Life Lessons (Fiction Challenge)

Emma wasn't even supposed to be in the wedding party. I'd chosen my sister as my one-and-only bridesmaid right when Jeff proposed, but by the time the big day rolled around she was only weeks away from giving birth, so Emma graciously stepped into the role.

Jeff had always mumbled about not liking Emma. I couldn't even figure out why: Emma was a kindhearted soul who never raised her voice and was forever worrying about other people and doing nice things for them. If it's possible for someone you never want to be romantic with, Emma was my soul mate. We never got invited somewhere on our own: invitations always read "To Emma and Alicia". And Jeff didn't like her and never said why. But whatever. I was the glowing bride-to-be and nothing was going to spoil my day.

Money was tight so the whole affair was going to be on a shoestring. Both the wedding and the reception would be in a hall and we were going to drive to the honeymoon, a week on the lake in a cedar cabin. No flight to Hawaii for me, but I'd reasoned it didn't matter, after all, I would be with the man of my dreams! My dress was a family heirloom and it fit me perfectly. The gorgeous blue shoes had been on sale at the market. I was going to look and feel like a princess, no matter how stretched our budget. This was going to be my day and I was determined to shine.

Before we could blink there was only a week to go. A week! The girls took me out for my hens' night; we partied all evening long from one club to the next and had a fantastic time. We must have taken a hundred photos of Emma and I; flirting with the bouncer, chatting to the bartender, dancing on the tables and hugging for almost every shot. I adored Emma. I still had the tiny handkerchief she gave me in Kindergarten, with the ducks on it. I'd thought it so lovely that she had just given it to me. Emma meant the world to me and I was just ecstatic that she would be beside me on my special day.

I can remember Jeff's outburst when he saw the photos. He was disgusted. He made some sloppy remark about Emma being a slut and then wondered aloud if we were lesbians. Honestly, I was surprised, I know he'd always expressed dislike of her, but this was a lot even for him. I guess I was just disappointed in the end. I put the photos sadly in an old shoebox at the back of a cupboard; I wasn't going to show him them again, since it just seemed like a recipe for an argument.

With just one day to go I was a bundle of nerves. We were going to play traditional and spend our last night apart, so Jeff packed an overnight bag and took himself off to his brother's house on Friday morning before work.

The evening rolled around and we had to attend the hall with the wedding celebrant, for our wedding rehearsal. I stood where I was directed, and Jeff and I exchanged lots of thrilled glances. Everyone else looked bored stiff. We were a strange-looking bunch in our casual clothing but the celebrant was lovely. We finished the practice and said our goodnights; I kissed my man goodnight and promised that I would turn up at the hall in the morning. Actually I was starved, so I was the first one into my car to leave.

It wasn't until I'd walked in the front door of our tiny apartment ten minutes later that I realised I'd left my phone behind at the hall. Cursing, I climbed back into the car. God, the traffic was horrendous. I sat there at the traffic lights and wished it would all just disappear. Grabbing my handbag I foraged around for mints; and then I spotted the lottery ticket for yesterday's draw. And I had today's newspaper in the back of the car with the results.

I always hated those people who dashed out of the driver's seat while stopped at the lights! But screw them all, I'm getting married tomorrow, I want to know if I just got rich! I laughed to myself and decided that now I'd said that, I deserved to get nothing at all. Slamming the lid of the boot back down I clutched the newspaper to my chest and ran back to the driver's door as the lights turned green and horns started blaring behind me.

Have you ever been driving, but wanted to do something else instead, and so you actually wish the lights would go red?

I started comparing numbers. I've been playing for years with the same six numbers.

Five matches! My brain wrestled with the mental arithmetic and my heart ran overtime. I probably just won a few hundred dollars. My hand grabbed for my phone to call Jeff and tell him the good news, but then I remembered where my phone was. I stopped for a moment to compose myself and breathe. I had better check that I hadn't made a mistake.

Four, eight, sixteen, thirty-one, twenty-four, forty-three.

My heart had been hammering but I swear it stopped dead right at that moment. I didn't have five matches. I had all six.

Sweat beaded on my forehead and I checked again. Then I checked again. Six numbers. Six numbers. What if the paper made a mistake? I could barely work my mouth open to breathe. Six numbers. I somehow found some coins, parked the car and ran to a payphone, dialling the lottery information line and pressing
each button to hear the result, and then the prize amounts. Four million dollars and there was only one winner, according to a robotic voice. I was holding that winning ticket in my wildly shaking hand. I replaced the phone handset and moved like a zombie whose very life-force had been extinguished.

A house! We could have a house! No more tiny rented apartment, we could have a grand huge mansion in the countryside! No more rusty old cars, we could have new convertibles! And a proper honeymoon! A grand holiday overseas on a tropical island. In a five star luxury resort being pampered, and oh, we can fly first class! Oh the money I could spend buying gifts for my wonderful Jeff. We would never have to worry about money again. Oh, I was just so excited, nothing could have made my wedding more perfect than to know I had the perfect man beside me, and we would have the happiest times together for the rest of our lives!

A sudden artificial calm came over me and I realised I had to tell Jeff this in person. It was too important for over the phone. I considered going direct to Jeff's brother's house, but then remembered my missing phone still at the hall. I don't know how I managed to start the car or move into the traffic but the next thing I remember is pulling into the carpark across the road from the hall.

I placed the ticket carefully into my handbag and walked quickly to the hall with the back door key in hand. I tried to compose myself and work out how I would announce it once I got to Jeff's brother's house. I imagined the looks his face. He would be thrilled! Before I reached the door, though, an open window high above my head got my attention. Emma's voice, saying, "It's not a good idea." I stopped. A quick calculation, and I realised it was the kitchen. Then Jeff's voice. "Yeah. It's a great idea."

I could tell them both at once! This was great, it would be such great excitement! Knowing how much he disliked her, he was probably horribly bored and irritated to be still in the hall with her right now. He'd be so glad that I had come back. I smoothed my dress and tried to stop my hands from shaking. But then I stopped and decided to listen for a while, hoping to hear whether he was being polite to Emma, at least.

Emma again, after a pause. "Jeff, you are CRAZY." And she seemed irritated. I wondered what was going on here. They'd stopped shouting so I couldn't hear what they said next, but I was intrigued and wanted to know whether they were actually being civil to each other. After a while I could hear her again. "That
is fantastic." I waited more than five minutes, but I heard nothing else. I figured they'd moved out of the kitchen, so I rounded the corner to the stairs and went up, wondering what they'd been discussing. I clutched my precious handbag, full of my special ticket and my wonderful news, and I sought them out to share the excitement. My heart was running so fast it was hurting my chest and I grinned to myself wildly.

I picked my phone up from the seat near the door, shoving it into my handbag. From there I realised they must still be in the kitchen after all; murmurs were coming from that half-closed door. Crossing the carpet and pushing the door quietly open, I couldn't believe my eyes. My heart stopped for the second time that day. Emma was bent forwards over the stainless steel bench, underpants around her ankles, her dress bunched up high around her back, and Jeff was wildly thrusting into her from behind, his own trousers around his feet and both of them with eyes screwed shut in ecstasy, oblivious to the fact I stood in the doorway.

What made me freeze right there on the spot? I don't know. I do remember watching in a dream, as Jeff's bare backside moved while he hammered into her, and I remember her voice rising above the mumbles, turning into clear encouragement for Jeff to continue. I'm thankful I don't remember her words, because I'm sure they'd haunt me more than that image of the two of them, which seared itself into my brain.

At some point I must have backed away. The lottery news was long forgotten. I had to go back to the car; I had to call someone, I had to do something, I had to cancel the wedding, oh god what do I do? Stumbling down the back stairs, I could hear her screaming now. And as I walked under the kitchen window I heard Jeff and the three words I knew oh-so-well from our own bedroom. YES, BABY, YES at the top of his voice, that phrase always marked his climax, and here he was, using it with her.

There was vomit in front of me in the grass, just inches from my face where I was bent over. I think it must have been mine. I've no idea how I wasn't run over as I made my way back to the car. But there was a water bottle there and I washed out my mouth, replacing the lid to the vessel in a daze. I clutched the phone and wondered what to do next. And the next thing I remembered was closing the door of our apartment behind me at 5am, shoving the last of my belongings into the car and starting the engine.

I didn't bother to call a soul. My phone rang all morning with people looking for me. Text messages began appearing, asking why I wasn't picking up the phone. As the day wore on they realised that I still hadn't made it to Emma's place to get dressed, and my hairdressing appointment must be lasting so long that I'd soon be late for my own wedding. Messages changed from alarm to realisation, once they found my ransacked apartment and all my things gone.

And I still didn't want to speak to anyone. I didn't cancel a thing. All that money wasted and I couldn't care less. I looked at my lottery ticket and just let all the wedding plans fall apart as the hours ticked by.

Should I have told everyone why I didn't show up? Should I have shamed the two of them in public? I had thought about how that would pan out. I pictured the guests waiting for me to walk the aisle. I imagined their horrified faces as I announced their affair, recounted what I had witnessed, and proclaimed their duplicity. I knew the ridicule and hatred Emma and Jeff would feel from everyone in that hall. But then I realised the feelings the guests would direct at me. Pity. Pure, disgusting and filthy pity, gained only because those two revolting people treated me this way. And so I stared at the phone, and finally at midnight, with everything long over, I sent a text message to my mother.

"I'm sorry Mum, and I can't talk about it just now. I just couldn't marry him. There's someone else."

I switched off the phone. Let them think it's me who was seeing someone else. I didn't care.

I was collecting four million dollars on Monday, and Jeff wasn't getting a cent.

Little Green Door

n.b. For this Fiction Challenge we had to write anything fictional in any form, including the words vessel, extinguish and market.

It's very interesting for me, who usually only writes when the universe moves me, to write fiction to a deadline. In fact, I questioned my ability to do it at all. I looked at the clock tonight once the children were in bed and I had spoken to a friend on the phone and saw that it was 9.30pm. I nearly didn't write this piece. I thought that I wouldn't have anywhere near enough time to throw anything together. But for a first draft I am over the moon with it. In fact, I think that I like it so much that I might keep working on it.
Yay for our blog and it pushing my boundaries!

Little Green Door

The terraces in Abercrombie Street sat back from the tree lined road upright and statuesque. Gabled windows like hooded eyes, glaring in judgement at the little wooden workman's cottages that dotted the street amongst them. The cottages sprawled, some of them shedding their splintered timbers into unkempt yards that were framed by small rusted cyclone-wired fences. Their size and disarray gave them the kind of hang-dog look of a condemned man. It was only a matter of time until they too would be transformed. They were vessels waiting to be filled with modular leather lounges, flat screen TV's and Laura Ashley linens. But only once they had been squared off, set right, extended, and painted from the same palettes as their superiors, in their pretty uniform party dresses.

Oh the new Newtown gentry knew how to extinguish character from a perfectly friendly little street, Bob thought, as he sat on his front verandah watching the women with prams parade up and down the footpath. He watched the sunlight play through the trees onto the path and spat a piece of orange pith into the long grass beside him, wiping the juice from his chin with his sleeve, swearing silently as it made its way into a shaving cut and stang smartly. That bloke from the real estate had come by again, said he had buyers for the house, a likely story! He wouldn't bloody sell it to them anyway, if that was what they were going to do with it. He stared at the house opposite,that no longer resembled the house it had once been. And if he sold more of them would move in too. No, he couldn't be responsible for more of those people in the street, or in the suburb for that matter. He didn't freakin care if the market was “red hot.” He thought of the real estate fella again and snorted audibly, though there was no one to hear him.

The woman across the road was coming out of the house with the florescent yellow door. The door had always been a bit of a mystery to Bob. He hated the poofy muted colours that “those people” in the street had painted their houses. But he hated that florescent door more. It just illustrated his point, weirdos...the lot of them.

Sara was in a hurry. She ushered the kids out the door and over to the car “chop chop”. The truth was that she was always in a hurry. From this to that, no time to think. Yet what did she really do? She wondered as she strapped Henry into his car seat. Crap....the registration papers, she thought, and told the boys that she just had to pop back into the house to grab something. She wasn't really thinking of anything other than retrieving the papers when she put the key in the lock and started to turn it. Then, as if she had not noticed it for the last 8 years, she suddenly realised that the door was still that disgusting, god-awful yellowy/green colour. She stopped, mid-turn with the key. It wasn't the colour so much that offended her, though that was what had annoyed her initially. No, what bothered her was that it was still that colour 8 years later, and all that that represented.

Too Kool 4 Skool

One day there was a little piggie poo called Juliar, she was not a pretty piggie who's parents had tried to extinguish her heritage as she was 2 parts piggie, 1 part shunk and 1 part meerkat. You see mixed bred piggies were a no no in the little village they lived in, Timbuktoo. Timbuktoo was a simple place, where the animals were friendly and and fun loving. Timbuktoo had animals of all size shapes and types, they were kind and generous. In fact Timbuktoo was so damn popular that animals who wanted an easy life and hoped to come to Timbuktoo to bludge off their generosity would pack themselves in all sorts of vessels and tried to come to live in Timbuktoo illegally. But we'll get back to that a little later.

Juliar, was unfortunate looking and lots of the other animals in the land used to pick on Juliar and call her all sorts of nasty names, this made Juliar mad and angry, Juliar decided there and then that she was going to make something of herself and show everyone that even ugly piggies can get somewhere, she was going to be an inspiration to ugly piggies everywhere. Then once she made it and become the most powerful animal in the land and then Fuck Shit Up for everyone in Timbuktoo.

Things in Timbuktoo had been going along just fine and everyone was happy. Little Juiar worked hard and stayed out of the limelight. Everything in Timbuktoo was run by the Market and who ever run the Market controlled everything down in Timbuktoo. Juliar had joined the Market and she was working her way up to the top. The elections to see who would become the next Supreme Chancellor were coming up, a funny little spoodle named Kwud was running for the top job but he needed a running partners. He spotted Juliar around the office one day eating some scraps off the floor. He thought, I will look so handsome and gorgeous next this ugly piggie by my side plus having a piggie as a running partner is so popular right now it's just the in thing. All Juliar's dreams had come true, she was now the second most powerful animal in Timbuktoo. She could start fucking shit up but only just a little.

Supreme Chancellor Kwud was doing such a wonderful job and everyone loved him after being ruled by a little wombat called Little Jon for so many years. He was mixing it up world other town leaders and Juliar's plans of getting all the animals who'd been cruel and mean to her were coming to be.

Well all of a sudden Supreme Chancellor Kwud the spoodle wasn't so popular anymore, apparently he'd been cocking his leg on many of the wheels of industry and the animals of Timbuktoo weren't happy. Vice Treasurary Chancellor Brian the Swan has a little whisper in Juliars ear and next thing you know she and Brian has severed Kwud's jugular and he'd cocked his leg for the last time as his remains were fed to the Jabberwackies. This meant that Juliar was Supreme Chancellor, by default, but none the less she could finally complete her dastardly plan. Juliar started fucking shit up good and proper. Juliar was upset at the cows, they'd been farting in the fields for years now and the methane they produced was screwing with the atmosphere in Timbuktoo. Juliar, desperate for power on the Market had done a secret back door deal in her sty with the weasels and to keep the weasels happy she was going to have to tax milk. The animals of Timbuktoo were becoming restless because everybody loves milk.

Juliar called a press conference to make a big announcement, she needed a distraction from all the shit she was fucking up on the side. everyone would be there from Timbuktoo to hear Juliar's announcement. She stepped up to the podium and just as she was about to speak a unicorn flew down from the clouds and shat on Juliar from above and like a statue in the park Juliar was covered in poo. As she wiped the poo from her eyes Juliar could see a shape appearing in the sky getting bigger and bigger. All of a sudden as if time had stood still for those few moments that Juliar had extracted the poo from here eyes, a strange looking vessel had landed in the field where the people of Timbuktoo had congregated. Several strange shapes appeared, walking on two legs, in their hands they carried strange devices. Juliar was excited and face covered in poo she rushed over to greet the visitors from the unknown. their faces were strange, the had gills on their cheeks and lime green eyes with deep black circles within, their hair was long clumps like a horses tail after a dodgy vindaloo. Juliar thrust out one of her trotters is a gesture of friendship when the creature shot out it's hand and struck Juliar with force, hidden inside the hand was a barb that injected a poison into Juliars body which softens her internal organs and literally sucked the life out of Juliar leaving behind a dried shrivelled corpse. The other animals were frightened and so they should be. Just as these strange creatures began firing a blue pulse beam which stuns the animals before they are fed upon by these Wrath. The Wrath were having a feast, sucking the life out of animals left right and centre. Just all hope was lost, a herd of unicorns flew down from the sky and speared all of these the Wrath to death. The speed and agility of the unicorns was so incredibly fast and furious that the Wrath never stood a chance. The animals of Timbuktoo were saved and everyone cheered and rejoiced with glee and wondrous joy.

On further inspection of the vessel that the alien creatures had come from it contained several devices that proved extremely useful. They found that there were other ways to deal with the cows methane problem, there was also a device that meant that they could get internet access without building a ridiculously expensive infrustrature when everything and everyone is moving towards wireless mobile devices. But the thing that thrilled the animals of Timbuktoo the most and that was a device that could identify illegal vessels carrying animals from other places to Timbuktoo illegally and blow the fuckers out of the face of the planet before they got there and the vessel's stopped coming.

Everything in Timbuktoo had returned to normal and was back to normal in no time at all, things in Timbuktoo could never get better, nothing at all could ruins the wonderful world of Timbuktoo. Until one day a unicorn has sex with a Jabberwocky and produced little Unijabbercorny and things were about to change in Timbuktoo forever................. but that is a story for another day.

New Topic

Hi All,

I thought that I might give us all some practice at writing fiction. So next weeks topic is:

"Write a Fictional piece in any form and any length. You must include the words extinguish, vessel, and market (or forms thereof) in the piece"...yes I know. But I hope this is challenging - in a good way :D

Tag; Elisa

Please use the label "Fiction Challenge"