Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Flash Fiction Challenge -- Write What You Know

This week's...no my first... flash fiction piece of the year is based on Chuck Wendig's Blog, Terribleminds, and his Flash Fiction Challenge -- Write What You Know.  Below is what I came up with.


     “You should be dead in about one hour, maybe less,” I said as I watched my dinner guest at the other end of my wooden table in my kitchen.
     Shannon stopped in mid-chew, eyes bulged as she stared at me.
     “What…what do you…mean? Why?” Food sprayed out of her mouth as she spoke, almost incoherently.
     “And our conversation had been going so well, hadn’t it?” I knew my response was sarcastic. I was annoyed and I wanted it over, but I also wanted her to know why she was going to die. I so wanted her to suffer for what she had done to me. People who felt rules didn’t apply to them made me sick.
     “Well, yeah…I thought so.” Shannon finished chewing and stared me.
     Swallowing her last bite looked painful. I don’t think she quite grasped the situation…yet. Because she didn’t eat anymore and tears streamed down her face, maybe she suspected I might be serious.
     “What’s going on? You can’t be serious?”
     “Serious as a heart attack. Pun intended.” Shannon continued to stare at me, fork in hand. It was obvious she didn’t get the joke and I was going to have to explain in detail what I had planned for her. Which was okay because I rather enjoyed this part of killing someone. The part I didn’t like—was having to figure out where to get rid of the body. So far I had been lucky. I knocked my knuckles on the wooden tabletop.
     “Why did you do that,” Shannon asked.
     “Just for luck. Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about, Shannon. Why don’t you finish eating your dinner and we can talk after. You look like you could use a drink of your wine.”
     Tears still streaming down her face, she looked at me, looked at the wine glass, looked back at me and I nodded. Reluctantly, she picked up her glass and took a gulp. She wiped the tears off her face with the back of her hand.
     Hopefully, her drink would be enough because she hardly ate much of her dinner. Perhaps I spoke too soon and she didn’t eat enough. I realized I needed to tell her it was all a joke so she would eat more because I couldn’t have her not die on me.
     “Yes, Shannon, dry your eyes. I was kidding about the dying part.” I continued under my breath, ‘for now anyway.’ “Let’s finish our dinner and we can go watch a movie. This was supposed to be a fun girl’s night together and I’m ruining it by playing jokes. I’m sorry.” I picked up my fork and took a bite. I watched Shannon as she first smiled at me and begin to eat again.
     “You know, Shannon,” I began as I changed my mind about being nice to her, “you are putting up a pretty big front considering what you did. Why don’t you just admit that you think rules don’t apply to you and that you feel justified in taking back the car you sold me.”
     “Well, I don’t think rules don’t apply to me, but you didn’t pay the last $200 and I needed the car back—“ Shannon trailed off.
     “Because you wrecked your other one,” I calmly said between bites. Shannon looked surprised at my comment. How could I possibly know why she needed the car back?
“Oh, come on Shannon. You’ve lived in this town all your life. Have you forgotten how small it is? That everyone knows everyone’s business. You’re really not very smart, are you?”
     “Hey,” Shannon’s voice got a bit louder, “you owed me that money and when I needed it, you didn’t have it, so you left me with no choice but to take my car back. I did, rather do, still have the title.”
     “That’s because you told me you couldn’t find it, and I didn’t pay you the last $200 because I told you I would pay it to you when you got me the title so I could register it in my name. You can’t take the law into your own hands and steal a car back from someone you sold it to. The law is on my side. In fact, I could have even gone down to the DMV and filed for a lost title. My big mistake for not doing so.” I set my fork on my plate and watched her as she continued to eat. Hopefully, she would eat it all and kick the bucket quickly.
     “No, I think the law is on my side,” Shannon said as she took a large drink of her wine. “When you didn’t pay me the last $200, I had the right to take it back. Cops even said I did.”
     “Uh, no they didn’t, Shannon. I know they told you it was a civil matter and that you would need to file a civil claim against me, and you know it.” I was getting madder at her the longer I tried talking sense into her. I was losing control of the situation and I couldn’t let that happen. She was looking a bit pale and swiped her hand across her forehead. She was sweating.
     “Is something wrong, Shannon?” I asked with some enthusiastic interest. I didn’t want her to think I was heartless because we had been friends, or so I thought until she stole the car back.
     “Uh, I’m not feeling so good. Can you take me back to my car, please?”
     Before she could get up out of her chair, she turned her head to the side and through up all over my wooden floor. She vomited so violently and it made such a mess; it reminded me of the movie “The Exorcist” where the character Reagan spewed out a straight line of green vomit clear to the end of her bed. But that was ok, I was used to it by now from all the others I’ve killed.


Would love to hear from you and your comments about this flash fiction piece.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Back to my routine...

Well it is the day after Valentine's Day and my husband ended up going back to work on Tuesday. We decided in order to pay our bills, he needed to go back to work. It is always hard waiting for him to come see me on his vacation days off, which are suppose to be two weeks after working four weeks, but because he is the only mechanic in the shop where he works, he only gets to come see me about every two to three months for seven days. But he got a raise when he got back so we are hopping the next time he comes to visit in May it will be for longer than his usual stay.

So now I am getting back into my daily routine which goes something like this:

5am to 6am - Mom or I wake up and push the button on the coffee pot. I make the pot the night before or she bugs me to make it and asks why I didn't. She likes to think she gets up before me all the time so she can just push the button, but 95% of the time, I am up before her so I could make the coffee in the morning. I never learned this about my mother before while growing up, but now that I live with her again and am older myself, I see that she is an OCD person. I now know where my brother got it from.

6am to 800am - We watch mom's game shows on the Game Show Network (GSN). First up is Match Game, then Card Sharks, then Press Your Luck, which mom doesn't mind telling you she "hates that stupid game" several times a day...it comes on later called Whammy, so she still 'hates that stupid game'. But if there is nothing else on TV she likes to watch, she will watch it. While mom is watching her game shows, I use my Kindle Fire to get online and check my email...this is where I can get in my reading time, catching up on the blogs I subscribe to like Chuck Wendig's Terribleminds, Indies Unlimited, The Writer's Forensic Blog, The Crime Fiction Collective blog, Forensics 4 Fiction blog, and lots of other blogs from writers who hang out on the Indies Unlimited blog. I also check to see what happened on Facebook during the night.

8am to 10am - I get on my treadmill desk and walk some, practicing typing while walking. That's something you should see, though I am getting better at keeping my balance because the only thing you have to hang on to is the keyboard's keys. I normally type about 70wpm, but it would be interesting to see how fast I can type while walking. My mother is watching more of her game shows: Super Password, Jeopardy, 10k, 25, and 100,000 Dollar Pyramid, which she asks about 9am if there is something else to watch because she gets tired on that show.

I try to walk for about 45 minutes each time I get on the treadmill (about 2-3 times a day). I also play a few games on facebook if I have ran out of things to read and I don't particularly want to try to type anything of a serious nature, like answer emails or write a blog post or answer someone on Facebook. Though I have been know to try, I usually end up stopping/pausing so I can be serious for a few minutes. 

10am to 12noon - I do several different things during this time while mom is usually taking a nap, falling asleep to her NCIS, CSI, CSI Miami, CSI New York, Criminal Minds, Law and Order Criminal Intent, Law and Order Special Victims Unit or Law and Order shows, depending on what day it is.

I am usually taking a shower to run errands for mom, cleaning the house, starting laundry, figuring out what I can work on of my many writing projects, or reading on my Kindle Fire.

12noon - It's lunch time for mom and since she won't wear her top dentures, there isn't too many things I can fix her. It is usually a sandwich of peanut butter and jelly, or a meat sandwich, chicken noodle soup (which she says she is getting tired of but hasn't eaten in a while), scrambled eggs, left overs from the night before, which she isn't thrilled about eating either, but since she only eats a very small amount, there are usually leftovers and I am trying to lose weight here...the reason for the treadmill desk system.

1230pm to 5pm - more of her favorite shows -- see 10am to noon above. I have seen all of them over and over and over again, I could almost recite word for word or tell you what is going to happen in each episode. Mom of course, will say she has seen it before, but watches it anyway because she 'hates watching movies'. Yes, I do have a small TV in my bedroom and occasionally I will go watch something, but then mom asks why. I say it is because I am tired of watching her shows and I want to watch some mindless comedy like The Big Bang Theory. I also like to watch the QVC channel to see what I can't afford to buy but think I need anyway.

I may have taken a shower earlier in the day so I can go somewhere after lunch to get out of the house. Mom is ok to be left alone for about 3 hours or so, but I always have to be home by 5pm to fix her something to eat. If I am not hope, she can make herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I use this time to either take a nap myself (mom takes another nap from about 130pm to 3pm) or write or walk or read some more on my kindle. You'd be surprised how tiring it makes you to just sit around all the time, day after day. It literally makes you more tired.

5pm to 9pm - Mom is still watching her favorite shows, but at 7pm we change the channel to watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. At 8pm it is back to watching her shows. At 9pm we go to bed.

So that is my day now that I am an in-home care provider for my mother while my husband works to pay not only his bills, but all of mine debt too. 

So what is your daily writing routine like? More exciting than mine?