Welcome to the daily Three Things Challenge. Use your imagination and creativity using one, two or all three words that may or may not be related. There are no restrictions regarding length, style, or genre, though please keep it family friendly.
Tag your responses with 3TC, #threethingschallenge or TTC, and you can add Di’s logo if you wish.
Your three words today are: FAIL FRAY FILE
Andy knew he should’ve left the concert a few minutes early in order to avoid the fray. Woulda, shoulda, coulda …
This was a nasty bunch too. Everyone around him seemed to be high on something. It wasn’t that silly, happy-go-lucky kind of high that weed affords. No, this was a different kind of “high” that was making people angry and sweaty. When he looked in their eyes, he received a blank stare in return. It was as if the part that made them human had gotten lost.
Andy’s fight or flight response kicked in, but he couldn’t move, which made him really start to panic. He tried to control his breathing, but it was no good. He failed to avert the hyperventilation that came next. It was a bad one. He couldn’t catch his breath, and it seemed as though there wasn’t enough air to breathe anyway. So many people pushing, shoving, yelling, sweating and stinking. The world started spinning and the floor suddenly jumped up to meet his face. All Andy could see were dirty running shoes and dangerous-looking boots. They were stepping on him now, and didn’t seem to realize it. Or maybe they didn’t care.
Eventually, the concert venue cleared out and they found Andy’s body. It took them a while to identify him though.
Welcome to Sunday’s Six Sentence Blog Hop, hosted by GirlieOnTheEdge. This week’s word prompt is Strand.
Connie sat at the breakfast table, not quite awake. She picked up her glass of milk and noticed there was a strand of long blonde hair it. No big deal, it was one of hers. She was reminded of last Friday night’s Shabbat service during which the rabbi used a metaphor that teaches when a Tzadik (a righteous person) dies, the separation of body and soul is as simple and painless as removing a strand of hair from a glass of milk. Conversely, when an evil person dies, the soul is forcibly pulled from the body as it is unwilling to leave, which is a tortuously painful and long process.
Connie removed the strand of hair from the milk, poured it in the cat’s bowl, and poured herself a glass of orange juice.
This week for Sunday Poser, Sadje asks us: Would you rather read the news and be depressed/ frustrated by it — or remain oblivious to it and happy?
I would rather remain oblivious and happy. The only news I force myself to follow has to do with Gaza, Israel & the rest of the Middle East. It’s hard to watch and breaks my heart but I feel compelled to keep up with it. Being a Jew, I owe it.
As far as the rest of the news, please spare me the gory details! I don’t want to know. If it is important enough, I will find out one way or another.
I am retired now and unfortunately, the TV almost always stays on Fox News, so I get to listen to it over and over and over … My husband is always home and can’t do much due to CoPD. He is a news junkie. Our house is not very large and so we are forced to share the same space. There is only one TV. I let him control the remote because he is disabled, much older than me, and I am one hell of a nice gal.
Even my therapist tells me not to watch the news. I’ve gotten pretty good at tuning it out, but still. Every so often something heinous and violent seeps in and I have to deal with it.
Sometimes I fantasize about shooting the TV and blowing it to smithereens. One day, I probably will. However, I don’t own a gun so I may have to hire a hitman.
Welcome to the daily Three Things Challenge. Use your imagination and creativity using one, two or all three words that may or may not be related. There are no restrictions regarding length, style, or genre, though please keep it family friendly.
Tag your responses with 3TC, #threethingschallenge or TTC, and you can add Di’s logo if you wish.
Your three words today are: CLUE SIGNAL SEANCE
Jeremy’s twin died at birth. It would have been a boy, and his name would have been Max. That was sixteen years ago, and he felt a strange, nagging loss — more so now than ever before.
Lately, he thought about Max all the time, what he would’ve been like, adventures they would’ve shared, secrets they would’ve kept, if he thought Jeremy’s marble collection was dorky, as well as his herd of pet rocks, what his voice may have sounded like, if he liked liver …
Jeremy wondered why this was happening now, all of a sudden. He wanted to talk to his parents about it, but the few times he’d brought up Max before, his mother broke down in tears, while his father would disappear to his ‘man cave’, locking the door behind him.
If Max had something to tell him, why didn’t he visit Jeremy in his dreams‽ That made the most sense to Jeremy, but who knew what made sense in the afterlife‽ If he only had a clue, an inkling of what was going on with Max. He knew something had to be.
Finally, Jeremy confided in his best friend, Joe. Joe was a smart guy, hopefully he’d share some insight with his friend.
Joe listened intently to Jeremy’s problem and suggested they hold a seance. If Max had anything to say, a seance would provide the perfect venue.
“I dunno, man.” Jeremy said. “Have you ever done one before? I haven’t.”
“Well, no.” Joe admitted. “But I’ve read a lot of books about it and saw a couple of movies.”
“What if we’re bugging him? I don’t want to piss him off.”
“To me it seems that he wants to communicate something to you. Why else would he be on your mind so much?”
“True,” Jeremy nodded. “But shouldn’t we have someone there who knows what they’re doing?”
“Yes, we should.” Joe agreed. “I’m gonna ask my cousin. She’s facilitated a few seances in her time.”
“The hot one?” Jeremy asked hopefully.
“No,” Joe laughed. “A different one. Her name is Tanya.”
The seance was set to take place on that Friday evening at Tanya’s apartment. Time past slowly for Jeremy and Joe, but Friday finally rolled around as it always did.
They were seated at a round, wooden table in the middle of Tanya’s living room. She must’ve brought it in for just this occasion as it certainly didn’t fit well. There was also a fourth person there, a friend of Tanya’s named Grace who was also an experienced medium. Tanya closed the blinds, lit a candle and turned off the lights. She then asked everyone to be quiet and clear their minds.
Next, they held hands as Tanya tried to make contact. Nothing happened but the air felt thick, somehow. After about fifteen minutes, a gentle breeze wafted through the room. It was warm and smelled of magnolias. It felt comfortable and familiar, like home only better, to Jeremy. His heart felt full yet broken.
“He’s here,” Tanya whispered. “Max, is there something you’d like to say to your brother, Jeremy?”
Silence. And then, the almost non-sound of something rolling around on the wooden floor. Jeremy felt it stop at his right foot. He was afraid to look.
The candle suddenly went out and Tanya got up to turn on the lights. She was sweaty and looked exhausted.
Jeremy looked down at the floor, where he saw a marble. Not just any marble, but a rare, handmade German snowflake. He stared at it in disbelief.
“Does that mean something to you, Jeremy?” Tany asked.
His eyes welled up. He didn’t trust his voice, so he just nodded. Everyone was waiting for him to speak so he cleared his throat and hoped for the best.
“It’s, it’s a marble. A marble for my collection that I’d been hoping for forever.” Jeremy sniffed. “It’s very rare and wicked expensive.” Then, he could no longer hold the tears back, and he let them out.
Tanya went over to hug him, and he hugged her back, hard, and cried all the tears that he’d saved up inside for his brother.
“I miss you, Max. I miss you so much.” Jeremy clutched the marble as if he’d never let it go.
Ergo, the Ogre 