Five Sentence Fiction :: Home

 

He pushed the door open, and dumped his keys on the hall table, his bag hitting the floor next to his feet seconds later. Leaving the lights off, Paul let the gentle glow of dusk easing through the windows guide his way to the lounge room, where he collapsed in his favourite chair, and took a moment to let the weekend just gone wash over him. A roller-coaster of emotion, a hundred unspoken promises, and a heart full of hope that their happy ending was just around the corner. But hope and promise wasn’t enough to hold on to, as the last of the light slipped away, and the silence of the darkness mocked him. He may have arrived back at his apartment, but he knew he would never truly be home until she was by his side, always.

 

 

~~~

Linking up with Lillie McFerrin for Five Sentence Fiction – this week’s prompt is “Home”. Today’s snippet of Lauren and Paul’s story is part of Paul’s homecoming after this weekend away. The rest of Lauren and Paul’s story can be found here.

Visual Dare 23 :: Ornate

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His fingers drifted over the tables, the warm oak surfaces coated in dust, the ghosts of a thousand moments felt and a hundred lives lived heavy in the air. The silence was the most disconcerting thing. Not the furniture, once polished with reverence to a deep shine. Not the specks of dust swirling through the shards of sunlight daring to intrude through the high-set windows. Both gave an air of abandonment, but it was the impenetrable silence, the lack of any indication of human occupation save his own shallow breaths, in a room that once hummed to a tune so predictable, it seemed to belong more to the room itself, rather than the people inside it. But now, only silence, and dust, and the past surrounded him, and his last scrap of hope vanished. There was nothing for him here anymore.

141 words

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A late entry for last weeks Visual Dare. I’d hoped to write over the weekend for this prompt, but, you know, real life and all. I also have a plot bunny rattling around how this prompt can also slide into a Lauren & Paul scene, so I might try and bang that out tonight.

write4ten :: share

To set the scene, we are currently three years post-breakup. Lauren has called Paul from Amsterdam, and left a message. Paul has worked up the courage to call her back. And a bit after that, we find ourselves here…

~~~

“It’s just, I don’t know, it all seems like a distant memory. But then I do something or hear something or see something, and it all comes flooding back, and I start missing you, and missing us, and wonder if we tried hard enough. and then I think, if we were meant to be that we would have made it, despite everything.” Lauren said, watching her hands intently, as they twisted the napkin between her fingers. Anything to distract her, to avoid looking at Paul.

“Despite everything, Lauren? That last 12 months was hell, and you know it. It would have tested marriages of fifty years. What chance did a couple of kids like us stand? I loved you, and missed you and it seemed no matter what we did, it was all just too hard.” Lauren was shocked at the emotion in Paul’s voice. The anger and sadness echoing through his words. Unlike her, he was brave enough to look at her as she spoke, as if trying to make sure she truly heard every word, each nuance and meaning of what he was trying to tell her. “I never doubted for a second that we were meant to be together. But sometimes life has a way of beating the crap out of destiny, or fate, or whatever it is you are trying to blame for us. Because it wasn’t fate. It wasn’t that we didn’t love each other, or want it badly enough. It was that we were young and apart and struggling to find where we fit in the world and how we could make that work for us together. So don’t you dare tell me it’s because we weren’t meant to be, when we were. We were Lauren. And I think the fact that you called me tell me you think so too.”

“Really? You think you still know me well enough to know what I think or why I do anything? I haven’t heard from you in three frigging years, and suddenly you still know me and think we were meant to be. Then why the hell didn’t you fight for me then? You just let it all slip away. That’s a really great way to show me how committed you were and convinced we should be together. You know what I think? I think by the end you were looking for an excuse.” Lauren felt her own anger rise as she spoke. How dare he sit there and pretend like none of this was his fault.

~~~

This little snippet comes courtesy of the weekend’ Write4ten prompt – “share”. It’s kind of a tenuous connection, I know. But there is more to this scene, and the prompt immediately sent me down this rabbit hole. There is more sharing of pertinent information a bit further into the “discussion”, but I’m saving that as a treat for my lovely beta readers…

{you can read all the published Lauren and Paul story over here.}

Visual Dare 18 :: Inspect

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She stood on the dock, her hand tightly held by her mother, as they waited, and watched as the boat slowly came in. Despite repeated pleas to keep calm, she became fidgety, until at last the boat docked, and her father appeared over the bow. “Daddy!!” she squealed, switching from fidgeting to jumping up and down in place. Slowly, the first half of the crew disembarked, and those remaining on deck began passing down the days catch. One fish landed nearby, mouth gaping, so large it seemed big enough to be a whale, in the mind of a small girl at least. Could this be Jonah’s whale? She’d heard the story just that morning at Sunday School. Unable to contain her curiosity any longer, she wretched her hand away, and fell to the hard wooden deck, staring into the mouth of the fish, hoping to catch a glimpse of a runaway boy.

~~~

Ok, so it’s two words over. Sue me. A little flash for this week’s Visual Dare.

currently…

feeling a bit better

cuddling a sick Boy2

knitting a cowl for me

writing some L&P bridging scenes

eating far too many lollies

avoiding packing away the groceries

It’s Friday, the weekend looms with the whispered promise of fun with my favourites. Hurry up Boy2 and get well, we have adventures to chase!

waiting {visual dare}

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The silence was almost deafening in the church, as Paul sat on the hard pew, his phone cradled in his hand. The email he’d been desperate for, had given up on, had arrived moments before. And now he was here, he had her number, and yet, something held him back. He’d waited three years for this moment, and he couldn’t bring himself to hit the call button. A door behind him creaked, and he hurriedly turned the phone face over, and pretended to look around, as he waited for the footsteps to shuffle past and leave him to his contemplations. It was enough to bring him to his senses. He’d waited three years. He’d flown halfway around the world on a whim when she called. What more was he waiting for now? The door was still swinging slightly as he pushed it open and blinked in the brightness of the day outside. Paul moved away from the crowds on the footpath, took a deep breath, and hit call.

~~~

For Visual Dare 12 : Waiting. So slightly over the word limit, but I felt I couldn’t cut those last 17 words without losing something from the scene. A little snippet from Lauren and Paul. I’m not sure if I’ve posted anything on the blog, from the chapter this scene belongs to. EDIT: yes, yes I have. This scene comes later, after this snippet.

Visual Dare 10 :: Whimsy

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“Another day, another city. I find myself staring into the crowd, wondering where today finds you”, she writes, and stops. Suddenly, for someone who never had trouble with words, there is nothing to say. Nothing that flows from heart to mind to fingertips to scrawl across the card to reach out to him, wherever he is. Lauren lets her mind wander, staring at the garden bed next to her, where a group of snails inch their way across the stonework. Without thinking, she reaches out a finger to the one nearest the edge, gently tracing the ridges in the sandstone, then pulls back, shocked from her reverie by the tentative touch of an antenna. Her coffee has gone cold, and still, she can’t find the words. She scrawls the date and the city across the bottom, and tucks it in her journal. Just another postcard to add to the collection.

~~~

Easing back into writing and creating, with a little Lauren & Paul episode, courtesy of this week’s Visual Dare. This little snippet is a follow on, becoming part of this scene. I’m feeling quite rusty after such a long break, but some writing is better than none, hey?

150 words, bringing me to a total of 8001 words. Why do I find this significant enough to mention? Why I first decided to expand on the Lauren and Paul story, beyond the original 100-odd words of the first Visual Dare, I planned on a story with a total of 5000 to 8000 words. Today, I’ve broken the upper limit of the goal I set myself, and am nowhere near finished. I have a bunch of scenes that still need to be connected, a lot of fleshing out to do and a lot of loose ends to tidy up. My revised target is 15,000 words, but who knows?

#WIPflash

One eye opened tentatively, and snapped shut. Hangover from hell. After almost a full year at uni, a hangover was a not-unknown occurrence in Gemma’s life, but she struggled to remember one this bad. In fact, she struggled to remember how it actually got this bad. What on earth happened last night? Slowly, little snippets came back. Law students ball. Dancing. Eating. Far far too much drinking. Gemma rolled over, but her groan of self pity was abruptly replaced with a squeal of shock as the foot she’d been stretching made contact with a leg, that wasn’t hers. Oh hell. Tipping her head in the general direction of the body sharing her bed, trying to make as little movement as possible, she forced her eyes opened, anxious at what, or more correctly, who, she might find. Relief coursed through her as she realised the head on the pillow next to hers was Lauren. Thank goodness. Things must have been bad if Lauren had stayed around to play nurse. Lauren was already stirring, and then a beep came from somewhere under the blankets, and suddenly she was sitting up, and scrambling for the phone. The speed of her movement made Gemma feel ill again. And why the hell did Lauren has her phone turned up so freaking loud? The groan returned.

~~~

Joining in the fun for #WIPflash. A flash fiction excerpt challenge, to write 100-500 words on a current WIP, using one or more of the prompts provide. I incorporated the prompt “hangover” into this little 220 word addition to one of the earlier scenes of the Lauren & Paul story. If you are interested in how it fits with the whole story, I’ve added it to the story page.

Updated Monday 7/1 – results are in – check it out!! Beyond stoked to be one of three honourable mentions. Quite chuffed, really.

write4ten :: FEAST

The kitchen smelt like Christmas. That was the only word Paul could think of to describe the wall of air that greeted him as he slipped in the side door, hoping to surprise his family. The heat, the turkey and vegetables in the oven, the hot pork under foil, waiting to be carved. Just as they had been doing for years, it was reassuringly familiar. Through the door, he could hear the usual Christmas ruckus. His sister’s children playing with new toys, and squabbling over which truck belonged to who. The tv louder than needed for his dad to watch the midday movie. Aunts and uncles chattering. Hiding from it all, in the kitchen, his mother stood with her back to him, washing plates with more care than usual, or so it seemed.

Paul slowly closed the door behind him, trying to be as silent as possible, and tiptoed across the kitchen, slipping his arm around her shoulders and dropping a kiss on her cheek.

“Merry Christmas, mum,” Paul said as he grinned at her. Margaret jumped, as the plate she has been holding clattered into the water, splashing soapy bubbles down the front of her apron.

~~~

This little writing exercise was courtesy of the current Write4Ten prompt – Feast. Though I didn’t manage the full ten minutes due to an ill-timed ring of the doorbell, I was happy to add another 211 words to my total count. This little snippet is completely unedited, and feels a bit rusty thanks to a longer-than-planned writing hiatus. To read more about Lauren and Paul’s story, click here.

Thank you, to each and every one of you who stops by my blog for a read, who leaves comments, or tweets me, or pins my posts. This year has been an amazing one on the blog, and I am truly grateful. Here’s to a 2013 filled with craft, writing, reading and friendship. xxx

the message.

 The light flashed on his phone, blinking a welcome as he came through the door, and started flicking on lights. His mother, most likely. It had been three days after all, and there was bound to be something under her skin that she was just busting to tell him. Or maybe lecture him again about working too much. He set his briefcase down next to the hallstand, and pressed play as he walked into the next room and hit the button to start up his computer, ready for a night of work, balancing dinner on his lap. The electronic voice read out the date and time, and then, a voice echoed through the apartment. The last voice he’d expected to hear today. The voice he’d been waiting for three years to hear again. “Hello Paul, it’s, uh, it’s Lauren”

 

~~~

 

This little episode of Lauren & Paul’s story takes place approximately three years after they have broken up. I’ve pulled this little snippet from the chapter I’m currently working on, after the lovely Miss Car and Miss Bacoon held an impromptu L&P fan club meeting at quilt camp. I’m pretty sure the meeting consisted of the entirety my the L&P fan base, but it’s nice to hear nonetheless! I have to say, I am loving the chapter this extract comes from, I’m going to prioritise writing time this week and try and work through a few little plot knots.

 

As always, I’d love to know what you think, but please do bear in mind I am not a writer, and all little snippets published here are just for a bit of fun with friends, so please keep it kind! Thank you x