B.L. Dayhoff's Blog, page 2

Nano 17 – Nature

Sunlight trickled through the trees, dappling the brown skin stretched beside her. She leaned over and kissed one of the silhouettes, letting her lips brush as gently as the breeze. The soft hair tickled her lips and drew them into a smile. The skin smelled of honeysuckle and lavender. Of mint and sage. She inhaled deeply and traced her lips upward, abandoning the dappled skin for the soft swell of breasts. They shook slightly with each breath, with each giggle as her ticklish touch evoked laughter and each moan as she created pleasure. Until finally, her lips met their match.

Nano 16 – War

The violence sank deeper into his skin. Battles drenched him in blood and fed him, poisoned him, until he was a bloated tick, hungry for the next feeding. His commanders loved him. Said he had a spark in his eyes when the battle approached. Said they never doubted he would lead them to victory.

“It’s gone too far,” his lover whispered in his ear one night.

He tutted and silenced him with a kiss. 

“We need to stop this,” his lover whispered when the kiss broke. And his lover looked up at him with a spark to match his own.

Nano 15 – Rain

Inside, bundled in blankets, a cup of tea within reach, she was warm. Outside, the rain fell on the windows, casting a gray pall over the world and filling the room with nature’s sleepy-time music. Despite the interesting book she was reading, she struggled to keep her eyes open. 

In the story, the knight was galloping across a wasteland in search of the Hebbath pendant, said to cure any ailment, which he needed for his sister. As she read, a storm started, the thunder echoing off the pages it was so loud. She burrowed a little deeper in her cocoon.

Nano 14 – Lie

“I didn’t break it.” His gleaming eyes were huge white discs with a brown center, the black so small it nearly vanished. In his hands were the pieces of Mother’s favorite vase, the chunks only half of the mess at his feet.

“Yes, he did,” I countered, staring up at our mother with the same wide-eyed innocence that he was trying to project.

“Lee,” Mother said with a sigh, disappointment transforming into rage as she glared at him. “Why do you always do this?”

“But I didn’t!” Lee whined, cowering beneath Mother’s growing anger.

“Did too!” I shouted, fingers crossed.

Nano 13 – Secret

“Shh,” I hiss, “you have to promise not to tell anyone.”

Sara and I break into giggles, cuddled together under our sleeping bags, which we’ve zipped together to make one giant tent, our heads the poles. The only light is from the flashlight we’re fumbling between us as we try not to blind the other.

“I won’t tell,” she swears, and holds out her pinky to seal the contract. “But it’s not a big deal. Once and done.” Maybe it’s the angle of the flashlight, but her face lights up. “Oh! Why don’t you have your first kiss with me?”

Think of the Children

This is not, actually, about the children, although they are involved, in the end. This is about boycotts and ruining businesses and all that sort of things.

Because I was heading to work and thinking about how X company does Y terrible thing and the world gets angry (whether rightfully or not) and boycotts X. Stocks tanks, and the company wobbles. People feel victorious, because the company has felt the wrath of the consumer and will learn not to be awful!

But will they? Oh sure, the company might change Y thing, and that’s good, but their reputation is irrevocably tarnished, if not ruined. And you know who suffers?

I’ll give you a hint. It’s not the stockholders. It’s not the owners. Oh sure, they might feel a pinch as stocks drop and business crumbles, but generally it’s the everyman. Business is down, but the company can’t cut back on stockholder profits (of course not), so they do a round of layoffs. People who then have to find a new job in an economy that’s not great for it. They have to support their families still (that’s where the kids come in), but without the job. A job they might have been good at, might have loved doing. It might even be the best/only job like it in the area, so they’ll either have to do a job they might not love as much or move.

And the people who didn’t lose their job at X likely now have even more work thrown on their plates, and they become overworked as they’re understaffed. And because “profits are down,” those workers might not get pay raises or bonuses or anything of the sort.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t hold companies accountable for their actions, although in many cases I worry we act too quickly on emotion without thinking things through and hearing the facts, but I’m not sure we should feel righteous when we make a company fail that has “done wrong.” Because most likely, the ones who suffer aren’t the ones who did the wrong in the first place.

Nano 12 – Kiss

It was her first kiss. The lips were dry and scratchy against her soft ones, flush with youth, but it was a kiss, nonetheless. And like a proper lady, she closed her eyes while the kiss was happening, not because she didn’t want to see who was kissing her. She closed her eyes and felt the air rush between her lips. It was warm and tasted of chocolate. Her heart pounded and her breath caught and something skittery twisted in her stomach. Perhaps it was nerves.

It was, afterall, her first kiss. Suiting, then, that it was also her last.

Nano 11 – Heart

Thu-thump. Thu-thump. Thu-thump. The unsteady rhythm beat in the room, amplified by technology until it seemed to shake the floorboards, singing of my sins.

Thu-thump. Thu-thump. Thu-thump. But what had I done but care for the man on the bed? Change his clothes when he needed them washed, cook his meals when he needed to eat. Cared for him, day after day, night after night, as his life slowly sapped away and sapped my own with it. Yet it was me who was blamed for the fall, for him getting sicker, for the final act of kindness.

Th-thump. Thu-thump. Thu—

Nano 10 – Dice

There is something about the clickity-clack of dice as they’re rolled. The erratic sound, the taste of chance and risk. Even before, when they clatter in the cup of the hand, the motion is soothing, the feel so very unique.

Clack, clack, clack, they sing in the hand. Click, click, click, they reply. A final twist and they’re sent free, to tumble over one another on a hard surface, until Fate’s influence tells them to rest. Then they sentence you to death or to victory, their black eyes staring back accusingly, as you’ve set them and yourself to this fate.

Nano 9 – Autumn

The leaves were a cacophony of color overhead, trumpeting in the changing season. The sunlight streamed through the thin leaves, painting the world in the same bright hues and making the fleeting light all the brighter, as if to amend for its brevity, it wanted to leave a lasting impression.

This late in the day, the chill from the night had been banished, warmed by the sun, and from her position beneath the canopy of color, the temperature was almost comfortable. Her breath no longer formed clouds over her face, leaving her to gaze up unblinkingly into the autumn foliage.