The Bettermost Drabblefest: Please Join In!

[mariez]

Hey, what a nice lunchtime treat to find all these early drabbles -

.  .  .
“An explanation is long overdue” the artist whispered near Ennis’s ear.  “I so hope it helps you.”

Yes, I'm dying to know!  I love how you've described the artist, Marl - so ethereal, so calm. 

Overdue
.  .  .not an overdue dream held as hard and close in him as his bones. 

Ahh - what a perfect use of the prompt!  And what a perfectly heartbreaking way to describe Jack's dream.   

.  .  .
Bobby is beaming. "Would I! And fly on a plane!.....Dad you the best!" 

Thanks for making me - and Bobby - smile, Mark!    -  and you always manage to find the perfect picture!

Thanks, drabblers
Marie

[MaineWriter]

Lazy L Farm
Quanah, TX
October 1976

Jack poured a bag of M & Ms into the glass bowl and set it on the table.

“What are these for?” asked Ennis, as he picked out a few red, green, and yellow candies.

“Tom is comin ta visit. It’s kinda nice, have some candy out for a guest. My mother used ta do that.”

“Oh, okay,” said Ennis, picking at a few more of the colored candies and popping them in his mouth.

“Don’t eat em all,” scolded Jack, “and stop eatin’ just the colored ones. Ya need ta eat the brown ones, too.”

“I don’t like the brown ones,” replied Ennis. “They’re too ordinary.”

“Doesn’t matter if they’re ordinary, they taste the same. ‘Sides, it ain’t polite to have just a bowl a brown M & Ms,” he said, slapping Ennis’s hand away. Once again, he was picking through, selecting the bright colors, leaving the browns behind.

Ennis paused for a minute, looking at the bowl. “Ya know, Jack,” he said, “we could do somethin’ really wild.”

“What’s that?”

“We could eat just the colored ones and throw the brown ones away.”

“Ennis! What are ya sayin? That wasteful. The brown ones are perfectly fine.”

“I know, I’m just sayin…we can afford ta put candy out for a guest, we own this farm, we got money in the bank…maybe, just maybe we could be a little wild and crazy here, throwin out the brown ones.”

Jack smiled. “That’s yer idea of crazy?” he said. “Throwin away half a bag of 89 cent M & Ms?”

Ennis nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m pretty tight with a dollar, not sure I could throw away much more than a few M & Ms.”

Jack took a handful of candies from the bowl and smoothed out Ennis’s palm, counting the colored ones into it. “Tell ya what, you eat these and I’ll eat the brown and then nothin’ goes ta waste.”

Ennis laughed. “You’d do that for me?”

“I would,” Jack nodded.

”Must be love.”

(341 words)

[Lumière]

Needing to Know

“An explanation is long overdue” the artist whispered near Ennis’s ear.  “I so hope it helps you.”

   Looks like we'll find out soon! 
Looking forward to it Marl!

        “Someday, Bobby.” Jack plopped Bobby’s hat down on his head, and turned him toward the door, as he tucked his own books under his arm, the ones he’d requested special from the ag college library, about intensive ranching, the ones Lureen assumed were for some vague far-off retirement plans, not an overdue dream held as hard and close in him as his bones.

I love this portion!  Good going Fern! 

[Lumière]

April 11, 1978

Bobby is beaming. "Would I! And fly on a plane!.....Dad you the best!"

Wouldn't it have been awesome to see some more Jack/Bobby interaction like this?
Cheers Mark! 

“Don’t eat em all,” scolded Jack, “and stop eatin’ just the colored ones. Ya need ta eat the brown ones, too.”

Leslie ~ I always end up with the colored ones .. The brown ones are my favorite! 

[Lumière]

Wow .. all these awesome drabbles today! 
Okay, here is my dabble.  Sorry, I went teeny bit over .. but here goes:


One Summer's Dream ..

Summer 1983

Jack whistled merrily and stuck his arm out of the truck window, loving the feeling of the warm summer breeze upon his skin.  Today had to be one of the happiest days of his life.  He glanced over at the passenger seat; Ennis was cracking his knuckles nervously, his eyes fixed on Jack.

“Ennis, we’re goin’ on holiday!  A fuckin’ long overdue holiday!  Why the hell are ya so tense?!  Relax, will ya?” Jack beamed, running a hand along Ennis’ thigh.

“Better focus on the road, Jack.  Don’t want ya drivin’ us off the damn road..” Ennis cautioned, a smile dancing around the corner of his lips.  “How long before we get there?

“Er..about two hours tops!”

About twenty minutes after they passed the sign welcoming them into Acuna, Mexico, Jack pulled up to the side of a small, yellow building with the words Casa de la Ciudad de Acuña carved on a metal sign by the front entrance.  They grabbed their bags and walked into the motel.  They were welcomed at the door by the aroma of incense and herbs; and by a cheerful middle-aged woman in a white peasant blouse and a twirly red skirt.  She said something in Spanish and flashed a bright smile.  Ennis looked over from her to Jack as he answered her; Jack must’ve known what he was saying because in a few moments, she was leading them down a narrow corridor to a little sunny room on the far right. 

“Well, fuck me!  Ya speak Spanish?”  Ennis asked in amazement once they were alone.  Jack nodded, reaching for his belt buckle and walking towards Ennis.

“I’m full a surprises, Ennis. Like..” he paused, eyeing Ennis’ lips, “Did ya know that I’ve had a boner for the past thirty minutes .. just waiting to get ya here, alone ..all to myself?” his breathing was growing ragged and their lips now a hare’s breath apart.  Ennis slid his hand between Jack’s legs and caressed the bulge he found there.  Jack sighed deeply; their lips came together, hard …

Jack awoke suddenly; beads of perspiration dotted all over his forehead.  He could feel the warm, wet stickiness down there, through the light fabric of his pajama bottoms.  The clock on Lureen’s vanity read 4.35am.  He lay back dolefully into the pillows and stared at the ceiling, his heart still racing.  Few moments later, he closed his eyes, praying for sleep and more ... That was to be his last dream of Ennis ..

[haunted_by_bbm]

Okay, something funny happened to me this morning when I read the daily drabble prompts...and I am going to completely and totally blame it on the medication I'm on.  I misread one of the prompts, and didn't realize it until just a moment ago when I read Leslie's drabble.  I'm sitting here laughing my ass off, so I decided to post my mistake anyway, hoping that maybe everyone will smile and cut me some slack since I think the blood thinning medicine is making me hallucinate.      lol    Cristine 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bill Paying Time

“What the hell is this?”  Jack threw the creased white envelope into Ennis’ lap with a mild irritation Ennis rarely saw from the man.

Ennis looked cautiously at the envelope in question, and cringed.

“Oh, where’d you find that?  Thought I hid it.”  Ennis ducked his eyes below his brim for just a moment before slowly looking up to gauge Jack’s expression.  “Just didn’t want you to be pissed, Bud.”

Jack’s mouth began to twitch. 

“You did hide it, friend.  Found it under your Hamley’s saddle catalog.” 

Jack’s mouth worked its way into a grin. 

“Now, please…explain THAT to me,” Jack laughed, pointing to the Addressee section on their shared utility bill: M. & Ms. Ennis del Mar.   

Ennis relaxed, shaking his head, joining in the laughter. “They screwed up.”

Jack snorted.

“Yeah, but now we did too.  Look at that.”  Jack pointed to the date in the corner.  “You hid it so well, the damn bill is overdue now.  We gonna have to pay a late fee, En.” 

Jack chuckled, more amused by Ennis’ expression than annoyed by the electric company’s mistake.

“aahh, fuck!”  Ennis grumbled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(192 Words) 

[Lumière]

Hey C!

I read it the same way when I saw the prompts this morning! hehe.. 
I only clued in like way later!! lol

[haunted_by_bbm]

Hey C!

I read it the same way when I saw the prompts this morning! hehe.. 
I only clued in like way later!! lol

LOL !!!  Thank you!   I guess I should write another one, properly this time. 
But I was laughing so hard, I just had to post it.    

[MaineWriter]

LOL !!!  Thank you!   I guess I should write another one, properly this time. 
But I was laughing so hard, I just had to post it.    

Hey, I am glad you did, I think it's great!

L

[Cameron]

HI,

This is so wonderful, what a super amazing drabble party we got going on here today.

I don't know how to put in more than one quote at a time but,

L-so glad your drabbling again, I leave the brown ones too.

Mark and Fern-Wonderful drabbles again!

M-You really had me going today, wow, that was something.!!!

C-great fun drabble, no matter what the prompt.

Thiis is so cool 

Marl