The Hook Up

Last Line First, Week 5  – 200 words -Prompt - I don't believe in love at first sight, but....

“I don’t believe in love at first sight, but I am told there are fools who do.  Are you one?”

The well dressed woman sitting at the hotel bar twirling her drink with a beautifully manicured forefinger looked at Stanton.  “Am I one what?”

“A fool who believes in love at first sight.”

The woman swiveled her bar stool and faced Stanton.  “You get lucky often with that line, do ya?”

“More often than you’d think.  ………. May I sit down?”  Stanton assumed her permission and parked on the stool next to her.  “I’m Stanton and you didn’t answer my question.”

“Well Stanton, I’m thinking you don’t care how I feel about love.  I’m thinking you are just another zipper looking for an invite upstairs.”

Stanton was silent.  He held up his empty glass to signal the bar keep he was still thirsty.  ”So I guess the answer is no?”

The woman pushed her drink away and stood up.  She pulled on her skirt to straighten it and said, “Did I say no?”

“Uh no, no you didn’t.”

Jack opened his purse, found his room card and tossed it on the bar. “Give me ten minutes darling, then come up.”

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A Conversation Over Drinks After Work

Last Line First – Week 4 - Prompt – “You’ll know better next time”  -  200 words or less 

“You’ll know better next time.”

“If there is a next time. ………. Big Guy frowns on failure.”

“Calm down. He always hands projects to rookies proposed by the liberal whack jobs on the Board. Did it to me my second assignment, eons ago.”

“Why that no good Bast…….”

“ Be careful. His eyes and ears are everywhere. Develin landed in the basement, distributing office supplies after using the F-word. Big Guy hates the F-word.

“It’s not fair. I was handed a no win project and expected to succeed.”

“Welcome to the big leagues kid. Fair doesn’t exist.”

“Friggin attachments were the problem.”

“Attachments? …… He’s been known to toss the Liberals a bone on occasion. They do propose good ideas sometimes.”

“Give me some examples.”

“They came up with trees, flowers, and butterflies. ………… What were the attachments?”

First was Free Will. Really? Folks thinking for themselves?……. Riiiiight. Next, the laugher notion, procreation should be pleasurable. And last, Evolution. Allowing denial of his existence, well, it seems counterproductive.”

“Sounds like a mess alright. Maybe Big Guy will send his cocky kid down to straighten things out. ……. But enough shop talk. Pass me that sacrificial wine. My glass is empty.”

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After the break is the longer original version - about 500 words

Before Zombies Came

Story Scavenger – Last line first #3  - 197 words

They never, ever learn their lesson until it is too late.  As it was in their past, so it is in this future.  Civilizations rise and then they fall.  Some lasted only decades, others lasted centuries.  But in the end, they always failed, burning out their greatness with self absorbed cockiness.

In early times, geographical distance insulated one group from another.  A society could fail without affecting their neighbors, many thousands of miles away.  As time passed and these cultures expanded, the effects of each new collapse had wider ramifications on cultures near and far.  Eventually, the planet’s population became so interdependent; a failure on the other side of the globe could and did create death and destruction on this side of the globe.

“Grand Pa, what was it like before the Zombies came?”

Grand Pa finally wrestled his ax out of the head of the zombie on his porch.  He set the blood drenched ax head down and leaned on the handle.  Wiping his brow, he said, “Well I’ll tell ya young Jeremy.  It wasn't so easy telling the good guys from the bad, but at least I did not have to distill my own whiskey.”

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Conquering Hero

This a piece I wrote for a flash fiction challenge.  I wrote it in memory of a friend who did not die in Vietnam.  He died because of Vietnam.

The original piece can be found at Last Line First
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His eyes were full of the things he had seen.  His mouth, full of stories better passed over than passed down.  Memories caught in his craw and woke him sweating cold in the dread of his nights and left him staring into his darkness til Dawn’s early light.

Well meaning people wearing blue scrubs and white coats did what they could.  As it was with so many others, it did not work out.  Scarred and broken he was sent back to a homeland that would never be the same.  His innocence pooled bloody on too many foreign plains.  Feeling forgotten, discarded and alone with his demons, he sought solace in barbiturates, whiskey and gin.  He could never forget his role in the pre-meditated chaos of Man killing Man in faraway lands.

One day he gave up, double hit China White, laid down, and he died.  Before his curtain closed, with one final sigh, the untold stories and nightmares at last said goodbye.  Our conquering hero had finally found his peace.
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