Author Topic: The Bettermost Drabblefest: Please Join In!  (Read 1183225 times)

Offline Lumière

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Re: The Bettermost Drabblefest: Please Join In!
« Reply #790 on: March 20, 2007, 12:10:00 pm »
   In any event... this forum with the prompts seems to be an access point.  Sometimes I read the prompts in the morning and the drabble just begins to form.  At other times... I read them and wonder how in the world can anything be done with those?... and then an hour or so later... they have formed themselves and want to be written... 

   Is anyone else experience this sort of stuff?  How is it for others here with this? 

Well said TH. 
I do alot of BBM fanart and the process of starting with an idea and a bunch of pictures and ending up with one picture that attempts to describe what you feel or see in your mind's eye is a wonderful one.  I find it is almost the same with drabbling .. the prompts are little pieces of inspiration that can be built into a picture, telling a story that the words inspire.  There is so much creativity on this thread and it is a treat to get to experience first hand how the prompts tickle our imaginations in beautiful and different ways.


Quote
The drabbles are good. If I can make a gentle reminder, we are supposed to try and stay between 100 and 300 words. I haven't deleted anything and even I am guilty of going over on length, so I am not going to be too obnoxiously strict. But if everyone could make an attempt to keep their drabbles short, the mgt. would appreciate it!

I am glad no drabble has been deleted, Leslie.    We've all gone abit over the limit sometimes.
Thanks for the reminder.  :)


Offline jpwagoneer1964

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Re: The Bettermost Drabblefest: Please Join In!
« Reply #791 on: March 20, 2007, 12:20:09 pm »
FALL 1988

Ennis and Jack have just broken a frozen lock on one of the buildings on their ranch they have own since late 1984. Inside is a large object covered in canvas.Jack pulls it back first revealing headlights, radiator, fenders of a very old vehicle. “Ennis look at this”

Ennis remains outside. “ Jack, it just a old wreck.”

Jack continues pull back on the canvas, folding it over in sections. “No Ennis look, this aint a wreck.” he opens the drivers door and steps in. “Ennis.” Tilts his head motioning Ennis to follow.

“I can see from here”

“C’me here, I want to show you something” Jack looking back at Ennis.

Ah'll just stay out here."

"Get in here! What’a you afraid of?”

“Spiders.” Ennis answers quickly

“Oh yeah…since when?”

‘Since we been ah poking around buildings nobody’s been in fer 40 years!”

“Just get you ass in here.” Jack opens the passenger door from the inside handle.

Ennis walks over to the passenger side and sits down with his feet on the running board.

Jack looks at him, his hands in the steering wheel. “Now get those long legs of yours in here stick ‘m on the floor.” Ennis has to negotiate his boots around the tight space between the seat and door sill. “Now pull the door shut.” as he closes the door there is a solid click. Jack then turns toward Ennis, as he does the brim of his hat is caught by Ennis’s so that it remains pointing straight, their noses nearly touching.

“Now what’a you think?”

Ennis notices that he is shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, knee to knee against Jack on the narrow seat, his right shoulder against the door. Ennis gives Jack a pensive grin. “Well…um”

“Not a bad way to travel…eh?”

“Travel?…This thing hasn’t moved in maybe 30, 40 years, don’t think it’s going nowhere.”

Jack reaches down picks up an old piece of paper on the floor, pushing against Ennis as he does so.
“look like its been more than fifty” Hands the paper to Ennis.

In fountain penned handwriting Ennis reads:

December 5, 1937

1.crankcase filled

2.radiator drained

3.gas tank drained

4.differental filled

5.transmission filled

6.battery removed, for use in Fordson tractor.

7.emergency brake not engaged.

“Ennis someone parked it here for the winter back in 1937 when our daddy‘s were hardly grown, never used it again.” Jack is excited.

Ennis finds the window crank, rolls the window down, rests his arm in the sill, sticks his head out looks down. “Guess that’s why them tires are flat.”

“Ennis, we could do some fine travelin’ in this, boy.”

“Thing ‘ill never run, been sit‘n too long.”

 
“What is this anyways? Sure aint no Ford!” Jack is remembering what is left of an old Ford Model A, nothing but a shell left, on the homestead at Lightning Flat. They both get out to inspect the exterior. Jack open one of the rear doors, hinged at the rear of the car. Inside are several card board boxes “Lookie that! Nice big back seat, look at that upholstery , heavy like fur, should try it out sometime.” Gleam in is eye

“Sure enough, once make ya sure there’s no spiders.” Jack closes the door, they both walk around to the front, look at the enamel badge on the radiator.

“What the hell is a WK?”

“Dun no, never heard of it Jack” They stand back a bit to gaze. They see a spare tire mounted on each front fender, with a black rubberized canvas cover that has the same, ‘WK’ insignia , dark maroon almost brown paint, only slightly faded, black on the upper body, bright red pinstripe to match the wire wheels.

“It’s all here Ennis, nothing missing, headlights, door handles, even the hubcaps and look they have the same WK on ‘em. Wouldn‘t take no time to maker her run”

“I don’t know Jack” Ennis says without much enthusiasm.

 
Jack open the drivers door, pulls out something from a pocket in the driver’s door. “Ennis….look.”

Operating Instructions

1930 Willys-Knight

Model 87

Willys-Overland, INC.,

Toledo, Ohio

October, 1929

“I heard ‘da the Willys Jeep, bit this ain’t no Jeep.” Ennis looks blankly at Jack.

“Looks like maybe this was what they made before Jeeps, sure ain’t no Ford Model A.”

A few hours later after a supper of half bound burgers grilled on the barbeque, with cheese, red onion, tomatoes, lettuce, the rest of the mashed potatoes Ennis and Jack are on the porch enjoying the sunset. Jack is stretched out on the wooden bench with cushions leaning against Ennis absorbing the information in the manual.

“Says here she’s got 55 horsepower at 3000 RPM, seven bearing crankshaft….” Jack rattles on.

“Don’t sound like much, huh?” Ennis rests his arm on Jack’s chest.

“Top speed 65 miles an hour, crusing speed 45-50 miles an hour….”

“Ya think you’d like that? Yer used to goin’ eighty or more across the plains.”

“Only reason was goin’ so fast was to meet up with you. Don’t seem much point now that I be ride’n with you. Be able to slow down, enjoy the ride.”

Ennis tightens his hold, has doubts that it 'she' will ever run again.

“It’ll be great Ennis, stick our camping gear in the back and head off.” Jack continues his banter. “So tomorrow c’n we get a new battery ‘n all get this show on the road, gotta go into town for supplies anyways?”

Ennis runs his fingers through Jack’s hair. “Sure enough bud. Just dun’ no if it’ll ever run again.”

Jack butts head against Ennis’s chest a bit.





Excerpt from 'ENNIS AND JACK IN THE KNIGHT'
Thank you Heath and Jake for showing us Ennis and Jack,  teaching us how much they loved one another.

Offline TH

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Re: The Bettermost Drabblefest: Please Join In!
« Reply #792 on: March 20, 2007, 04:20:49 pm »
1930 Willys-Knight

  I'd take a ride in that any day...  -spiders and all!   -grin
I know you think I know that you know what you think I said.
Know you what you think I know you know is not what I meant?

Offline Cameron

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Re: The Bettermost Drabblefest: Please Join In!
« Reply #793 on: March 20, 2007, 04:41:56 pm »
Not This Time?

(April 1980)
Cassie finally got a phone call from Ennis about 10:30 last night, after she had been waiting for so long.  He said that he was sorry and that “somethin had come up.”  He promised that he would come over the next day.  He promised.

Cassie said okay.  She always has.  Regardless of what he did to her, or actually, whenever he acted like he forgot all about her, she always forgave him right away.  Her Momma was starting to tell Cassie that she was just wasting her time.  “She’s probably right” Cassie said with a sigh while driving home the next day.  But there was something about him.  She sometimes tried to figure it out, what it was that put him in all her thoughts, what is was that made it seem like her heart was aching just seeing him.  Cassie tried to understand.  But she never could.   

But today was different.  Cassie was upset and angry.  “I shouldn’t forgive him, just like that, not after that” she kept telling herself all day.   Cassie wondered all day what was so important to Ennis all of a sudden.  It didn’t make sense.  It could have been about the girls, but then he would have told her about that.  No, she was angry this time.

But Cassie stopped by the bakery on the way home from the restaurant.  She got a couple of those little cakes that she had bought there before.  Chocolate with nuts.  Ennis said that he liked them the last time.  She was angry, but she bought them anyway.

Cassie was driving along slowly.  All of a sudden a truck blew right by her, going way past the speed limit.  Cassie was able to get a glimpse of the driver in that truck.  It looked like it was the cowboy who was at the restaurant yesterday.  The one with the dark hair and mustache, and the beautiful blue eyes.

Cassie got home.  She started to make dinner.  There was a knock on the door.  It was Ennis.  He kissed her cheek and took her hand.

“Sorry, ‘bout yesterday” he said.

He seemed so earnest.  Cassie felt that tug at her heart, and forgave him.  Again.



Offline Lumière

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Re: The Bettermost Drabblefest: Please Join In!
« Reply #794 on: March 20, 2007, 04:43:48 pm »
My contribution:  :)


The importance of being earnest ..

May 1983

Jack stood by the side of the road and watched the old truck drive away, leaving a cloud of rising dust and silence in its wake.  He was speechless, enraged, disappointed and miserable – a familiar blend of emotions that coursed through him every time they parted.  This time was harder, the emptiness weighed down on his soul like a ton of bricks.  His throat constricted and burned as he fought the urge to cry or scream at the top of his lungs.

His mood had deteriorated an hour into the trip to Lightning Flat.  He was thankful that the roads were not busy because he’d caught himself driving over the speed limit thrice already.  He just needed to get there, gather his thoughts, clear his hazy mind and decide what he was going to do.

‘All them things I don’t know might get you killed if I come to know them..’,
he heard Ennis say, his tone laced with bitterness and anger.  His mind revisited the image of Ennis hitting the ground hard on his knees, crumbling like a sand statue hit by a tidal wave.  In all of their twenty years together, he’d never seen him look so wretched, so lost and alone.  How much he needed to hold Ennis in his arms, and tell him he loved him and needed him just as much as he did all those years ago, if not more.  Like a dam crushed by the enormous pressure from the water it holds, he was bowled over; his resistance cracked and the tears fell.

He felt like he was rolling on a thousand shards of broken glass; his flowing tears only a shallow revelation of the helplessness and anguish that slowly overtook him.  He pulled over on the side of the road and covered his face in both hands, his shoulders trembled as he released some of the pain.  ‘It’s because of you I’m like this .. I’m nuthin’ .. I’m nowhere..’ he had said.  With earnest tears and a breaking heart, he finally pulled himself together and whispered as if to a ghost, “Let be .. I’ll let you be, Ennis .. I’ll let you be..”.  He wiped his tear-stained face with the back of his hand and resumed the journey. 

Later that night after supper, he lay on the tiny bed, the stained plaid shirt resting on the pillow next to his head.  He buried his nose in the fabric and then placed a kiss on it.  “I’ll always love ya … and you know it..”  he whispered.





                                     
« Last Edit: March 20, 2007, 09:40:27 pm by Lucise »


Offline mariez

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Re: The Bettermost Drabblefest: Please Join In!
« Reply #795 on: March 20, 2007, 05:55:35 pm »
"Ghosts are the memory of people that have lived.  Spirits are those people present."

TH, have you written or have you considered writing a fanfic?  This story is really lovely.


.  .  .
Excerpt from 'ENNIS AND JACK IN THE KNIGHT'

Mark, I just read this story last night - and I enjoyed it so much.  I loved seeing Ennis and Jack having fun, discovering new interests and venturing out in the world to meet new people!  I even googled the car so I could imagine J&E driving along.  Your stories always make me happy, Mark.   :)


.  .  .But there was something about him. 

Marl, your Cassie muse is in fine form - another excellent drabble.  This is the essential sentence that says it all. 


.  .  .He felt like he was rolling on a thousand shards of broken glass; .  .  .
How many times can my heart break for them?  And then that picture . . . .  :'(

Thanks, drabblers
Marie
The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis         ~~~~~~~~~Thurgood Marshall

The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself.    ~~~~~~~~~ Mark Twain

Offline Cameron

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Re: The Bettermost Drabblefest: Please Join In!
« Reply #796 on: March 20, 2007, 08:55:47 pm »
Hi all,

I just wanted you to know that I finished the next part of the Neighbor, or Ennis and Tom.  i started it yesterday before there were prompts and I decided to leave it that way.  Since I am like Ennis and always try follow the rules, I felt funny posting it here because there are no prompts and it is fairly long, for a drabble certainly.  But I wanted you to know that I did post it to Live Journal.  Here is the link.
http://aileb42.livejournal.com/4758.html
I hope you read this new part, and I sure do hope you like it.

Marl



Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: The Bettermost Drabblefest: Please Join In!
« Reply #797 on: March 20, 2007, 10:59:50 pm »
           mARL'

    Marl you know we have a a writers corner, where you can post any kind of story, poem song, or whatever you do.
 
You would be very welcome to post it in that...There is no restrictiion on length. or prompts... so it would be something to think about using..

                                                                                                      janice
« Last Edit: March 20, 2007, 11:36:51 pm by ifyoucantfixit »



     Beautiful mind

Offline mariez

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Re: The Bettermost Drabblefest: Please Join In!
« Reply #798 on: March 21, 2007, 10:17:17 am »
Mornin'!

I'll throw some prompts out for you drabblers -

  • a wink
  • anxiety
  • 100%

See ya later!

Marie
The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis         ~~~~~~~~~Thurgood Marshall

The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself.    ~~~~~~~~~ Mark Twain

Offline jpwagoneer1964

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Re: The Bettermost Drabblefest: Please Join In!
« Reply #799 on: March 21, 2007, 12:10:10 pm »
Late Fall 1984

Our boys are waking up to a chilly dawn, long day of work ahead of them on their newly purchased ranch in Colorado. Ennis reaches in the closet for warmer shirt, picks out one of Jack's, dark all cotton gray blue with a herringbone weave, fingering the sleeve.

"Ennis....you wanna wear my shirt....it's ok.

"Well....umm...."

"Here..." Jack pulls the shirt of the hanger holding it up for Ennis to slide his arms in. Ennis gingerly slips in the shirt, still with a hint of the sent of Jack, slowly fastening the buttons, smoothing the fabric of his chest.

"Fits good don't it?" Jack as he adjusted the collar, then placing his hands on Ennis's shoulders. "C'n wear it anytime ya want....Any of 'em."

"Um.....Thanks....Jack......." Ennis looking at his reflection in the mirror. "You can do the same......if yer ever want too...." Jack reached his arms around  Ennis holding him close, chin on his neck.

"Come on cowboy....comin' ta help me with  breakfast?"

"Sure bud.....don't want ya burnin' it." Ennis replied.
Thank you Heath and Jake for showing us Ennis and Jack,  teaching us how much they loved one another.