So did everyone have a lovely weekend? The sunshine was so needed, we spent a large percentage of the weekend in our back garden playing hide and seek, the current game of choice for the two little H’s. They haven’t quite gotten the hang of hide and seek as they both spend most of the time hiding, giggling and shouting helpful hints like, ‘We’re over here Mummy and Daddy!’
It looks like its going to be another busy week for me too writing wise. I have articles to submit for my freelance writing and a decision needs to be made on my next novel. I have two started and need to decide which one is the one to go with. Decisions, Decisions!
As it’s nearly lunchtime, I thought this was a perfect moment to publish our next entry to the 2013 Imagine, Write, Inspire Flash Fiction Competition. Sarah Magee, our writer today has done a great job defining her characters and I enjoyed reading this piece so much. It’s worth reading for the last line if nothing else – it made me giggle! And everyone needs a giggle of a dreary Monday!
If you want to play catch up on the competition to date, click here :-
http://carmelharrington.com/category/2013-imagine-write-inspire-flash-fiction-competition/
Thanks for stopping by and if you want to make sure you don’t miss out on any new entries, click the Follow button on the right hand side.
Carmel x
Where by Sarah Magee
Where’s he gone now? Gosh he is gone a long time. She felt colder and gritted her teeth. She just wanted to be at home by the fire with a big glass of wine listening to Queen. She itched and ached all over. What was she thinking agreeing to this meeting? It must nearly be tea time, her tummy gurgled. Some pasta would be nice. She needed a wee; just as well she didn’t have that extra cup of coffee with Susan at lunchtime as for sure she would’ve wet herself by now. She felt proud of her bladder, sore and all as it was! She shook herself; this is neither the time nor place for such mad thoughts.
‘Oh but you only live once and blah blah blah’. Ughh those D4 accents went round in her head, she couldn’t do them very well even inside her head. She wasn’t very good at that sort of thing. So how on earth did Susan and the rest of the girls manage to convince her? She wasn’t the ubber confident type like the rest of them well not sober anyway. She did possess enormous ‘Bacardi bravery’ at times!! Her nose twitched. She wanted to scratch it. But she couldn’t.
Her mother would be horrified by what she had done. She was the type of mother who pretty much wanted her to marry a priest even though they can’t get married but someone proper, perhaps a farmer or accountant would do. She wouldn’t be good enough for any of them now. God what if she does hit her mid-thirties and get desperate for babies? None of the ‘neighbours’ would even marry her if they knew what was going on now. Her mother will kick Susan’s ass for sure, god help when Susan Keogh meets the wrath of Mairead Quinn. Well they’d be lucky to understand each other’s accents for one! She imagined the pair of them in a temper at each other. Some stern pointing and then a broken nail on Susan’s finger would start the tears. Ok, well that wouldn’t happen but it would be funny.
She felt a light breeze drift by her and felt it was getting darker. Melanie could smell paint, turpentine petrol like smells and they braced her. Her wrists itched and so did her ankles. Oh my god that nose again. The smell reminded her of the time she had first moved to the city and she took up paint classes. She had a crush on Roy O’Rourke; he worked in the HR department. She saw him on her first morning there. Tanned, lean muscular, tight black hair, big brown eyes, perfection! She totally stalked him for months, monitoring his break times to make sure she would go the same time as him. Just so she could sit across the canteen and drool into her scone! Soggy scone! Yuck. Imagine she stalked him so much she took up the painting class that he was in. Then she had to make a total eejit of herself and ask him out at the Christmas party. What was she thinking; it was/is so obvious? Sure he was gayer than Graham Norton but he obliged her for a drink and the two became great friends. She ended up in the George dancing on a table sipping Mojitos, very sex and city , well , very lack of ‘sex’ but at least ‘in the city’ in her case. What would he think of her now in a pair of converse and a hoody? State of her! ‘Everyone should die in fashionable clothes’ as Roy would say. Ughhh she stank, she felt dirty. That new perfume didn’t last well, ‘ I won’t be buying that again, ever possibly ‘?
Her thoughts paused for a moment. She had been avoiding her real thoughts or well let’s face it her real worries. Melanie O’Shea you rightly fucked up now. Its naked you could die never mind the pair of converse and hoody. ‘I could die soon; I could die in a few minutes.’ Oh that nose again. She pictured police digging up her muddy corpse!! ‘This one got killed for fashion crimes obviously’ one of them said. Oh that was silly. What would she do? Would he come back and rape her? Or strip and beat her or do both and kill her at the end of it all? Or leave her so disfigured that no one would even believe it was her? Well weren’t they all so right, you only live once. And these could be her last moments. The ropes around her ankles and wrists were starting to hurt more than itch, and her nose. She had a dirty thought and tried to grin but with the duct tape she couldn’t move her mouth. She always wanted to be blindfolded but god not in this sort of way. So a snort noise came from her nose instead of a smile. Muffled Ahhhhhhhhh ttttt tissue!!!!!!!!!!!Oppps! He had told her to be quiet.
A few of Roy’s arty friends knew him, and went to him for their drugs they liked to have the odd puffs of a joint (ha ha and they were puffs too). All she wanted was a few joints for Laura’s hen in a few weeks. Oh the mess, the mess she was in. She heard footsteps more than one! She knew well if this wasn’t the Gardai she could well be found dead in a pair of converse and a hoody. At least she was wearing nice knickers.
Sarah Magee lives in Kildare and is wife to Killian and stay at home Mum to Sophie and Arthur! She has a BA in Journalism and Media Communications and many years ago wrote a small social column for a local paper ! She joined the Department of Defence which she is on a career break since having her first baby ! She is looking forward to get back to writing as she feels her brain has been going to mush with all the baby talk!
