Dinner and a Murder

VJ's writing prompt for today is rather intriguing.  Essentially, think of something that evokes a conditioned response - fright, happiness, dread, whatever, and write about it with the opposite response.  Invite a murderer to dinner?  Happy to!

I've been thinking about it, and I'm not so sure I like the premise.  I mean, for the most part, we have conditioned responses because they're appropriate!  Some, of course, are not, such as phobias.  In the grand spirit of the prompt, however, here we go.

Dinner and a Murder

For months, my friends had been telling me to quit acting like I had to wait for someone to ask me out.  They kept insisting that I lose my old fashioned ways and step into the modern world where woman are equal.  So today, I finally shut them up.  I called all three of them - Alicia, Brianna, and Trisha, and I told them about the man I'd met and finally decided to invite to my place for dinner.

I did, however, leave out one small fact.  I neglected to mention the man is a murderer.  No, I don't know this because I saw him on TV, nor am I one of those prison groupies who always wants to pretend to be a bad girl by become a pen pal with a convict.  No, this man had never been tried or convicted for his crime.  Even better, he has no idea that I know what he is.

I stared at myself in the mirror, watching my expressions as I reviewed the events of the past few days.  There was a hint of excitement in my otherwise dull hazel eyes, the skin at their edges crinkling as I smiled.  I reached for the eye cream as Brianna's voice intruded into my thoughts, her constant nagging about proper skin care having apparently sunk in.  A laugh erupted from my mouth and I shook my head, letting the towel fall to the floor, then swiftly finishing up my post shower ritual.  Finally I was satisfied with my appearance.

(To be continued...)

Small Kindnesses

Fiona Robyn, author of Small Kindnesses, is hosting a blogsplash on Tuesday.  Everyone will be blogging about their own small kindnesses.  Since this is a subject near and dear to my heart, I decided I should participate.  Duh, right? ;)

I've been needing to get back to writing anyway, so this is going to get me going!

More information is available here: http://www.writingourwayhome.com/2012/11/what-small-kindness-do-you-remember.html

I'm also going to start doing some daily writing prompts.  VJ suggested this site - http://www.thingstobehappyabout.com/.  I think some of the "suggestions" are bizarre, but here's one I like:

elephants sliding down a slope for their morning bath

That thought really does make me smile.

The young boy sat on a rock, enjoying the coolness of the early morning, his mind unfettered by the worries of his parents.  He felt, even before he heard, the elephants approaching the small lake as they did every day at this time.  He watched, smiling as always, as the elephants slid down the hillside and splashed into the water, trumpeting and spraying water everywhere.  His eyes wandered over them, naming them off, noting how Darzi, the young male calf, had seemingly grown larger overnight.  Suddenly the smile froze on his face.  Arthola!  Where was Arthola?  The elder statesman of the herd, Arthola was the boy's favorite.  Where was he?

Wakey wakey little muse!  It's time to get up and get going!  Been far too long!

I'm writing this just to get myself past the "but I haven't written in so long" thoughts.  Now I have.  I've written three lines, and I'd guess I could probably write three more.  Shades of Alice's Restaurant... LOL

GK is amusing me tonight by posting story prompts.  I rarely respond to them - they seem to artificial and difficult to reconcile.  For instance:

The story is about a private spy. It takes place in an insane asylum in Mexico City. The story begins with smuggling and ends with an eavesdropping. The return of an ancient evil plays an important part in the story.

However, this one gave me pause:

The story is about a cab driver who is constantly opposed by a space cargo hauler. It starts in an outlaw nation. Magic is increasing in power, and that plays an important role in the story.

When the evil warlock, Xavier, having been imprisoned on Mars since being exiled from Earth in the early 21 century, begins plotting his return to the third planet, no inhabitant of the universe is safe.  Meanwhile, James John Davenport, aka Jimmy John, becomes increasingly disturbed by images he discovered on his daughter's palm-held holograph unit and narrowly misses a mid-air collision with one of Earth's most notorious space cargo pilots, a man known only as Mr. C.