Wednesday Brief - Trouble Comes in Threes

[image error] Welcome to the Wednesday Briefers flash group. The short stories have a maximum of a 1000 word count plus links at the bottom to the other flashers. The prompts for this week are:"In for a penny, in for a pound..." or use cat, string, cottage cheese or "You're not the boss of me." or "Fiddle-dee-dee!" or feature some sort of musical instrument in your story or use puppy eyes or "He gives a new definition to flaming!"or have a New Year's Party or  use sunrise and/or sunsetor "Don't get your knickers in a twist..." or use line dancing in some way
~I’m using the prompt: cat, string, cottage cheese



Trouble Comes in Threes “Happy New Years Eve!”I flashed the Walmart greeter my best death glare. If one more person dared to speak that fucking phrase to me, I was going to string them up by their toenails. Yeah, happy fucking New Year Eve’s. Now kiss my ass. I hurried outside, my head down against the cold, my pitiful bag of groceries clutched to my chest. Lovely, it was spitting snow. Just shoot me now, please. I jumped in the truck, and thank you Jesus, the damn thing rumbled to life. With the way my luck had been running, the truck starting was nothing short of a minor miracle. Ever hear that saying about how trouble comes in threes? Boy, did they get that one wrong. Trouble started last year about this time and had rained down every month since. Rained? Ha, I misspoke. It poured down in fucking buckets. Rained cats and dogs. Or like my dear departed Ma used to say… A real toad-strangler.What a craptastic year. And please God, or whatever was listening, let this year be better. Seriously, I was due. It was to the point where I wondered if someone had it out for me. Nothing went right, and I was sick and tired of it. But the capper was earlier in December. My longtime partner broke up with me. In December. Right before Christmas. Yeah, happy fucking Christmas to me. The reasons were as asinine as he was. Something about how I was always working, I never had time for him, we never did anything… blah, blah, blah. Well Christ on a cracker, I’d started my own business and was barely keeping my head above water. What the hell did he expect?  On top of that, every fucking thing in the house had broken… at the same time. Of course all the appliances were all out of warranty. Then my truck wanted to get in on the act and blew the engine. Oh, let’s not forget the leaking roof that was out of warranty also. Sure messed up those pretty cottage cheese ceilings. Then a tooth went bad on me and I had to have bunches of dental work. I was hemorrhaging money, no fucking kidding.Want me to keep going? No? Don’t blame you. I pulled up in front of my house. Yes, it was old, and yes, it needed a coat of paint. Maybe several coats of paint. But it was mine, and I loved the damn ugly thing. Why? The fucker was paid for. I sat in the truck staring at my house. At least I managed to have the electricity turned back on before I froze to death. Yeah, money was tight. The last thing, the very last thing, I had needed was for the one constant in my life—Carson—to bail on me too. It hurt. Hell, I hurt. I rapped my fist against the steering wheel, still pissed and angry weeks later. I wanted to scream and yell, just rip something to pieces, dammit.I didn’t used to be such a detestable, hateful person. I, Kirk Wells, was the fun-loving, happy guy everyone befriended. I used to have a ready smile and a kind word. Laid back and easy-going were words that easily described me. I stuck by my friends through thick and thin. I had honor. I was trustworthy. People knew they could depend on me. Many people enjoyed my company.  I had, in the past year, succeeded in nearly running everyone off. Go me.And I didn’t care. With the dark mood that hung over me, it was too much trouble to make nice. Took too much energy to act all happy and shit. I was tired, tired of life and everything connected to it. I just wanted to be alone. I shut off the truck and made my way to the backdoor, groceries in hand. I got the door open and managed to set the food down on the counter before I dropped the bag. I slammed the door shut. Man, my hands were cold. Damn snow was coming down harder since I’d left Walmart. By morning it was going to be a winter wonderland of nut-grinding insanity. The forecast said we were due to get a foot, at least. Fucking lovely. Folks down here couldn’t drive on sunny days. Throw snow in the mix and you had accidents just looking for a place to happen. None for me, thank ya. I was very glad I decided not to open since tomorrow was New Years day. “Okay, so, groceries bought. Check. Next on the list, getting a fire going.”Which meant getting wood from outside. Taking a deep breath, I braved the outdoors again. Seeing snow piling up, I decided to carry several loads inside. After the second trip, I just left the door open. And hey, the flood light out back decided to work suddenly. What luck. Now I could actually see what I was picking up. After the fourth trip, I was panting like a wet dog, but had enough wood to last the night. I stomped the snow off my boots and headed toward the door when a streak of black raced passed me, making a beeline to the open back door. “What the fuck?” I glanced in the kitchen.“Meow!” On the table sat one of the biggest black cats I’d ever seen, giving me the eye.“Oh fuck me, I don’t think so.”
 TBC. 
Tali SpencerRaine O’TierneyJon KeysRob ColtonA.R. VonGrace Duncan  Chris T. KatLily Sawyer JC WallaceShelly SchulzElyzabeth VaLey Lily VeldenAndrew Q. GordonJulie Lynn Hayes