Thursday, December 16, 2010

Beam Me Up Scotty - 250 words

The contradictions and mistakes of his short life washed over him overwhelming his immediate fear of having fallen once again into the hole. It was the same old hole he had tripped into as a teen so long ago. It smelled the same. It felt the same. It hung on him like an old flannel shirt that seemed to know just the right contours to comfort.

He reveled in his confusion trying to fool himself into feeling good about not knowing or expecting what might come next. Oh, he knew what came next just as we all know what we left un-mailed in all those unsealed letters we have secreted away after writing words we meant at the time but never meant for anyone to read.

His spirit lifted, he spoke to no one in particular, no one at all. He made no apologies, no excuses. He accepted what he had done or not done and did not bother to offer empty promises about his future. His future he knew was never in his hands anyway, so “like why bother Man”.

“What else should I be,” he thought. “We are what we are. Is that not all that can be expected?” He decided the rest of it is so much shit, so much useless stupidity that worrying about that which he could not control only deflected him from his true purpose in Life…………To take up space.

And he knew now, his time in Space was up.

“Beam me up Scotty.”
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This is a Thinking Ten piece I wrote awhile ago. It was my first and only attempt to utilize all of the weekly prompts (called Capstone) and also tie in with the weekly image (Canvas). It ended up at 241 words when I first wrote it. I have diddled and fiddled with it to make it 250 words. The prompt image is at the top. The daily prompts below.

➞ On Location, Mondays: Down in a hole
➞ Take it Away, Tuesdays: What else should I be?
➞ Words, Inc., Wednesdays: (1) smells, (2) like, (3) teen, (4) spirit
➞ Plot Thickens, Thursdays: A letter sits unsealed
➞ Member's Pick, Fridays: An old flannel shirt
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Later……………………………………………….

3 comments:

BBC said...

You should learn how to sew, it's more useful than writing.

Kulkuri said...

I thought you did a pretty good job of sewing those words together.

David Barber said...

Great work, Mike. Getting all those prompts into 250 words was hard job and you pulled it off. Well done.