Results of U-Write-It Week 272
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It took Christy a full minute to realize that the thing moving in her shoe was a...
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...flea. Darn those cats. Why do they have to keep going over to the neighbors? That dilapidated barn and abandoned house are magnets for mice and rats, and not to mention, other vermin. Once Christy saw a raccoon mother climbing on the roof of the old house. Her tiny babies held on as she scampered over broken planks and corrugated metal. And the skunks. They scurry through the long grass looking for hiding places. Sometimes she could smell the violating odor after one sprayed or was hit by an unfortunate car. She'd heard they are carriers for fleas and ticks. Wish those cats would just stay put. But, no....they have to wander. What is it about cats?
by Cheri Ann Smith, Roseville, CA
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...pebble from the rocky hole she had fell into as she saw her sister and James kissing on the beach. Thankfully, the strong wind and whipping waves had masked her scream.
Sitting down, she rubbed her ankle. It was swelling quickly, but so was her anger.
James was her fiancé of six months. Ann was her older sister.
How could they do this?
She had gone into town for flu medicine, Ann s flu medicine, but cut the trip short by a cell call her father was in an accident.
Not wishing to break the news by phone, she hurried home to find this betrayal.
Taking off her shoe, she shook the pebble into her hand. She would keep it as a reminder, a token, of why she would never look back.
by Pamala Johnson, Des Moines, IA
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...banana slug. She didn't notice it at first. Even though the sun was already rising, it was purply dark beneath the trees. Thank goodness she did notice it. The thought of her bare foot sharing shoe space with a slimy slug made her skin crawl.
Christy used a twig to ease the spotted creature onto the leafy ground next to her sleeping bag. Perplexed with its change of venue, the slug's stalks wavered back and forth seeking information. Christy didn't know whether it was the slant of sunshine or the chill of a miniscule breeze, but something engaged the slug's internal GPS system. Its upper body rose a half inch before angling away.
At the speed of spilled molasses, the banana slug traveled toward deeper shadows. The thought of his body sharing such close quarters with a naked foot made his skin crawl.
by Ric Hardson
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...small pebble bouncing around in the toe box of her Nikes.
She chuckled to herself, realizing that at one point in her life this might have caused her to become frozen with fear, afraid to move. Thank God she had medication for her anxiety.
Continuing on her run through Wilderness Park, Christy felt light and calm. Her yellow lab, Sam, bounding alongside had contributed to her calm demeanor lately too.
It had been years, but she finally felt she was free of all of her old demons.
by Stacy Bartley, West Linn, OR
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...small creature that was now biting at her toe. She pulled her shoe off and lifted the little fellow from inside the toe of her shoe. While pushing her foot back into the shoe, she said, "It looks like an elf, or a pixie or maybe a tiny leprauchaun. "Ow, ow ow!" she cried, dropping the little man.
Christy pulled the shoe off, but the second little creature held on to her big toe, its teeth well sunk in.
Lifting her foot up in her hand, Christy hopped around the floor saying, "It's eating my toe! Ow! Ow. Stop!"
The little man on the floor looked up at his mate and cried, "Trixie! Stop goblin your food!"
by Carolyn Ann Aish, New Zealand
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...foot no longer hers.
Rocking a final time the shoe settled upright, inches from her face. She lifted her throbbing head with searing difficulty. Falling from her sticky cheek, gravel shards tick-ticked onto the cool pavement. Shaking her head, blinking to clear her vision, Christy stared at her ankle's fairy tattoo.
The juxtaposition what should be and what was battled in her brain. Painfully sucking in a partial lungful of air, Christy sharpened the focus of her worm s eye view. Exhaling, she tasted a sour ghost breath of coconut, pineapple, and rum.
Wailing sirens filled her ears, her brain, her soul. Her peripheral vision closed to a pinpoint. Summoning the core of her very being, she scraped lifted extended a shredded hand toward her companionless shoe. The black hole of Christy's pavement world began sucking her deep into its maw. A silent tear slid earthward as she whispered, "Tinkerbell--"
by Daphne Rice, Portland, OR
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...foot! A human foot!
It took another whole minute for her to realize it was her foot, cut off just above the ankle and lying next to two severed arms - hers also - which were lined up on a dirty, blood-stained bed in what looked like a mad scientist's laboratory.
And yet another three minutes to realize she was a fictional character in a cheap, low-budget horror film.
by Phillip Lynne, Knoxville, TN
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