For this week’s 100 Word Challenge for Grown-Ups, the prompt was “…but I turned it off….”
At first, I thought (with admittedly naughty amusement), “There’s no way I can make this one PG!” But, delving a little bit deeper, I came up with this somewhat lonely piece:
“Let it play.”
That’s what she’d say, no matter what trite, insipid song would come on. And he’d let it do, for her smile, for her sway. But he turns it off, now. Because, with her gone, he can’t bear the sound.
He curses his foolish jealousy. It was only Fred, only tea…!
In oppressive stillness, he limps to bed.
A song startles him awake. Heart pattering, he stumbles out. But I turned it off, he thinks. I know-! Then, he sees her: smiling, swaying.
Their eyes meet.
She moves to silence the radio.
He smiles. “Let it play.”
I have plenty of other writing to do, but I’ve found that taking a time-out to write these little vignettes helps me with the larger story: I’m really paying more attention to the words I’m choosing when I write, and I think that’s showing through in the novel, too.
Something friendly at last!
Such a relief after monsters, life-support machines and bombs. The 100-word genre seems to bring out a desire to shock in most of us.
I plead guilty myself…
Thank you, Delft!
Oh, I certainly had my inklings for machines and monsters. I suppose I am just so firmly entrenched within the romance genre, at the moment, that I can’t even get away from it with these 100-word vignettes! 🙂
Ah, this is nice, I’m glad that tea was apparently just tea.
A nice treatment of the prompt – feel good factor at the end. Well done.
Thank you, Judee! I’m glad you liked this one. I was grateful tea was just tea, as well. 🙂
Thank you, Sandra! I’m glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
This one brought a really warm glow with it. Lovely!
Thanks so much, Sally-Jayne! I am very much enjoying the depth and breadth these little challenges offer!