Revenge of the Nerd

This week's 5 to 50/55 challenge. Prompt words below.

Her red hair and pale skin reminded him of a peppermint stick, her voice as sweet. He scrutinized her in the mirror, her body no longer a girl’s. Her finger traced a pattern across his naked chest. He closed his eyes, moaned. When the blade crossed his throat, his eyes opened and his bladder emptied. (55 words)

Prompt words: peppermint, girl, empty, mirror, voice

Chasing After Love

This week's 5 to 50/55 challenge. Prompt words below.

He unfolded the paper as the Greyhound bus crossed into Missouri. One word appeared. Goodbye. They met at a hair salon. He had a coupon. She smelled fruity. Her dream was to be a hairdresser to the stars. He didn’t know if he’d be able to find her in Hollywood, but he had to try. (55 words)

Prompt words: paper, goodbye, hairdresser, fruit, Missouri

Mistaken Identity

I nursed a beer waiting for The Rapture to arrive when she sauntered in. She removed her sunglasses, surveyed the nothingness known as Mickey’s. I took a sip and made a wish. It worked. She approached.

“Hi, I’m Hillary. I hope I can count on your vote.”

Obviously, she couldn’t tell I was a Republican.

**Prompt words: rapture, beer, sunglasses, wish, nothingness

No One Was Going to Mess with Her Kid.

Kate hated Halloween. Bad things often happened, like when her mother found a razor blade in an apple, or when Jimmy Howard set her witch’s wig on fire with his stupid sparkler, or when Frankie Gleason stole her bag of candy and shared it with his friends, or when David unexpectedly dumped her to go on a mission trip to Africa. It was also the night she planned to tell him she was pregnant with his child.

But that was the past, and Kate wasn’t going to let the bad things that happened to her spoil Halloween for her daughter. This year, like the past nine, she and Melissa would dress up and go to the Town Common where everyone gathered for games, and rides, and food, and music. Melissa chose to be Albert Einstein, a fitting costume given her recent report card. She looked so cute with her auburn hair teased out and powdered white. Kate purchased a set of doctor’s scrubs, a white coat, and a black bag at a second-hand store. It wasn’t because she had any affinity for doctors. It was because of all the rapes and robberies and shootings during the past year. The bag provided the perfect place to hide the .38 Special revolver and extra ammunition.

Ready for the evening, Kate adjusted a black strand of the wig that made her look like George Stephanopoulos, then pointed her finger at the mirror as if holding a gun, pulled the imaginary trigger, her finger recoiling just as the gun had at the range, and imagined the tiny missile racing to its target. She blew on the end of her finger and put it in a nonexistent holster.

“Let’s go, Sweetie,” Kate yelled. “We don’t want to miss the Mayor’s opening speech about being safe and having fun.”

Waiting

First published in Issue 16 of Vine Leaves Literary Journal.

We waited. Two brothers. Unrelated. He the elder.

The crash brought us together. His older brother and mine drag racing on a residential street. My mother and his parents had to be separated, faces red, fingers wagging, shouts filling the small waiting room, surging into the hallways.

He and I—I didn’t know his name, we hadn’t talked—stayed out of the way, quiet, almost like we were meditating. He laid his hand on the floor palm up. I put mine on top of his. Sweaty, nervous fingers entwined.

When the doctors came, we listened. Our parents began another verbal assault amidst their sobs. We squeezed our fingers tighter and cried. I didn’t know if my tears were because my brother lived or his didn’t.