Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Words for Wednesday

I am hosting for the month of July 2019.

This meme was started by Delores a long time ago. Computer issues led her to bow out for a while. The meme was too much fun to let go, and now Words for Wednesday is provided by a number of people and has become a movable feast.

Essentially the aim is to encourage us to write. Each week we are given a choice of prompts: which can be words, phrases, music or an image. What we do with those prompts is up to us: a short story, prose, a song, a poem, what have you. We can use some or all of the prompts.

Some of us put our creations in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog - please provide the link to your blog in the comments. I would really like it if as many people as possible joined in this fun meme, which includes cheering on the other participants. If you are posting on your own blog - let me know so that I, and other participants, can come along and applaud.

Huge thanks to everyone who joins in the fun and/or comments.

I've stuck to the picture and eight words prompt format. I used a word generator for the second list and I think the results are pretty challenging, but have at it. It should be fun!!

(1)
Mountain
Scrabble
Traffic Lights
Insane

(2)
Arrival
Lasso
Wonder
Gadget
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted Later - my story.
------------------------
It was good to leave the traffic and lights and noise of the city behind. How long had it been since he had seen the clear night sky? Light pollution was everywhere.

He had his life packed into one over-sized duffel-bag. It had taken him a week of brooding. Stella had been insane with rage, her eyes blazing, her mouth spewing language he hadn’t heard since his stint in the marines. She demanded he leave. She shouted his PTSD was his problem and not hers and he needed help, why wasn’t he getting help? She couldn’t live with him anymore. She had packed his bags and tossed them onto the driveway.

He knew if he opened his mouth she would be in danger as he could feel the burning in his fists. He loved her. He would not hurt her. He turned and left, picking up his belongings from the driveway, throwing them in the jeep, screeching off, pounding his angry fists off the wheel.

He checked into a Super 8 after 100 miles of savage driving and phoned his employer and said he needed time off as he wasn’t well and he hung up before Jim could respond. He lay on the bed for a prepaid week, getting up to use the bathroom and eating rubbish purchased in two bags from the 7-11 next door following his arrival.

On day seven, he remembered Scott, his buddy from Afghanistan. Scott and his cabin up in the mountain. They would play Scrabble every chance they got in the safety of their tent in the desert. He smiled for the first time in what seemed liked years. He needed to lasso the remnants of his former life. Scott had extended an open invitation last month when he called from a payphone in his local village up in the Appalachians.

“The wonder of my mountain,” he said, “Is all yours, buddy. Come and be still. But leave the gadgets and devices. You need to spend time with my pet fox, Maggie.”


36 comments:

  1. I am Kitsune, a fox spirit ancient beyond your imagining. Powerful, beautiful, seductive. I am a shapeshifter, an illusionist, and can possess unwary souls.
    My mountain home is nearly as harsh and unforgiving as I am.
    My kind was old before your arrival in our land. I watch you scrabble to assume supremacy, and yawn.
    You think you can capture me? You are insane. Your traffic lights, your silly gadgets, and your lasso will avail you nothing.
    With a twitch of one of my many tails I will cause them to fail, to misfire or simply to melt away.
    Look on me with awe and wonder, and pay me the homage that is my due.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OMG EC that is such a fabulous use of the words, what a story and imagery! Brilliant!

      XO
      WWW

      Delete
    2. Wow, this was good. I kan feel Kitsune say this. ... And I never should have read your story before thinking of my own.

      Delete
    3. Great imagination there, Elephant Child - so good that I can see it all in my mind's eye (and yes, with awe and wonder!)!

      Delete
    4. Well done! We are not, in fact, as powerful as we think we are.

      Delete
    5. love love love love love love love love love!

      Delete
  2. Here's me, paying due homage to not only the fox, but also to EC for her fantastic tale. I love it :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Isn't it incredible River? Wow is all I can say :)

      XO
      WWW

      Delete
  3. Love your story WWW. And can only hope he finds the peace and serenity he needs with Scott and Maggie.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks EC, this ex-soldier in PTSD came into my mind and I had to take him somewhere safe.

      XO
      WWW

      Delete
  4. Thanks for words and picture. Your story is fine. I hope your man will find his equilibrium on the mountain.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Uglemore, I am sure he will, he must have been very difficult to live with without dealing with his PTSD.

      XO
      WWW

      Delete
  5. That young woman needed a good talking to! A sad story with a potentially happy ending - great stuff WWW.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think she really suffered if he wasn't willing to get counselling and had broken under the strain. These PTSD sufferers are often quite violent and I'd say she was terrified.

      XO
      WWW

      Delete
  6. Seth was an old-time rancher who still carried a lasso on his saddle like a badge of honour. Life in the 21st century, though, was a daily challenge for Seth. No wonder! His use of the modern gadget ended at penknife and can opener. Life had become harder and ever more bleak with the loss of his wife, Sue. An accident, caused by an insane truck driver who mowed down Sue and her horse as she rode close to the only set of traffic lights in town, had put out the light in Seth's aging eyes.

    Seth sorely needed a friend.

    One dawn in early summer brought a hungry visitor to Seth's small ranch, he found her behind his barn - a young fox, probably down from the nearby mountain. Against all his usual instincts on catching sight of a fox, Seth gently encouraged the animal to stay, and to move towards him - which she did, showing no sign of fear.

    The visitor returned every morning from then on. Soon, Seth decided she should have a name. When he had first laid eyes on her she was scrabbling for food - "She'll be called Scrabble" he murmered, then called out her name. Amazingly, she seemed to understand, raised her eyes from the tidbits Seth had provided, and trotted forward to sit beside him. Scrabble had been needing a friend too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is truly lovely. I am SO glad that Seth and Scrabble found the friendship they both needed.

      Delete
    2. Awww! If we let our guard down a bit and look with new eyes, we can find friends in the unlikeliest of places.

      Delete
    3. I love this. I'm glad Seth and Scrabble found each other.

      Delete
    4. This is a wonderful story T, beautifully written and such amazing clarity. I can see Seth and Scrabble so well, finding each other and bonding. Well done!

      XO
      WWW

      Delete
    5. Thank you all for your kind words. :)

      Delete
    6. heartbreaking and lovely. so glad that they found each other!

      Delete
  7. Your story is excellent, WiseWebWoman, i hope he finds what he needs.

    Finally home from work and my story is here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Mimi, I am on my way to yours shortly!

      XO
      WWW

      Delete
  8. Your story is beautiful, I'm so glad he has a friend he can turn to for rest and help. The quiet of the mountain will be very good for him. I remember PTSD, my first husband had it when he came back from Vietnam, but I didn't know him before he went there, only meeting him a few months after he returned, so I thought the way he was, was normal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow River, I hope he got help and that he didn't do any harm to himself or others. It is a terrible outcome of war. I remember an oldish fellah, a friend of my young dad's, back in the day, sitting in a corner and rocking, wordless. They called it shell shock then, and no help at all. I must have been about 6 or 7.

      XO
      WWW

      Delete
  9. I was glad to be on the top of a mountain. Away from the pulsing traffic lights and the insane traffic patterns of the largest city in the world. Sometimes I am sure I am insane living there.
    Too many gadgets to waste my time.
    Surely , I should be happier living like the fox I see in the distance ,hunting in the snow.Free and lithe. Unencumbered by the lasso of the crowds of people that surround me daily. The people who want something from me. I long to be alone ,in the wild,counting nature as my friend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Scrabble was the name of the game on the mountain. In the cabin and in nature.

      Delete
    2. Gemma's person: I love this - and certainly feel the attraction of living on a mountain with a fox for company...

      Delete
    3. well done, and i empathize with you!

      Delete
  10. Well done Gemma, a desire many feel in the unceasing endless throb of the city.

    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcome. Anonymous comments will be deleted unread.

Email me at wisewebwomanatgmaildotcom if you're having trouble.