Gail Thornton's Blog: Gail Thornton's World, page 9

Alive

The word is alive. The word limit is 100 words.


This time Ben was going to climb a mountain in Bolivia with his friends and he was laying his equipment out in his bedroom. He had told her to go home because he needed the time to concentrate. Everything had to be perfect. A loose grommet or forgetting the ice axe could mean death to any of them since they were ice climbing.

Three weeks later, she heard the news. An avalanche on the mountain. A search party. No word. They had lost a climber on Mount Rainier and she thought that was the end of it. Was he alive?

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Ashamed

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The word is ashamed. The word limit is 100 words.


Jennie had cerebral palsy but she went to the public school on the special bus. She had leg braces and crutches, and was ashamed sometimes when children pointed at her.

One day some of the "regular" kids came into her class and she was scared they might laugh at her  way of talking or moving. Jennie was surprised. They all sat on cubes in a circle and sang songs with her class and best of all, they had made presents for them.

Jennie and her class got busy making presents for the kids who had come to play with her.



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Satisfied

The word is satisfied. The word limit is 100 words.


They lay naked in each other's arms, in love and satisfied. The older couple had waited for years to find each other, and this was true bliss. A quick trip to the justice of the peace, then they had boarded the cruise ship and found their cabin. Secretly, they didn't think they would have been capable of the grand love they now had had it been presented to them earlier in their lives.

"Did you leave the seat down?" she whispered.
"I forget. Did you soak your teeth?"


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Aroused

The word is aroused. The word limit is 100 words.


The nurses were busy among the bassinets. Some babies were crying, others sleeping or sucking their stocking-covered fists. Tiny legs pushed up against the swaddling cloth they were in. It was feeding time. One nurse checked the wristband on one of her assigned babies and wheeled the bassinet along the maternity ward hallway and into the mother's room.

"Here's Joshua for his feeding!" the nurse said brightly.

The mother took her tiny son and aroused him before laying him on her breast. She took his sock cap off and gently touched his lips.


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Intoxicated

The word is intoxicated. The word limit is 100 words.


Gloria had volunteered since she was a young girl.  Now that she was seventy, she had her dream job at the greenhouse. She was overcome by the brilliant colors of the peonies, the orchids, the roses, and the tulips. Upon opening the door to go in, Gloria was nearly inebriated by the scents of her favorite spot on earth. It seemed cruel, then, that one Monday the owner found Gloria flat dead on the cement floor next to the roses. The coroner's report stated she had been intoxicated and overcome by the chemicals in the shop.


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Amazed

The word is amazed. The word limit is 150 words.


There was only one thing Ricky was looking forward to on their Florida vacation. He'd seen beaches and amusement rides. He didn't have any interest in souvenirs, either. Nothing had amazed him. In his back pocket for the whole ride from Kentucky, he'd carried a color photo pamphlet for the live safari drive they'd be going on. The next morning, they drove to the park. It had high fences and looked like a desert, bare, with a few trees and bushes around and brown grass as far as he could see on the low hills among small ponds. He was disappointed. They rode through for half an hour and nothing. Just black birds. Ricky rolled down his window to spit out his gum. Instantly he was licked by a seven inch wide black tongue. Ricky recoiled. He saw nothing but huge hairy nostrils with a rank smell.



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Contemplative

The word is contemplative. The word limit is 150 words.


Every sunset he filled a thermos with coffee and went down to the docks to see the boats come in. He knew the fish would go to market, and the men would be paid in cash. He had been one of them, but aging had taken its toll on his ability to be nimble and strong enough to pull the ropes in and lift the catch. He was retired, but not by choice. Watching the young men with their bulging forearms and fast feet, he felt contemplative about the scene. The sun was an half disk of brilliance against the water, sending a rippled beam straight to him where he leaned against the post nearby. He heard the birds screaming for a piece of the catch as the men tossed small pieces of fish into the air. It was misty, for all the right reasons.

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Lonely

The word is lonely. The word limit is one hundred and fifty words.


The young woman put on her yellow frocked dress and headed down the hill with her journal and pen. Sitting on her favorite rock by the pond, she was alone finally, but not lonely. Loneliness was alien to her nature, as so many other demands took her time. She glanced down and saw the spring grass peeking out from the brown over brush she had tamped on so many of her outings here. Her family scorned writers and artists as daydreamers, so she stole her time there in secret. From her left, she heard the barks of hounds. She stumbled on the wet underbrush trying to get up. A shot fired out. She looked into the sun before her journal fell to the ground.


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Happiness

The word is happiness. The word limit is one hundred and fifty words.


The G.I. had come home in the same fatigues he had worn recently. There had been few rations, and no changes of uniform. He felt lucky. He was alive and going home. There were three letters in his wife's handwriting in his left pocket. The soldier took them out often to read them. She had stopped sending letters a year ago. The letters were dry in tone. He doubted his wife would still love him. He knew he was a different and broken man. Walking up the steps to the door was the epitomy of loss. She didn't come out when he called to her, but his happiness was restored when Rusty came running around the corner of the house and knocked him down, licking his face and head and hands until the young man laughed the longest and hardest he had since leaving for the war.

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Frightened

The word is frightened. The word limit is seventy-five words.



Darcy was exhausted after a long day at the playground. She and Mommy had baked cookies together and Darcy was so excited about putting sprinkles on them. She made them green and yellow. Daddy tucked her into bed and turned off the light, but the nightlight was on. After the house was quiet, she looked under the bed, frightened of monsters. A silent scream. A clown was grinning at her. He had Mommy's nightgown on.




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