Layla
Eric Clapton    Wonderful tonight
Everything but the girl    Missing (dance version)
Fleetwood Mac    Landslide
Heather Smart    Proud
Jackie DeShannon    Put a little love in your heart
James Taylor    Carolina in my mind
James Taylor    Fire and rain
James Taylor    Up on the roof
Jann Arden    Good mother
John Mellencamp    Check it out
Johnny Cash    Hurt
Joni Mitchell    Both sides now
Joni Mitchell    Chelsea morning
Joni Mitchell    Help me
Joni Mitchell    Raised on robbery
Jose Feliciano    Light my fire
kd lang    Hallelujah
Maroon 5    Sunday morning
Melissa Etheridge    I'm the only one
Michael Jackson    Billie Jean
Michael Jackson    Man in the mirror
Michael McDonald    Take it to heart
Mike and the Mechanics    In the living years
Neil Young    Harvest moon
Neil Young    Heart of gold
Neil Young    Hey hey my my
Neil Young    Old man
Patti Griffin    Up to the mountain
Paul Simon    Fifty ways to leave your lover
Paul Simon    Graceland
Paul Simon    Slip slidin away
Paul Simon    Train in the distance
Pink Floyd    Comfortably numb
Prince    Little red corvette
Ray Charles    Georgia on my mind
Ricki Lee Jones    Rainbow sleeves
Robbie Robertson    Somewhere down the crazy river
Robbie Robertson   Broken arrow
Roberta Flack    First time ever I saw your face
Simon and Garfunkel    The boxer
Soft Cell    Tainted love
Spinners    Could it be I'm falling in love
Stevie Winwood    Back in the high life again
Stevie Winwood    Don't you know what the night can do
Stevie Wonder    Superstition
Sting    Fortress around your heart
Sting    If I ever lose my faith in you
Sting    If you love somebody
Sting    Roxanne
Stylistics    I'm stone in love with you
Supertramp    Rudy
Tears for Fears    Everybody wants to rule the world
Tears for Fears    Shout
Temptations    Papa was a rolling stone
The Cult    She sells sanctuary
The Dream Academy    Life in a northern town
Tracy Chapman    Baby can I hold you
Tracy Chapman    Fast car
Travelling Wilburys    Handle with care
Trisha Yearwood    I would have loved you anyway
U2    All I want is you
U2    Bad
U2    One
U2    Still haven't found what I'm looking for
U2    With or without you
Van Morrison    Crazy Love
Van Morrison    Tupelo Honey
Verve    Bittersweet symphony
Willie Nelson    Always on my mind
ZZ Top    Sharp dressed man

Tell me what you think - what did I miss?  I patiently await KD Rush's list.  He's been pretty darn busy with work, family and life, so he gets a reprieve, for now. :))

Thank you to the encouraging twenty-four (and one hundred & fifty four)

I don't always know the proper blog etiquette but I wanted to say a very very sincere thank you to the 24 people who have taken a leap of faith with me and now follow my blog.  It is so encouraging to a newbie like me that you are willing to go on this journey with me and wonder how it will turn out.

Initially when I got comments I wasn't sure how to respond, where to respond etc... I've decided that I will do my utmost to respond back to each comment.  (now that I've discovered the reply button - someone should have pointed that out to me previously !)

I also want to express my gratitude to the 154 or so people (some orgs) who follow me on Twitter.  I realize other twitter-ers have more followers but I have stressed quality over quantity!  I am proud of the people to whom I have been able to connect.  I look forward to hearing their insights and points of views.  They enrich my world beyond what I ever thought possible.

Now, let's get writing, eh?!

Five Sentence Fiction - Shiver

“Stephen would be appalled to see these awful green walls, and the speckled brown (easy to clean up messes and tears) linoleum; whoever painted this hospital waiting room clearly had no imagination or colour sense.”  Em fidgeted trying to get comfortable in the increasingly hard, plastic chair and glanced over to check the clock again; though time seemed to be standing still in this little room, another hour had apparently drifted past. 

Fully dressed and wearing her heavy sweater, knees covered by her winter coat, Em still felt chilled to her core. She was just about to ask for a blanket at the nurses’ station when Stephen’s doctor appeared in the doorway, walking over to sit down in the chair beside her. “Blue, they should have painted the room blue” Em thought as she shivered, and the awful green walls started to spin.

My 'official' theme - One world, one hope, one love.

I'm not sure, as a newbie writer, that I should confess how difficult it is to find words to express how powerful this video is for me.  The video itself explores the idea that we all carry around our stories wherever we go.  How can we ever judge someone in a split second without knowing where they've come from, what they're going through and where they're headed?

The song itself blends into U2's song "One".  To me, the lyrics invoke the theme of One World, One Hope, which was not only the theme of the landmark 1996 International AIDS Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia but also the title of the iconic image painted for the conference by Vancouver treasure Joe Average.

Isn't it magnificent?

Years ago there was an episode of Ally McBeal when her psychiatrist told Ally she should have a theme song. I think that's wonderful advice!  Though I'm not sure I could name just ONE song as a personal theme, this video definitely encompasses what is important to me for this blog and for my writing.  

What about you? Do you have a theme song?