Welcome to the Weekly Challenge Number Two Hundred and Twenty-Five, where I post a topic and then challenge you to come up with a 100 word story based on that topic.
The topic this week was… was…. um…
It’s Friend!
VOTING
Go ahead and listen to them and then vote for your favorites (multiple selections are allowed):
LizzieBeth
“Sally!” cried Teeghan as she rushed towards her friend of twenty-two years. “Where on earth have you been?”
Whirling about, Sally’s eyes widened as she gazed at her with surprise. “Um . . .” she stammered, “I’ve been busy.”
Clapping her best friend about upon the shoulder, she claimed her spot in the line that had begun to form before the Starbuck’s coffee counter.
“We’ve a lot to catch up on,” Teeghan continued.
“We do?” Sally sputtered, absently rubbing her right temple in hopes of alleviating the headache that had begun to rise.
“Yes, we really do.”
“What about?”
“Everything!”
Kelley
His arms and legs were broken in a car accident.
For four weeks I’ve been safe.
But he is getting better. The abuse will start again.
I shoot him once and keep shooting until all that remains is the click of the trigger.
He lies crooked and bleeding.
It does not look like self defense.
With trembling hands I pick up the phone and dial.
“Hello?” says a familiar voice.
“I need you.”
It’s been fifteen years since I’ve seen her, but I know that she will come.
She is my friend. She will know what to do.
Kristine
Wiggawiggas were the toys we invented. Cute little fluffy puff creatures named for the sound they made when they moved: “wiggawiggawigawigga”. They were really just a square inch of white rabbit fur, but in our hands they were adorable and curious creatures with a love for sassafras tea and trips to the bathroom sink beauty parlor. At the time, I didn’t think we were poor or anything. I guess, maybe we just weren’t as easily conned by marketing as kids are today. In any case, Eric and I, we had the wiggawiggas. The best toys ever.
Zackmann
Victor’s parents asked him to go and make a friend because they were worried he spent too
many hours every day with his face in books. His parents asked “Don’t you think you should
take a break”. “But it’s science” he told his parents. They sent him outside hoping he would play
with other children. Oddly he took a sewing kit with him.
Later, father said “Have you made any friends?”
“Yes, but it is hard to find enough good parts”
“Young man, I told you to make friends not fiends. We should have never bought you a
chemistry set”
Freereed
backlit in the doorway
dressed in white again
she’s in pain
rheumatoid arthritis is
twisting her bones
she cant take our holiday to the sea
cant take that trip to paris
i got something for you not feeling well
i unwrap elouise
a nice clean copy
oh read it to me
read it to me
she flops on my bed
i cant read it to you my rooms a mess
no read it to me
i read her elouise at the park plaza
she’s laughing
i send her home with it
now you can get the illustrations
she’s only fifty
Almo
Billy lifted his glass and took a swallow of his beer. The barroom door opened and mid-afternoon light streamed in.
Billy and Sam shaded their eyes against the intrusion.
“When did you find out?” Sam said.
“Tuesday,” Billy answered flatly.
Sam grimaced and drank his beer. He made sure the bartender wasn’t close enough to overhear.
“What tipped you off?” Sam said.
“You know how Fred always wears that American Legion pin,” Billy said quietly.
Sam nodded.
“I found it in the bedroom,” Billy said.
“And you never suspected?” Sam said.
“Nah,” Billy answered. “He’s a friend.”
TJ
Fran from her formative years felt a fondness for ferns, and she figured
she’d flourish as a florist. She founded her flower shop with her
friend Fiona on a firm handshake but with a flutter in her heart. She
needn’t have fretted. “Fran, Fronds and Fi” became famous for
finding just the right ferns for films. They had a falling out, however,
when “Frisco Today” featured Fran, but not Fi. Faux pas. Fiona,
furious, flipped out and flung fertilizer into the fountain in the
foyer, asphixiating Fran’s fish. They ran the business 50-50, but
their friendship proved flimsy. How unfortunate.
Norval Joe
Fifteen minutes after he was born, his brother was too. From then on, he never needed a friend; he had his brother.
They slept in bunk beds, ate side-by-side at the dinner table, and even sat in the same over stuffed chair while watching tv.
They were inseparable, until junior high school.
An eighth-grader told his brother, they looked so much alike and were always together, they must be fags.
His brother never told him. Just hated him for it.
He didn’t understand what happened, so he just hated his brother back.
It was years before they were friends again.
Arri
Wardel stuck his thumb out again but by this time had pretty much given up on landing a ride out here in the middle of nowhereville. WHOOSH, didn’t even look. Just like most aspects of his life felt recently, he’d been abruptly dropped off. Wasn’t very inclined to enthusiasm or faith anymore either.
Behind him a forceful voice said, “Ride?”
Wardel jumped a foot. “Shit you scared me! Where the heck did…?”
“Or company?”
Wardel meekly replied, “Err Both?
“Done. There in 20”
“Whaaa?, how’d you know where…?”
“Your friends care. They know. You only knew them virtually. Till now.”
Petlove
Met Charlene at Hunter’s. Both great creative people. The meeting over, Charlene said ‘let’s go hear some music.’ We went to hear some blues. Good music. Good time. She left… I hung out.
There was s a huge praying mantis hovering around the ceiling. The thing was almost on my head. As I backed up away from it I stepped on a foot. Oops. Apologized. Turned around to look and it was this blonde god. He laughed.
It’s been four years. He turned into a wonderful friend. Every day is fresh and new with him. Amazing how things work out.
I had some fun with Verti today. Can’t stand her. I sat next to her cage where she was lying down, pretending to ignore me. Didn’t look at her. Didn’t try to get a piece of her. Just sat there. I know she hated every second of it. HA. I’m glad she was in the cage though. She’s a tank. And she’s fast! Who would have thought somebunny so solid could be so fast? There’s no getting away from her and you can’t fight her. I wanted to be friends with her but she’s so grumpy! She had her chance…
Planet Z
Trust issues.
The therapist said I needed to become my own best friend.
“But I have no real friends,” I said.
“None at all?” said the therapist. “Not even me?”
This was new… strange… “I never thought of you that way. You’re my doctor, not my friend.”
“Well, think of me as a friend, someone you confide in. Someone-”
That’s when I hit him with the shovel.
I buried him in the back yard with my files.
I look like him. I sound like him.
I will become my own best friend. I will become him.
My trust issues gone.
“A Case of Mistaken Identity”
Mr Crap is a sweetheart… a pussycat@!
LOL, that wacky Obama, getting in his time machine and deregulating shit and starting illegal wars and cutting the estate tax and approving mortgages for people who had jobs that hadn’t been outsourced yet, and giving people random diseases so they can’t stay in their houses no matter how responsible they are…man, what a troublemaker. All that mess all by himself.
I love your fiction! :D