This is my response to the Saturday Six-Word Story Prompt
The topic for today is DREAMS
Golden dreams, ever unreachable, fascinated him.
Six-Word Sad Tale
Tag: Dreams
Sudden Reality Check
The Ragtag Daily Prompt this morning is LIFE’S ALLUSIONS
My response will be a story about a young couple who’ve come to a crisis-point over life’s allusions and illusions.
THE BUDGET WON’T REACH
Rick pulled out his receipts and the notebook in which he was recording their monthly expenses. For several weeks Lexi had been alluding to the lack of money for extras; this morning she’d actually had to leave some things at the checkout because the debit card wouldn’t cover her grocery bill. The cashier had been nice about it, but she was so humiliated.
Her allusions were getting him down. He’d hoped to give her so much more than a tight budget and no money for extras. If possible he would find some way to free up some more funds for groceries. They did need to eat.
He started entering the receipts in his notebook when he came across one from Turner’s Home Trimmings. Lampshade: $42. Lampshade? Guess that explains why there wasn’t enough to cover the groceries, he thought.
Rick was annoyed. Why on earth did she buy a new lampshade when funds are so tight. She seems to have some serious illusions — or delusions? — about the lifestyle we can live on our income. Well, this lavish spending has to stop. Now.
“Lexi,” he called. “Did you just spend $42 on a lampshade?”
She hurried into the room. “Yes, I did,” she answered defensively. “The shade beside the couch was looking so tattered, I was ashamed to have anyone into our living room. I know what Mom would say if she saw it.”
“We could have made do with it for another year. I hate to disillusion you, but we can’t afford all this nice new stuff at this point in time. I’m not earning the kind of money your Dad is, not yet, so you just can’t spend like your mom does.”
“It’s only one thing — the first new thing this year. And there’s always VISA.”
“There is NOT always VISA. Credit does not mean FREE. Credit means deferred payment — preferably only until the end of the month. We have to cut out ALL unnecessary expenses until I’m earning more commission. Then you can buy new lampshades and such.”
“Well, if it makes you happy, I’ve cut out one expense. I’ve stopped buying birth control pills.”
Rick nodded. “Well, if you can do without…” He stopped and looked at her sharply. “And…?”
She blushed.
“And…?”
“And now we’re going to have a baby.” She sounded embarrassed, uncertain.
Rick put his head in his hands, extra expenses scribbling themselves in his brain. “That’s wonderful.” He took a deep breath and looked up at her again. “We’ll manage somehow.”
Lexi had imagined how she’d share the great news and they’d be so thrilled together. Now her illusions had burst like a pricked bubble, turning her stomach over on their way down. She rushed to the bathroom.
Another Dream Gone Down
This morning while I was searching for facts to go with my last “ANNIVERSARY” post, I came across one that I’ve decided to pair up with Crimson’s Creative Challenge this week. Here’s her photo and details:
Every Wednesday I post a photo. You respond with something CREATIVE.
Here are some suggestions:
- An answering photo
- A cartoon
- A joke
- A caption
- An anecdote
- A short story (flash fiction)
- A poem
- A newly minted proverb, adage or saying
- An essay
- A song—the lyrics or the performance
You have plenty of scope and only two criteria:
- Your creative offering is indeed yours
- Your writing is kept to 150 words or less
And here’s my response:
April 14, 1912
“If you don’t quit watching that ship and look where you’re puttin’ your feet we’ll be fishing you out of the drink.”
“But just look at her, will you,” Greg exclaimed as the ship sailed away. “Such a beauty! What I wouldn’t give to be aboard.”
“I don’t know. She might be cursed. What with everyone sayin’ even God can’t sink her, I’m afearin’ such pride’ may be over-grievin’ to th’Almighty. What if He decides to prove…”
Greg interrupted the pessimistic old salt. “The Almighty doesn’t give two pence what people are saying about her.”
“Lotta people aboard that ship.”
“And I’d give anything to be one of them!” Greg sighed and went back to winding cables on the dock. “Someday I’ll take that Titanic ship myself. See if I don’t!”
Come morning his dream was lost in the Atlantic’s icy waters, along with 1500 other dreams.
Tattered Dreams
a row of trees
half killed by winter winds
tattered summer dreams
Polynesian Dreams
The Ragtag Daily Prompt this morning is SOUTH SEAS. And looking outside at a white landscape today could well induce dreams of southern climes.
Here’s my response to the prompt:
Polynesian Dreams
Southern seas tantalize,
bathers frolic on sunlit beaches,
palms beckon from posters,
exotic birds and blooms entice.
My poor nose almost frozen
to the glass, my dreams drifting,
snow sifting under my collar
makes me shiver. Still
I linger a moment longer
in this January bluster
at the travel agency window
for one last tropical dream.
C.G.
Tumbling Scenes
Today’s prompt word over at Ragtag Daily Prompt is REALM
“Oh, a wonderful stream is the river of Time
as it runs through the realm of tears…
And blends with the ocean of years!”
From The Long Ago, by Benjamin F. Taylor
I had to think of another realm when I woke up this morning, after having had a wild, tumbling, crazy sequence of dreams. I went from playing baseball game to being bullied to walking down a road to going on our honeymoon—with our son-in-law and daughter as chauffeurs—to finding a motel room that was completely bare to another friend finding homes for boxer pups.
Dreams are indeed another realm. No one can say just how dreams come together in such a crazy quilt, with snatches of our real lives interwoven with stories we’ve read or heard. People wander through, fade in and out, morph into others. I’ve found that physical feelings like pain or a room too warm, even if not enough to wake me up, contribute to the amount and the wackiness of my dreams.
They can be interesting, that’s for sure. Some have even revealed attitudes I didn’t recognize when I was awake. Still, I sometimes think, “Blessed are they who never remember their dreams.”
What do you think?
At any rate, I’d like to invite you to pop over to the Ragtag Community and dream up some response of your own to the word REALM — which happens to be the one I suggested. 😉
Christine's Collection 