Category: Weekly Writing Challenge

The 2AM Photo

~ JodiLea ~ 2 Comments

A Creative Writing Challenge: It’s 2AM and your phone has just buzzed you awake, filling the room in white-blue LED light. You have a message. It’s a photo. No words, no explanation. Just a photo. Tell us all about it. And what happens next…

Emmy sleepily reached for her cell phone. It was flashing its LED light, and buzzing on the nightstand.  The display showed “You have a new message”, and the time it arrived – 2:00AM. No one she knew would send a text this late. Unless it was an emergency.

Now wide awake, she took her phone from the nightstand and displayed the message. There was no subject line, nor were there words – just an image.

The photo took her breath away, and filled her soul with a deep sadness. She stared at it, confused. Emmy had not seen the photo before, but remembered that day clearly. She and Jeff were in the National Forest, having a picnic lunch. Whoever took the picture must have had one heck of a zoom lens, Emmy thought.  It was the last time she saw Jeff. The tears that were brimming in her eyes, now spilled down her cheeks.
The deep pain rushed back to her, like a vengeful boomerang.

She had no idea who could have taken this photo.  And why would they send it to her now?

Emmy hit the “Reply” button and got an error message instead of the senders email address.

“Dammit!!” she swore loudly. Tracking down this person will not be easy.

– to be continued…

I Turisti

~ JodiLea ~ 2 Comments

Weekly Writing Challenge: (A picture is worth 1,000 words):
couple-embrace-WWC

The walk to the plaza was long and uphill. If he had the money to waste, Anton would take the trolley instead of the tiered cobblestone sidewalk. At least on burning hot and humid days – like today.

The alleyway was shabby in daylight. The tall buildings lining the strada were worn and dirty from decades of weather and graffiti.  Automobiles, motorbikes, and bicycles were forbidden here.  Technically,  Salire in Cima, Climb to the top, was not a street.  Just trolley tracks and cobblestone steps flanking them.

A pretty girl in a flowered summer dress caught his eye. She walked down the steps from the top of the plaza.  As he watched,  the trolley screeched to a stop behind him, and chatting passengers began to exit.

Suddenly, the girl was standing directly in front of  him. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close.  He felt her breath on his neck and her rapid heartbeat against his chest.  What the Hell? Did he know her?

“Please,” she whispered. “My ex-boyfriend just got off the trolley and I don’t want him to see me!”

Anton put his arms around her, going along with her ruse, even though he had his suspicions.  Things like this didn’t happen to him. Ever.

“Sei un ladro?” he whispered in reply. He asked her if she was a pickpocket.

“Cosa?”  She replied in Italian “What?”

“My apartment is nearby – you could hide there,” he said softly, in English, while his fingers played with her hair.

So, Italian was not her native language. She pronounced words correctly enough, but her grammar made a mess of them. Normally this would irritate him, but this was not an ordinary day. Not at all.

Paper vs. Electronics

~ JodiLea ~ 3 Comments

Isn’t technology great?  People love having a whole library of books available to them, that they can read at whatever font size they want to and still have text clarity. The newer e-book readers (Nook, Kindle,…) will allow wireless access to the Internet, so you can play Words With Friends and stuff.  I would love to have one.

However…

I’m sticking with paperbacks because:

  • I do not need another thing to carry in my purse (or put in a plastic bin at the airport).
  • Batteries never run low in paperbacks. No matter how long it takes you to read them.
  • Paperbacks aren’t ruined when you drop them or run over them with your car.
  • Paperbacks can dry out and be readable after getting dunked in water.
  • You do not have to have internet access to buy a paperback.
  • You can buy a paperback at your local grocery store for $2.99,  instead of paying  $199.99 for an iSomething.
  • It’s legal to pass around a paperback with your friends.

Note: This does not mean that I would refuse a Kindle Fire, should I get one for my birthday  🙂