Ten Word Short Story

Like I don't have enough to do... This morning I woke very early and started blog hopping. I came across a site with this novel (pun) idea. So I spent the next 1 1/2 coming up with my first short story.

Here are the words for the week's ten Word Challenge: fruitcake, necromancer, gibberish, marshland, Lone Ranger, hog-wild, effluvia, plaintiff, phonograph, fern.


AND HERE IS MY STORY.....friends I don't have to tell you I am no "Adriana Trigiani"



How about some pen name suggestions?

Connecting to Life

The season was upon us and tenement in which we lived bustled with noisy activity. The phonograph blasted the songs of the season, and the aromas coming from the kitchen definitely let you know fruitcake was baking in the oven. The Law Firm I work for finally made the right move and closed down for a 2 week winter vacation.

The day was going well until Monica Winters, a college roommate, called to let me know that she was coming to Newhurst with her latest fling for the Christmas Holiday. I haven’t heard from Monica for several years. We parted ways when she became so heavily involved with her belief and practice of necromancer.

I remember well the details of our very last conversations, I’m sure that these words escaped from my mouth, “Puhlease! Don't tell me you buy into that antique mumbo jumbo.” Monica was not in the least deterred. Nor was I with my conviction and arguments. “Monica, the spirits of the dead are not at anyone’s beck and call. It is only the egotistical soul that believes this. One cannot conjure nor command spirits.” These were my closing arguments as she slammed the double wide doors in the foyer, causing the ferns to tumble off of their pedestals.

This did not sit well with Monica and her hog-wild enthusiasm. Monica always wanted the last word in any argument during our law school days. So I was not surprised when the phone rang and she let out with vengeance, “There is great beauty and divinity in the darkness, though fear of the unknown keeps you from looking. If you had an open heart and are pure of spirit, you could be graced by the presence of spirits, but only if you are humbled by Love and Faith. Obviously, you are not ready to receive their message, nor would you appreciate a visitation.”

Oh was she right about that!

Now I had only 8 hours before she would be waltzing through our front door with the latest “Lone Ranger” by her side. I could only imagine what would happen when the gibberish of Monica’s latest craziness started vibrating throughout our peaceful dwelling.

Why had I said yes? That’s my history, I’m a pushover. Even when I was the plaintiff in my divorce, I let my former husband walk away from all the judgments against him. I just wanted out!

At the firm I’m always the one picking up a last-minute assignment and tending to clients’ every wish. Just before we left for the holiday, I put up some resistance to buying the marshland. What good could possibly come from buying property that has effluvia from decaying matter? I’m sure behind their closed doors they were all say, “This isn’t the Kristen we know.” Perhaps consciousness has become a part of me.

Time was quickly getting away from me. Shopping, laundry, and food preparation would have to be completed within just a few hours. I so wanted just a few minutes before the craziness of Monica took over my life again. Breathing deeply I curled my body into my favorite reading chair and left my own over-enthusiastic world to step into another.