Wrong Kind of Friends

Tags

conversation, crime fiction, dialogue, flash fiction, free writing, friends, murder, stories, writing, writing group, writing prompt

This is a flash fiction exercise from writing group. The prompt was to write in approximately 250 words or less a conversation without tags or description.

“We’re gonna do this, right?”

“Huh? Oh. Yeah. Sure.”

“No. I mean, we’re gonna do this. Right?”

“Look, I don’t know what got into you, but I’m not agreeing to anything more. And, I don’t even want to do that.”

“That’s cool, man. I mean, that’s okay and all. But…”

“Absolutely not. This was your stupid idea. You married her.”

“But you were the best man, man. The best man.”

“Yeah, I showed up, wore the tux and made the speech. You want this done, you’re doing it yourself.”

“She’s killing me, man. You don’t understand. She won’t even let me smoke in the house.”

“You don’t need to. It’s making you fat.”

“Damn munchies. Besides, I told you. I gotta glandular thing.”

“You’ve got a brownie and Lays thing.”

“That’s not the point.”

“The point is, you wanna knock off your old lady for the money and you’re gonna drop dead of a heart attack before you can spend it.”

“You said you’d help.”

“I said I’d tell people you were at my house. You’re always over there anyway like you think I’m running an opium den.”

“Ain’t opium, man. That’s whack.”

“And quit talking like that. You live in Weston for God’s sake.”

“So, you ain’t gonna help? Bro. Damn.”

“I am not — note the tone — not helping you dismember your wife.”

“I gotta get better friends, man. I thought we were tight.”

“No.”

“Fine. I’ll ask Frank. He’s got all those good chef knives anyway.”

When Life Gets in the Way

Tags

blood, cliches, crazy, drugs, family, friends, life, teenagers, violence, water, words, writing

One day I hope to be able to make sense of all this.  One day I hope to be able to find the right words and sentences, the right semantics and syntax to convey all this properly…

Sometimes family is your rock.  Sometimes family is a rock that pelts you in the head.  Sometimes family is a boulder than falls from on high and crushes your bones and spirit into a pool of bloody dust.

Sometimes the people who are supposed to mean the most treat you in ways that make them mean very little.  Sometimes the people who care the most about you don’t share a drop of your blood, a strand of similar DNA besides species markers.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter what you do or say.  Sometimes people make the wrong decisions for their own reasons.  Sometimes those reasons make no sense.  Sometimes the people can’t articulate the reasons.  Sometimes the reasons aren’t there, just the feeling that running away is better than any conceivable alternative.

Sometimes failure is hard.  Sometimes it’s easy.  Sometimes what you’re running from is the safe choice and what you’re running to is the unknown.  Sometimes the unknown feels like the safe choice because it’s what’s familiar.

Sometimes you throw fruits.  Sometimes you throw vegetables.  Sometimes you throw beans.  Sometimes you throw shoes into mirrors.  Sometimes you throw furniture.  Almost always you throw insults and obcenties.

Sometimes kids choke mom.  Sometimes brothers stab each other.  Sometimes teenagers get arrested for prostitution.  Sometimes lost little girls decide to date twenty-seven-year-old women or forty-eight-year-old men.  Sometimes seventeen-year-olds have drug-related holes in their synapses so big one wonders how the body remembers to walk.  Sometimes kids shoot each other over what amounts to a video game or a misunderstood love or a color.

Sometimes it seems like too much.

Sometimes it’s never enough.

Sometimes it’s just another day.

Why Blog When I Could Be “Writing”

Tags

blogs, dirty clothes, dreams, family, friends, life, obligations, responsibilities, talents, time, writing

I’m not sure this post really helps explain it.

I’m not even sure I fall into any of those categories.  I don’t always feel compelled to share ideas.  I don’t have the dicipline to blog daily — or even weekly for that matter.  I seem to barely be able to keep up with my stationery business blog, store, twitter (I still don’t understand even the concept of that), Team FEST forums and chats, and shipping; shopping for, cooking for, and talking to my family; and personal communications via LJ, texting/talking, email, and penpaling.  Who has time for anything else?

Obviously, I’m overextended.  But ideas don’t just come to me as words, and living in a vacuum hasn’t worked out so well for others.

Besides, all those links they suggest take up time.  Time that could be spent actually writing.  Or playing Scrabble with the teenager.  Or telling my friend to play her piano — because we all sometimes need encouragement to follow our dreams, to pursue our passions, to stop putting dirty laundry on top of our talents because we’re too tired after a long day to actually drag them out and use them.

And, if you’ll excuse and indulge me…I have to go swap the clothes from the washer to dryer.