Power of the Prompt: Provoked to Write workshop
fiction
Not so little boys
Jake started shouting and pointing, “Hey, Dad! look!”
Jeff got up and went to Jake. I didn’t look up from my book. I imagined he found minnows or a crab or something.
Then Jeff started hollering, “Miranda! Look up!”
I was nursing an umbrella drink with one shot of vodka and two drinks worth of mixer. The concoction, lemon and strawberry and frozen, was the perfect beach drink for the perfect beach day. We were alone on the beach other than some surf fishers off in the distance, their poles set up in a row with them sitting in camp chairs around a cooler. Occasionally their laughter would ring loud enough that we could hear them. They were having a fine time.
Jeff was beside me and the Designated Parent for the day. We took turns. Our son Jake was playing in the shallow surf, his floaties bright orange against the blue water and blue sky and his blue swimming trunks. Jake’s blue eyes had been wide with excitement since we arrived. I vowed to make his first trip to the beach memorable and was succeeding. Each night he fell asleep at the dinner table and we carried him to the second bedroom of our rented condo. He would sleep all night and wake me before dawn. He with a glass of milk and I with my coffee would sit on the balcony and watch the sun come up. We were making memories that I hoped would sustain him his whole life. Shared, quality time in paradise.
“I closed my book and looked up.”
“Oh!” I rubbed my eyes.
I hadn’t even had a full shot of vodka yet and yet, there he was. Puff. In all of his majesty, scales gleaming iridescent purple, pink, blue, and green in the bright sun.
Continue readingVictim
The man looked at her for a long time – beginning at her face and traveling down her body to her feet. His grin was salacious, and she visibly shuddered.
“Whatsa matter, darling? I’m just admiring you. Don’t be cruel.”
Glenna did her best to ignore him, but his slurred words and unsteady gate indicated an excess of alcohol that wasn’t about to be deterred.
“Aw, c’mon. Smile for me. You’d be much prettier if you would smile.”
“I have no obligation to be pretty for you or for anyone else,” she erupted. She knew better than to respond but she was tired of men who behaved as if she owed them something. And coming from one she didn’t know at all just punched all of her buttons.
“Now sweetheart, I meant no offense. You are just a fine example of womanhood and I’m just an admirer.”
“Go away. Now.”
“I can tell when I’m not wanted.” To her surprise and his credit, he did turn around and begin walking in the opposite direction. He raised his right hand, middle finger extended, without turning around. Relief surged through her body. Now that he was gone, she took out her phone and pulled up Maps. She was well and truly lost. Thank God for GPS. Her phone would know where she was even if she didn’t. She began walking a few steps in one direction and then another to get her bearings on the map. It looked like she needed to turn left at the next corner to get to her car.
Continue readingThey Had Had Too Much
The day the women had had enough will be remembered.
I believe, after the dust settles and the men get over themselves, we will come to revere the anniversary of the Women’s Rebellion. For years people have spouted that famous proverb “When sleeping women wake, mountains move.”
We have awakened. We are woke. And we have had quite enough thank you very much.
I was proud to be with the women of my town on what began as a sleepy Saturday, August afternoon. Congress made their announcement, timed for the weekend so as to escape the news cycle. During the dog days of summer when they thought we were sleeping. It was my birthday and I thought,, “How dare they!” HOW fucking DARE THEY. And I don’t use that word. But I used it a lot that Saturday.
On my birthday. To make such an announcement. I was not surprised, but I was outraged. I hadn’t considered that all of womanhood would be as incensed.
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W. Va. Fur and Root 