short story – Page 2

X Marks the Spot

February 5, 2021 Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

Shandy sat at the dining table in Clarabelle’s home, and took a long, silent pause before opening up to her friend about why she moved from the nice, warm south to the cold Midwest winters in Iowa. “It’s like this, Clair, I came here to start over for a reason, and since Aunt Cherri had a place for me to bunk for a bit, I decided to give it a try, you see, I came here because I was escaping something.”

“Dear, you don’t have to explain yourself to me, I understand we all make changes for our own reasons, and, well, it’s really nobody else’s business.”

Looking Clarabelle straight in her sweet, soft eyes, Shandy’s brows squeezed with intent, and she spoke to these intentions, “I know I don’t have to tell you my story, but it is a story I want to tell, after all, I find the stories you have shared about Herbie really touch my heart, and, well, I want you to know about my true love, and who doesn’t like a good romance?”

Clarabelle nodded her head in agreement and smiled at Shandy, “well, when you put it that way, I am all ears, please do tell me your story.”

“It all began when I was just fresh out of high school, my friend since grade school, Mason, and I discovered we were falling in love, especially when I learned he would have to go to Vietnam, and, well, I realized right then that I could not bear losing him and I could not bear not loving him for all his worth, and, well, we go married shortly after realizing our mutual feelings and knowing he must go away, we wanted to stay together with a commitment of marriage, so we got married at the courthouse, and it was not long before he had to go away; when we got married there was the marriage certificate to sign by the “X” and Mark looked me in the eyes and said, X marks the spot but you have put a big red X on my heart ever since we met as children, and now you have staked your claim, for that I am forever grateful, and, well, I will never forget that, Clair, and I knew he was even more that one for me.”

*****

This is my story to contribute to Denise’s Six Sentence Story Challenge. This weeks word is “Mark” You can go HERE to join us or to see what other stories are waiting for your reading.

Short Fiction, six sentence story, writing

Ribbons That Flow in Meanings of Love

October 8, 2020October 8, 2020 Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

From the first time he saw her he knew he must touch her curly hair, not a freakish kind of way, but the allure of the softness, the scent of herbal shampoo, drew him to her every day she sat in front of him in 8th grade, and she always had her hair pulled back with a ribbon, making it even more irresistable to tug on the tail, and he did.

Turning around to look at him, she was immediately taken in by his warm, brown eyes, and dark curly hair, and she smiled and so did he, and this begin a ritual every school day; which did not end after he gave her a note in the class, which she held in her nervous, damp hands and discreetly looked inside, only to have nosy students peeking to see what they could see; the note was an invitation to a dance at his church and, “Would you like to go with me to my church dance on Saturday night?” She turned and smiled and nodded, blushing even more than normal, which is to say it was often her cheeks glowed scarlet.

As time went by too quickly, they dated, danced many dances and then attended prom, for which she made a dress complete with a ribbon waste band, to keep the tradition, whether consciously or not, and it was not long before they graduated, wondering if they would go their separate ways or remain together.

As time would have it, there was not enough time at all as the resistance was set up in Viet Nam and young men, such as he was, were sent off to fight the war, and his time came when he went to serve, leaving her behind, tears flowing once he was boarded, so to put on a strong front; tucked away in his pocket was a yellow ribbon to remind him that she would be waiting for him when he returned.

Watching the news became her obsession as she could not resist knowing each and every bit of information about the war, not only was he in the war, her brother was also serving, and it was a very uncertain time; It was just about two years after he left when she received a phone call that there was someone she needed to pick up at the airport, and she ran to her car, drove to the airport and there he stood, holding her yellow ribbon in his hand, and she held their sweet daughter in her arms, pink ribbons in her hair, and asking, “Is that my daddy?”

…..

And that is my Six Sentence Story, why not give it a try? Just go here: Girlie on the Edge

Short Fiction, six sentence story

Swept Away

September 27, 2020September 27, 2020 Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

Swept Away

Dudley French was a mediocre salesman, working for the brush and broom company, known as Schwepp’s Brush and Broom. Not that it mattered since he was one of very few salespersons still left with the company. Thirty years of door to door selling were behind Dudley; and more and more sales were generated through the internet.

It was just the other day when Dudley was called into his boss’s office when he heard the words her would never forget.

In a volume so low, Dudley strained to hear, his boss, Sherman Schwepp, Jr. stated, “French you swept me away when you were young, but now I am giving you your final pay check, it’s time to retire.”

Dudley looked down and then up, took the broom and swept the office floor, smiled at his to be former boss, and said, “thank you for not firing me, and if you ever want to have coffee, just give me a call,” to which Schwepp nodded, his throat too full for him to speak.

…..

This is my Six Sentence Story for this week. Would you like to submit? Just go to:

Girlie on the Edge and take a look!

poetry, short story

Meet Me in the Middle

August 26, 2020 Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

“You have me bending over backwards every day and I am sick of it!” Meghan stomped out of her and her husband’s house. They had another daily spat over one more thing and one more thing was enough to break Meghan’s ever patient mind.

“It’s unacceptable to be constantly running around all day long and not get anything done; look at this house, it is a pigsty,” exclaimed Clarence right before Meghan ran out on him.

Looking at the house, there were the morning’s dishes piled in the sink and yesterday’s laundry in the basket to be folded, while Clarence sat at his computer and played games, waiting for Meghan to wait on him, while he also ignored the children; and that’s when things got loud; Clarence opened his mouth and asked when would lunch be served. This was right after Meghan just got home from picking up their children at school, along with running errands for groceries, gas, getting his list of “necessities” and not grabbing a latte.

As Meghan drove away, she heard this song and made one of her own.

Just a little bending

Takes so little effort

Putting down that plaything

Would be more acceptable

Over unacceptable responses

Killing chances at harmony

…..

There you have it! This is my Six Sentence Story – Double Feature 😉 A little prose, a little poetry and away we go! Want to join us? Go to Girlie on the Edge and have a shot at at.

And bonus points for checking out Living Poetry for the other prompt for this week. Win:Win

Short Fiction, short story

Math Problems

August 17, 2020 Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

Perry Jameson always thought his station in life was to follow in the footsteps of his father, an accountant. There was only one small problem, Perry did not understand math. His father sat with him poring over math homework, Perry, staring of the numbers, his father scratching his head, rubbing his eyes, tapping his pencil in frustration. Determined to use the old school methods of writing out the problems, Perry’s father insisted that Perry must get the answers correct and they spent numerous hours, often on weekends, too. Then, it occurred to Perry’s father, when he was working on a reconciliation of accounts, that Perry may not see the numbers in the same way as his father. When he got home from work, Perry’s father sat down with Perry and they worked closely, one number at a time, not working on problems, but writing down and reading numbers and using some tools he learned about in his research; gradually, Perry gained a better understanding about math and his father sighed many sighs of relief and was, frankly, more than embarrassed that it did not occur to him, as one of the rules of accounting is to check for transposition of numbers when errors indicated this, which was obvious, when using proper tools.