A Jazzy Gizmo

Prediction Flash Challenge - Due June 15, 2018
100 words or less - Prompts - Apparatus, Jazz, Deduct

Cyrus stood at the bus stop carefully cradling his latest invention in both arms.  Standing behind and to the left of Cyrus, a street person fidgeted and mumbled unintelligibly.

Street Guy shuffled around and faced Cyrus.  “What’s with the jazzy gizmo bub?” 

Cyrus’ face contorted as he stepped back.  “Sir, this is a carefully constructed scientific apparatus.  Deduct forethought and purpose and what you end up with is something created by accident and happy mishap.  That would be your jazzy gizmo.”

“I guess there’s no point small talking is there?”  Street Guy pulled a knife out.  “Give me your wallet.”
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Image courtesy of Henrik Pienge Jakobson

Ice Cream Soda

Velvet verbosity #415 – Prompt – Cup – 100 Words

A continuation of the Bus Stop Series

She moved in close, lifting the white umbrella higher to cover his taller frame.

Awkward silence followed.  He stood mute as a statue, dripping wet, while she searched for something to say.

“You aren’t really Gay are you?”

He looked down at her.  “No. ….. No I’m not.”

She mustered up a frown.  “Then why did you say you were?”

“To avoid future complications and inevitable disappointment.”

Now they both stood in silence, neither one with anything to say.

They waited for their bus, two dissimilar ingredients mixed into an ice cream soda topped off with an umbrella of white foam.

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Image courtesy of About Education

Share My Umbrella

Velvet verbosity #414 – Prompt – Umbrellas - 100 words

He caught her eye at the bus stop.  There was nothing specific, just a notion this was a man she might like to know.

He did not participate in the trivial morning conversations with the bus stop regulars.  His working class Dickies told her they were definitely from two different worlds.  Maybe it was his somber detachment that drove her interest.  When her cubicle existence became oppressive, thinking of him became her go to escape.

In the rain one morning she walked over to him.

“Share my umbrella?”

“I’m Gay”

“So what.  …… Doesn’t mean we can’t share an umbrella.”

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This piece is tied to my previous VV post "The Loser" - Hopefully I can make a serial out of it......We'll see.

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Image from Share Your Umbrella

The Loser

Velvet Verbosity *413 - Prompt ~ Robbed  - 100 words

The Loser

Standing at the bus stop in the cold rain.

Foul weather and melancholy, 

bring into sharp focus, a lifetime of pain.

The soul had suffered so many felonies, 

a thousand cuts of momentary shame.

Withdrawn and numb now, the shell still exists, 

while the essence and joy in life long ago floated away.

Was it the theft of a childhood, one drunken blow at a time?

Or rather school yard bullies and a brief hollow marriage 

that bears most of the blame?

It matters little now, standing here in the rain.

What once was, is the present, nothing has changed.

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Image from Saustria