Sunday, March 10, 2013

Prompt

Sometimes I sit here, looking at my blinking cursor and wondering what you want to read.  Sometimes I sit here and think about the stories I might tell.  Sometimes I think about the bits of my life that I share and the ones I can't share.

In the end, it's still a blank screen with a blinking cursor.

Today you will get some random thing from my brain brought on by a writing prompt.  One of the writing prompt services I use is Writing.com.  It's a fun app.  You shake your phone and get a list of words or scenes or photos.  You can get texts or sketches or news.  I sometimes shake through a bunch before I find one that tweaks my mind, but I do always come to one.

Here are tonight's words: seal, disapprove, interrupt, throat, new

And here is your story.

Allison woke up groggy and sore.  She struggled to open her eyes against the gooey, crunchy stuff that let her know she was sicker than she thought.  Using one arm she pushed herself up in bed and reached with the other to grab the box of tissues from the night stand.  In the process she knocked over her water bottle, several tubes of chap stick and heard various cough drops hitting the floor.

"Damn," she tried to mutter.  Nothing came out.  Her throat had a brutal seal of phlegm that left her speechless.

This is going to be fantastic she thought to herself while blowing her nose.  Each time she blew her nose her ears would disapprove with loud popping.

For a moment she sat, a pile of used tissues in her lap, her head throbbing, and pondered going back to sleep for the day.  Within moments her children interrupt her thoughts with their demands.

Allison is silent, to their delight, as she waves them off and slides out of bed.  Seeing her getting up sends the kids dashing off in a scurry of activity and scramble to get ready for the day.  By the time she comes down stairs they have managed to pull themselves together in a way that is, for today, good enough.

As the morning drags on she finds the kids are more quiet than normal.  It's a new kind of peaceful start to the day.

Maybe, she thinks to herself, I will have laryngitis in the before and after school hours every day!

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