The Bettermost Drabblefest: Please Join In!

[mariez]

. . ..   The walking just made him remember more.

(100 words, first time ever!!!)

We can't run, or walk, away from the past, can we?  And isn't it fun making it hit that 100 words?   

     Ennis had never wished John Twist dead, planted beneath a granite tombstone, but hearing that news felt like a 5000 ton boulder had been lifted off his shoulders. 
    The trio made their way to the little white frame house.  Ennis in the truck, Wylie and her on horseback, she sat mounted awkwardly behind him, arms wrapped around his waist. 
    Ennis got a big hug from Mattie Twist and, ashamed he couldn’t pronounce her name, introduced his companion simply as “Mrs. P.”  Once inside, everybody gathered around the table in the white kitchen for fresh hot coffee and some cherry cake. 

    100 words

Aww... about the "Mrs. P"!  Lots of people have trouble with that, Ennis. Granite, in any form, seems a natural fit for John Twist.

Marie

[mariez]

Hi, everyone.  These popped into my head today:

• life
• liberty
• the pursuit of happiness

Marie

[mariez]

Newfangled Ideas

"The question is 'What does "the pursuit of happiness" mean to you?'  I need to ask three people."

Ennis cleared his throat.  "I guess it means trying to find ways to be ….. happy?" he finished lamely.  Damn that teacher and her newfangled ideas.

"But why is it important?"

Work hard, support your family, do what's right, fix what you can, stand what you can't.  That's what was important.  He heard his own daddy's words, but hesitated at passing those thoughts on.

But as he turned to meet Junior's solemn gaze, he had the feeling that somehow he already had.

~~~~~~~
100 Words

[Clyde-B]

     Afterwards, Wylie took Mrs.P. upstairs to see Jack’s room. 
     “Your friend is very colorful.”
     “I’m... sorry about the mister.”
     She sighed.  “After Jack died he just seemed all used up.”
     “You okay?”
     “Have to be.  Could use some extra hands.  John was a real workhorse.”
     “What about Bobby and Lureen?”
     “To them this is just scrubland.  Want me to sell, get an apartment.  An apartment?  Little bitty dogs?  Dinky little backyards?”  She shook her head.  “I’ve lived here more’n forty years.  Everything important in my life happened here.  Only way they’ll get me out of this house is feet first.”


       100 words
 
     

[mariez]

     Afterwards, Wylie took Mrs.P. upstairs to see Jack’s room. 
     “Your friend is very colorful.”
     “I’m... sorry about the mister.”
     She sighed.  “After Jack died he just seemed all used up.”
     “You okay?”
     “Have to be.  Could use some extra hands.  John was a real workhorse.”
     “What about Bobby and Lureen?”
     “To them this is just scrubland.  Want me to sell, get an apartment.  An apartment?  Little bitty dogs?  Dinky little backyards?”  She shook her head.  “I’ve lived here more’n forty years.  Everything important in my life happened here.  Only way they’ll get me out of this house is feet first.”

       100 words
    

Ennis and Mrs. T really relate don't they?  "Have to be."  Look forward to this every day, Clyde.

Marie

[mariez]

Off the top of my head for today:

• paper weight
• No. 2 pencil
• odd

Have fun!

Marie

[Penthesilea]

Newfangled Ideas

"The question is 'What does "the pursuit of happiness" mean to you?'  I need to ask three people."

Ennis cleared his throat.  "I guess it means trying to find ways to be ….. happy?" he finished lamely.  Damn that teacher and her newfangled ideas.

"But why is it important?"

Work hard, support your family, do what's right, fix what you can, stand what you can't.  That's what was important.  He heard his own daddy's words, but hesitated at passing those thoughts on.

But as he turned to meet Junior's solemn gaze, he had the feeling that somehow he already had.

~~~~~~~
100 Words

Loved this. Tough question for Ennis.
I loved especially that he hesitated to (deliberately) pass his own father's thoughts on.

[Clyde-B]

       That same evening, Ludd Craven and Ditch Hobbs, two graduates of  the high-security cellblock at Rawlins, sat in the back booth at Woody’s.  They’d been drifting; searching for someplace to practice their own sinister notion of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
       Hobbs leaned his wirey frame across the table and shot a snaggletoothed grin.  “What you think, Ludd.  Nice piece?”
       Craven’s bare scalp glistened with sweat.  Eyeing the bouncy blond in the blue tube top working behind the bar, he sucked a wayward dinner remnant from between his teeth.  “Looks like we got us some real possibilities here.”


     100 words

[Clyde-B]

  My apologies to my fellow drabblers, half the fun of doing this, is reading and replying to the people participating here.  I have a new job maintaining software I'm not familiar with yet, and it takes more time than I'm used to and leaves me exhausted, so I have been very lax in posting my replies.
   Writing is not easy for me to begin with.  (That's why I only do a hundred words  )

   Marl, I really like your Tom stories, I hope we find out more about him.  And I really understood that idea of the new journal being like starting with a clean slate.

   Marie, you make it look effortless, and they always have that kernel of truth.

    Janice, you showed what a strain it is for Ennis to always have to be in control.

    Leslie, you're right, sometimes kids are smarter than us all.

   Thank you all for your kind comments, even though I've been so remiss.

[MaineWriter]

Hi all,

For today, let's have some rhyming prompts:

• boaster
• coaster
• roaster
• toaster

L