one word~stripes

she wore her stripes with shame.

walking to school, trying not to wince as the ones on her inner thighs occasionally rubbed together, her calf muscles tense under the perfectly placed marks there, face flaming as she pretended to not see the looks of the other kids, their parents whispering, knowing the teachers would tutt once again.

she wore her stripes with shame.

and plotted her revenge.

friday flash fiction~prompt words schlemiel, pest, pater, perpendicular

it's best not to ask

her father was a real schlemiel. a pest that tended to be perpendicular when anything needed to be done around the house.

she insisted on calling him, ‘pater’. she said it was the only way to give him any respect; to assign him a fancy schmancy name, anything other than ‘dad’. he hated it, which made her use it all the more.

“ma,” she said, as her mother raked up huge piles of leaves, “ma, why did you marry him?”

her mother sighed, scooping up another handful of dead leaves, grimacing as she found the remains of a squirrel. “jessica, you need to understand. your father...your father used to be a wonderful man, full of jokes and vigor and energy. he always accepted me for who i was, no questions asked. when bush was elected, he gave up all hope for the world, and took to the sofa to mope.”

jessica held the black garbage bag open, turning her head from the bits of squirrel that was dumped in it’s depths. she pondered this news, then declared, “ma. that was then. this is now. what are your reasons now?”

stretching out, hand in the small of her back, her mother looked with unfocused eyes on the horizon for a few moments.

“he knows where the bodies are buried.” she said, as she went back to her raking. “so, are you still dating that boy you met last month?”

one word~sugar

"hey, baby, give me som' sugar!" he sang as he walked though the door. he didn't know she had heard all about his foolin' around with mavis jenson over at sapp bros diner. he didn't know she'd found his secret porn stash. he had no idea she discovered the hidden money.

"hey, baby, give me som' sugar!" he sang as he walked through the living room into the kitchen.

she swung the 25lb burlap sack of sugar at the back of his head when he walked past her, snapping his neck.

"ask, and ye shall receive!", she whispered, dragging his body down to the basement, where it fit perfectly in the deep freeze.

three word wednesday~karma, wither, obey

arranged marriage

my husband; wither thou goest, i will go (even if it is rockford, il) wither thou stay, i shall stay (even if it is living in the unfinished basement in your uncle's house. in rockford, il). the commands thou gives, i shall... i shall. iiiii shhhhaaalll. wait, give me a minute. i can do this. okay, let me try again. the commands thou gives, i shall.... no. no. i’m not going any further. i am not going to say the word obey. i don’t care if karma comes back to take a pound of flesh from me, there is no fuckin’ way i’m going to say much less mean the word ‘obey’. i don’t care what my parents spent on this week long circus of a wedding. i don't care who flew in from how far away, i am stopping this fiasco right now. right. now.

i don't care about the whole next life payback i’ve heard about all my days! i’d rather worry about being a mealworm in my next life than go though this! do you hear me? do you? yeah, and good luck with that whole ‘wither’ shit on your next bartered for bride.

i’m outa here.

one word~shield

all of her life, she relied on her smile to get what she wanted.

powerful, full of white teeth, framed by friendly dimples, and made charming by a slightly wonky incisor, she used it though most of the day, meeting both friends and those she wasn't sure of, hiding true intentions behind the shield of that smile.

it worked beautifully; giving her access to the best tables, excellent customer service, and allowed her to easily remove from her life those who crossed her, with no one the wiser.

one word~certain

nothing is ever certain in life..the old saying is, you can only count on birth and death and taxes (unless you don't pay them).

what i know is certain is my love for you, my belief we are this couple that are bound by emotions; we are soul mates. what is certain is the knowledge these beliefs will carry on until my death.

ah! if only you felt the same way!

one word~clip

he clipped a bit off the top... then, a bit more on the sides, using the heavy garden shears as a sculpting tool. snip, clip, snip some more.

in the end, the teen boy's body fit nicely into the hefty bags, and they fit nicely into his trunk, allowing him to neatly place them into a hole in the old landfill he discovered not too far from his house.

when a sign says, "I ENFORCE THE RULE OF NO TRICK OR TREATERS OVER 12", it is best one heeds the unspoken warning.