3 Word Wednesday & 55 Flash Fiction Friday

The prompts this week for 3WW were Callous, Persistent, and Interfere. Again I am writing my story in 55 words so I can use it for 55FFF.


She’s interfering in my life. My callous remarks yesterday should’ve stopped her bitching, but she doesn’t hear me. I have a job, dancing. My boss thinks I’m 18, but …….not for two more years.
She’s so persistent, wanting me back at school…….boring! She wants me to be a banker, to be a failure like her.

Heads or Tails - Case -2/24/09

The prompt for this week's Heads or Tails was Case. I chose Tails (any word that rhymes with Case).

The Vase.....

My Mother loves flowers. She has a green thumb. Something was always growing in our yard. From the time I can remember I would bring her flowers from the yard. Because she often had cut flowers in the house, usually sitting on the kitchen table, I knew she loved having them inside where she could see them. As I got older I noticed she used the same vase each time. It was a delicate green vase with swirls of gold on it. As time passed the little green vase became too small for the larger bouquets I brought to her.

One Saturday, many years later, I fetched her flowers and as she was putting them in water I ask her about the green vase. She said the vase had been her mother’s and when I began to bring her flowers she asked her mother if she could have the vase as it was the perfect size for my little flowers.

She went to the cabinet and brought out the green vase with gold swirls and gave it to me. She said, "I thought you would think about it one day I have been keeping it safe for you". The vase was mine for about ten years until my daughter claimed it. Just a few weeks ago, I saw the simply green vase with gold swirls looking gorgeous holding three red roses with the stems cut short. It was sitting on her coffee table. I mentioned her flowers and she said, "I love cut flowers in my house just like you and Mamaw".

The old green vase with the gold swirls has served us well and brought much joy. And I hope it continues to for many years.

3 Word Wednesday & 55 Flash Fiction Friday

Another week and another combination of 3WW and 55FFF. The prompts for 3WW were Candid, Impulse and Risk.

I believed, loved him.
Saying he’d treasure them.
On an impulse I assumed the risk.
And let him make the candid images of me he desired before leaving for Afghanistan.
He had the only copy.
Now I know he never loved me, because he posted those intimate pictures online.
And gave his friends the website.

Sunday Scribblings - Sports - 2/15/09

When I saw the prompt for this week, my mind when in a couple of different directions. And then I decided I would go for something current. Usually I write about my childhood memories, I did have a great story, but I will save it for another time.

There is just one sport for me…. college basketball and one team….. Carolina! When I say Carolina, I mean the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC.



I don’t think I am the usual fan. There are times I can’t even watch the game I am so stressed, I just lay in my bedroom in the dark, praying they will win. Sometimes, I can listen with my head covered with my blanket and if they are up by 20 points or more I can sit in my living room and watch them play.

I am not sure why but I have every TV in the house tuned to the game I guess somehow I feel this helps them in some way. I talk to the players and even to Roy by shouting at the TV.

I love Carolina Tarheel basketball! This year we are doing good, we have had some ups and downs, but it looks like everything is coming together. On Wednesday night we beat Duke at Cameron and I did loved that, but we play them again the last game of the season and I am worried. Always with Duke I worry. After that the ACC tournament, then on to the NCAA with the #1 seed in the East, I hope. The reason I worry is because of this statement……. On any given night when 2 ACC teams meet to play, any ACC team (no matter what their standings) can beat the other team. Over the years I have seen bottom ranked teams win when the odds were almost impossible. It must have something to do with adrenalin.


Info about the picture above: North Carolina's basketball team is introduced during the Late Night With Roy Williams NCAA college basketball scrimmage in Chapel Hill, N.C., Friday, Oct. 24, 2008. Fans got their first chance to see the 2008-2009 Tar Heel basketball team at the event.

Just so you will know, I am able to watch all sports and I do understand them, but I just don’t have the love for them like I do for my beloved Carolina Tarheels.

3 Word Wednesday & 55 Flash Fiction Friday

I am doing a combination again this week with 3WW and 55FFF.
The prompts for 3WW were validate, rabble and disarray. I know I am late, but like I always say......better late than never.


Looking at the disarray around her, her mother passed out on the couch, the rabble always on the corner. She wants out.

She will show him what he doesn’t know. She knows he’ll validate her information, but the test doesn’t lie. Fourteen years without a father, she has found him. Will he take her in?

3 Word Wednesday & 55 Flash Fiction Friday

The prompts for 3 Word Wednesday are Nerve, Illicit and Crumple. As usual I am combining 3WW and 55 Flash Fiction Friday.....

Seeing her crumpled clothes on the floor made her feel so dirty. He tells her he loves her. She does these illicit acts to please him.

Cuffed, arrested and going downtown she finds out her boyfriend is a pimp.



She must get up her nerve to run, she doesn’t want to be hurt like before.

Sunday Scribblings - Regrets - 2/1/09

Regrets….yes I have them.

I first thought about making a list. Then I thought would any good come from making that list? Would it make any one of them change? NO, nothing would be different in my life so why should I take the time to relive things I can not change.

If I could erase my regrets, by making different decisions I am not sure I would. I believe changing even one decision would make my entire life different. Everyone I know thinks making changes in their past would make everything better, but it could do just the opposite.

My life is far from perfect, but I have family, people who love me, a roof over my head, enough food (well perhaps too much food),a great dog, many precious memories with a few regrets. I think I am pretty lucky so far.

3 Word Wednesday & 55 Flash Fiction Friday

I am being lazy again this week and I am using the prompts from 3 Word Wednesday to help me with 55 Fiction Friday. The prompts are Caress, Jagged and Ruthless. I really enjoy telling a story in just 55 Words.



Lay beside me, close. I need your warmth, to feel your hands slowly caress my body. Can you hear my jagged breathing, feel my racing heart? I love you. But you are ruthless leaving my bed to go home to your wife. You say soon we will be together, but soon never seems to come……

3 Word Wednesday & 55 Flash Fiction Friday

I decided to combine 3 Word Wednesday and 55 Flash Fiction Friday. The prompts for 3Word Wednesday are Cadence, Humble, Resolve. I really enjoy trying to telling a story in 55 words.

The procession is coming. I’m standing, waiting, with hundreds of others. I’m humbled. I couldn’t do what they have done. What resolve they must have had to leave their families, homes, everything to protect us? They’re coming back home today. I hear the cadence of soft singing, small flags waving as the hearses slowly pass.

55 Flash Fiction Friday - 1/16/09

He’s dancing around, so excited. I wasn’t sure I’d get invited to go. He has someone to drive him so my going must be special. We’re getting our coats; it’s cold today. I have his leash: we’re headed to the Dog Park. What a place to play…….but he doesn’t play; too nervous, he stands watching.

Writer's Island - Just Around The Corner - Prompt #14

Sitting at my desk my mind is not focused on my work, but rather it is floating on thoughts of what might be going to happen later tonight. For several weeks, I had been talking on line with a guy I met in a game room while playing Scrabble. Now I want you to know that I don’t usually talk when I play because, well for two reasons, I don’t play well and I don’t trust people I meet on line. You know what Dr. House says, “people lie”, and I think that’s especially true when you talk on line. When I say “talk on line”, I actually mean type back and forth. It seems that everyone has a camera and microphone and they want to see you and actually talk to you, but I just can’t. I guess because I am afraid. I have no idea what I am afraid of, but I know what fear feels like and that is what it is.
Because Rick didn’t ask me what I was wearing, if I had a cam and all that kind of stuff, I started typing back to him. Like I said, we have been typing for several weeks and tonight we are going to meet. We are meeting at the mall in Greensboro at 7pm. I don’t live there, neither does he, but I thought it would be an easy place to meet, Rick agreed.
I am so excited, I can’t keep my mind on business, so the best thing I can do is call it a day. Headed home, I am trying to decide what to wear. I am thinking a skirt and a tank top or would that be too revealing, well I do want him to be interested! Yes, a skirt for sure.
I treat myself to a long bubble bath. My legs are smooth as silk; the scent of my perfume is in the air. I am having a good hair day……..I am ready to go.
As I am driving to the mall, my music is loud, I am singing along, “Waiting on a Woman”, I am smiling just thinking about meeting him. It is already dark, but I am not worried about where I am parking, because he will be walking me back to my car.
I am 10 minutes early, wow very unusual for me. I am generally late. I get out of my car and head for the mall. These heels are high, but I am walking okay. Actually I am walking my sexy walk and feeling great. I am not that familiar with this mall, but we are meeting at the food court on the first floor, so how hard could that be.
He described himself and he will be wearing a black shirt. I described myself and I told him I would be carrying a red purse. I pick a seat where I can survey the food court and I wait. I am nervous. We haven’t exchanged phone numbers or even talked on the phone, All I really know about him is his name. I am watching everyone as they pass, but I don’t see him.
Maybe he is just running late. It is 7:23 and he isn’t here. I hadn’t even thought about him not showing up. Okay, he’s not showing up, it is 7:49. I’m heading out. Why didn’t I park closer? Where are my keys? Where is my car, I must have gone out the wrong door. Am I upset? Hell, yes! I notice there are several lights out making the parking lot so dark. I am usually so careful, but not tonight.
Just around the corner is my car. A false safety. Above the din, I think I hear my name. As I turn toward the sound I am yanked back into the darkness, by a man in black. My screams are drown by screeching tires and gunshots, five, six, I don’t know how many. I don’t want to see people dying on the pavement or already dead. I hear someone shout call 911 and another voice saying I think this one is dead. I am so light headed from fear without Rick’s support my legs would have failed me. We walked back into the mall the way I came out. Tonight I am not going around that corner. I am still upset, but not mad anymore. Later, over coffee Rick explained, he had a flat tire and had to wait for AAA to come to change it. He couldn’t call; we hadn’t exchanged phone numbers. I shudder to think what would have happened had Rick not shown up when he did.

Sunday Scribblings - Organic- 1/11/09

When I saw the prompt for this week, I thought of the many times I have heard the word over the past few years. There are many articles and advertisements that tell us we will be healthier if we eat organic foods, I agree with this logic, but then I begin to think of all the people in the world who are starving and I am sure they are not thinking about eating organic. This makes me feel selfish since the cost for organic foods is so much more. So now I just try my best to eat like my grandparents did……simple. Their lives were long and productive and I am hoping mine will be also.
Just as I was about to end this boring post I decided to look up some synonyms for organic. Here are some of them, basic, natural, essential, functional, healthful, living, primitive, fundamental, vital, elemental and simple.
After reading the list, I feel much better. I am eating organic in my own way.

3 Word Wednesday & 55 Flash Fiction Friday -

I combined 3 Word Wednesday and 55 Flash Fiction Friday again this week. The prompts were deception, panic, and scheme.

I panic; a sickening feeling in my stomach. She doesn’t care about the lies and deception. For her, it’s all about the end results….. the damn drugs. I know her scheme has worked, because she is nowhere to be found. How many more times will she be able to survive, to come back home again?

Sunday Scribblings - For Richer or Poorer - 1/04/09

For richer or poorer………
It seems that most of my writings are about my childhood. I am not sure why that is, but when I see the prompts that is generally what comes to my mind.
You know, I didn’t even realize I was raised poor until I was about 25 years old. I know you are wondering why I didn’t know? I think is because I had everything I needed and most of what I wanted growing up. My parents worked, but Daddy was almost always on lay off for three to four months each year and my mother just made minimum wage. My parents learned to make sure every penny was used carefully. My mother’s sister and her husband lived just two doors down the street from my house and their situation was much the same, except they had two children.
The “two family effort” started before I can remember and continues to this day. (Our fathers are gone, but we still have our mothers.) It was like I had 2 mothers and 2 fathers. I am an only child, except for my two cousins. We were like a family of seven. We had a garden, went to my Grandma’s house, built picnic tables, sold produce on the side of the road, owned a power mower, went to church, took vacations, and many other things…….all TOGETHER! What we had was the “two family effort” and this made so much more possible.
Each family had their own house and car and spent time with just their family, but when there was something we REALLY needed, the power of the “two family effort” came to the surface and together everything came out okay.
Just to let you know having four parents made getting into trouble much harder, but we still managed. I will save those stories for another time.
My childhood was rich with love and comfort.

3 Word Wednesday & 55 Flash Fiction Friday

I thought I would combine 3 Word Wednesday and 55 Flash Fiction Friday this week. The prompts were glimmer, passion and wish.

He always had a passion for life. But lately much had changed. The Christmas music playing brought a glimmer of recognition to his face. My only wish for Christmas is to have him with me again remembering ……….if only for a few minutes. I hear him call my name………my wish comes true.

Sunday Scribblings - Grateful - 11/23/08

For the past few weeks I have not been feeling very grateful. This makes me mad at myself. I have so many reasons to be grateful, but I have let one thing push me down and cause me to doubt myself and my abilities. I have lost my job.
With Thanksgiving just a few days away, this is the time of the year that everyone is thinking about the good things in their lives, but right now all I can think about is……..I have no job. It is strange to just be at my house day in and day out. I should be enjoying getting caught up on everything and I would be if I was just on vacation, but I’m not.
I am searching the employment sites and sending out resumes, but in three weeks, I haven’t been able to secure even one interview. Sad but true. I am telling myself things will be better tomorrow, but tomorrow comes and it’s the same. I am a sales person, so why can’t I sell myself.
I want to push this problem off my soul and get on with whatever is to come. Over the years I have come to know things will come together when I let them go.
Writing this has made me feel a little better, maybe I should say a little more grateful than I was this morning. Perhaps by Thanksgiving Day I will be able to give thanks and really mean it.

Sunday Scribblings - Change - 11/9/08

When I saw the prompt for this week’s Sunday Scribblings. I thought most people would be thinking about our recent national election, since for months all we have been hearing is how much America needs change. And perhaps we do, but that is not what I thought about today when I saw the prompt. I thought of daddy’s change.
For as far back as I can remember, nightly I would hear the sound of coins being dropped into a glass jar that sat on the floor beside the night stand in my parents’ bedroom. I thought every man did this, but as I grew older, I found out this wasn’t true. The fact was my father hated change, especially nickels! I tried to figure this out, but as a child this was above my thinking. To me money was money, no matter if it was paper or change.
As the years passed, we counted his change, or I should say I counted his change. I learned to count by counting pennies and he helped me learn to make change. Over the years, daddy’s change did many things for us. It took us to Washington, DC and to Florida. Once I counted his change and that weekend we headed to Myrtle Beach, SC. Over the years his change bought surprises for many different people.
As I got older, we made a deal. I counted, rolled and took it to the bank for paper money and for doing this I got to keep all the nickels myself. I remember once there was $42 in nickels. We kept this deal in place until daddy passed away. Several months after daddy’s death my mother called to ask me to come by the house, when I got there she had found one last jar of change. We made a decision, to keep daddy’s change just like he left it. So there it stays for now.

Three Word Wednesday - Deliberate, Intervene, Nourish - 55 Flash Fiction Friday

Do you lament over your past decisions? Did your efforts to nourish actually enable? Did your family and friends offer worthless advice without any understanding of the hell of addiction? Did you deliberate your options?

Did you fight to save her from herself? Did you intervene and bring her the help she needed? Hell, yes!

Sunday Scribblings - Wedding - 9/28/08

When I saw the prompt this week instantly I thought of Betty. Several years ago I worked with her and we were friends. She had six children, two boys and four girls. By the time we met, her children were older, three already out of her house and on their own, two still in college and one a senior in high school.

We had almost every day contact for over ten years. During those years, I heard updates on all six children often. I remember the day she told me that her baby girl was getting married. I thought she might be emotional since Ginger was the last one at home so I just let her talk. I wanted to be a shoulder if she needed one.

Betty started talking about Ginger’s plans for the wedding. She talked about the church, number of attendants, flowers, and colors for the wedding, food for the reception. As she talked I thought, “I wonder what all of this is going to cost?”

Betty was excited about the upcoming wedding or so I thought. And then she told me of an offer they had made to Ginger. Betty and Gene offered Ginger the money for all new kitchen appliances including washer and dryer, new furniture for her entire house plus $20,000 for a down payment on a house they wanted to buy if she would just elope. Ginger declined their offer.

The wedding was gorgeous and just, as Ginger wanted. Betty and Gene paid for everything. The pictures were beautiful, something a couple would cherish always.

I want you to know Gene and Betty were not against the marriage just the wedding. For you see with experience comes knowledge and by this time they had been part of five other weddings and they knew what could happen.

And much to their sorrow it did happen. In less than 3 years Ginger and her husband were divorced. Here in North Carolina, it takes a full year of separation to get a divorce so their real marriage lasted less than 2 years. So what Ginger really got for all the money Betty and Gene paid was beautiful wedding pictures with a man who cheated on her.

So if they had eloped, she wouldn’t have all those beautiful pictures in the white leather wedding book to remind her of the loser she married. But she might have had the house she wanted so much. (They never purchased that house; they didn’t have a down payment.)

Sunday Scribblings - Invitation - 9/21/08

I was talking with my daughter, Julie, last week. She was going over her schedule for the upcoming week. It is something we have done for several years now. It helps us stay in touch a little better. And we seem to worry less about each other since we started exchanging schedules. Now I want you to know it’s not like we go over every tiny detail just an overview. She mentioned a Sunday afternoon football party. I thought it sounded like a lot of fun, but she went on to tell me more about it and then I knew she didn’t really care to go, but she was going. She believes you should go when invited unless you have another engagement already on the schedule. In return she believes people will attend your parties when ask.

Later on in the week Julie called to tell me about a situation that occurred with a friend of hers. She mentioned the football party to a friend just in general conversation and found out that MK had NOT been invited. MK was very upset! The host has been to her home on several occasions for parties including football parties. MK just couldn’t understand why she wasn’t invited.

After several minutes of talking about the situation, MK told Julie she wouldn’t have attended the party, but thought she should have been invited.

I have thought about this many times over the years, but for the life of me I can’t decide why most women feel this way. It doesn’t really matter about the event, whether you want to go or not…..actually it’s all about the invitation.