Inez always came to mind in the aftermath of one of his excursions. What would she say, he thought.
Across town, his former lover walked along the trail from town. She sensed its presence, a shiver running up her spine. The treetops rustled and swayed overhead as if something was tracking her, waiting for an opening to swoop down. She hurried her step…
Unknown
16-2. Revenge: The Captive Soul (Revealed)
Breathtaking, like the air had been removed. She gasped as it settled behind her.
Inez awoke in her bedroom. She could feel Charles’ fingerprint on the woman sitting beside her.
“I didn’t know!” She blurted out in fear.
“Perhaps, but you sensed the potential that lay within, even showed great enterprise in controlling it for a while” Lilith’s eyes darted to the beast. “I mean no harm but you have something I need.” She said as the beast set the box down next to Inez.
“The Ring?”
Unknown
16-4. Revenge: The Captive Soul (Secret)
Inez didn’t know the ring’s secret but she could see the beast, clad in its coat of mail, flinch as she reached for it.
“Yes,” said Lilith, “but it’s more, I need you to help stop him.”
Welcome to Five Word Weekly. Each Monday, I will post five random words to Greg’s Blog at 5:00am Eastern Time (Canada/United States). Your task is to craft prose or poetry using any or all of the word prompts. How you participate is entirely up to you. Your work(s) can be a single piece, a series of stand-alone projects, or an epic serial. Let the words be the inspiration that takes you wherever your imagination leads.
Here are your prompt words for the week of April 10th, 2023:
Be creative and have fun. I look forward to reading what each of you conjures up. Don’t forget to show your fellow bloggers some love -❤️- take some time to read, like, and comment on their responses.
I am not a religious person. However I was raised in a Catholic household and as a kid attended church every Sunday, and participated with my Catholic schoolmates in receiving all of the obligatory sacraments. I really can’t recall the last time I was inside a house of worship of any kind other than for a wedding or funeral.
Now that I am older I don’t believe in magical and benevolent sky beings or hateful demon creatures torturing the dead in the infernal fires of hell. The Christian holidays have become more about family getting together and enjoying our time here on earth with those we love.
The weather has finally been nice enough to get outside and start some early-season yard work. The previous owner of my current home thought using wooden shipping skids would make a great foundation for the three different decks they built but of course, the untreated softwood has rotted into a pile of mush beneath composite deck boards. I guess they believed the layer of plastic and sawdust would prevent water from getting through. No, I take that back they were just cheap.
Oops, kinda lost focus for a half-inning. The Toronto Blue Jays were sucking a** in Anaheim today but just scored six in the sixth to tie it up! Let’s complete the comeback with a “W” before returning to the newly renovated Skydome! I know but I won’t acknowledge the current corporate stadium name.
This week I found myself listening to one of the albums I cut my musical chops on as an almost teenager. I won’t say I’ve forgotten but it has been a while since I listened to Roxy Music’s Avalon. The album came to the fore again while I listening to Alan Cross’ “The Ongoing History of New Music.” He was talking about how good the album sounded on vinyl because it was originally produced in analog from start to finish. It doesn’t hurt that it was produced at a time when recording quality mattered as well. I do not have a vinyl copy but it sounds great even from my fully lossless streaming service. It was hard to pick a video to post with such great tracks as More Than This, Avalon, The Main Thing but settled on Take A Chance With Me. Hope you enjoy…
Now for the ‘week in review’…
Five Word Weekly Challenge
Lost in the Commotion | A creative use of the prompt words in a very creative look at the afterlife written by Piper at Piper’s Adventures
Ghosted | A hysterical look at what might await a player when he crosses to the other side written by Paula at Light Motifs II.
Making History | I’m hoping Carol at Therapy Bits has given us a prophetic look at The Donald’s future!
A Trick of the Light or… | Sadje at Keep It Alive gives us a truly frightening tale of technology gone wrong and the complete lack of responsibility shown by those who create it. This could be Artificial Intelligence if left unchecked.
Scilla Luciliae | Delicate flowers with soft colours from Vova Zinger’s Photoblog.
Cognitive Dissonance | Fandango outlines the frustration we all feel when our elected officials seem to be so far disconnected from reality.
Next week…
Look for another Five Word Weekly, Four Line Fiction and some T-Shirt Wisdom. I said it last week and will say it again… Hopefully, some more new posts too.
My Blue Jays did come all the way back and then almost blew it again. They ended up beating the Angels of Anaheim 12-11. Woohoo, have a great week,
My favourite movie is ‘The Usual Suspects’. Writer Christopher McQuarrie and Director Brian Singer weave an intricately layered crime drama that has stood the test of time since its debut in 1995. Honourable mentions go to the Coen Brothers ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’, a fantastic retelling of Homer’s Odyssey and ‘Layer Cake’ a British crime drama starring Daniel Craig.
2. Who is you favourite actor and actress?
For my answers to this question, I will stay with the classic definition of gender while acknowledging times are changing.
Favourite Actress: Cate Blanchett. She has received many accolades over the years and is considered one of the best actresses of her generation. I particularly recall her performance in ‘The Shipping News’. Her performance was the highlight of a well-crafted film although not in the Hollywood sense.
Favourite Actor: Kevin Spacey. Separating the man from the work I have to say he is one of the best actors I have seen. His work in the aforementioned ‘The Usual Suspects’ and ‘House of Cards’ is outstanding. I don’t ascribe to cancel culture and the way it’s meted out in today’s world however there are people who the facts show to be reprehensible and I think it is safe to say his work in real life is less impressive.
3. Do you attend or have you ever attended a live theatre production?
I have attended many shows over the many years I’ve walked the planet. My very favourite was ‘Showboat’ which I saw at the formerly named Ford Center for the Performing Arts in North York. (A former borough of the now amalgamated City of Toronto.) The music was sublime and one of the leads had the deepest, most soulful voice I’ve ever heard live. Magical.
4. Have you ever wanted to be an actor/actress?
Not in any serious sense. Certainly not as a career but who hasn’t wondered what it would be like to walk across the stage, silver screen or beam into millions of homes. For those who achieve stardom, it’s a lifestyle those of us mere mortals can’t really begin to fathom. For others in the industry, I’d imagine it is a very tough life.
Welcome to Four Line Fiction, a pix-to-prose challenge. Each Tuesday, at 9:00am Eastern Time (Canada/United States) I will post an image I have captured myself, featured from another blog or plucked from one of the Interweb’s many royalty-free image sites. You as the writer are to use that image as a point of inspiration to craft a masterpiece of fiction in four lines.
The image for this week is a symmetrical perspective shot of a very long corridor receding into the distance. It is painted white with alternating triangle sections and areas open to the surrounding space. The triangle structures dwarf a single person walking in the corridor.
Be creative and have fun. I look forward to reading the tales you spin. Don’t forget to show your fellow bloggers some love -❤️- take some time to read, like, and comment on their masterpieces.
It was only 10:00am, but it felt like midnight. With self-loathing, he replayed every detail. Paralyzed yet conscious as each button released between his fingers, her body twitching as his hand pursed her thigh. Charlie had grown accustomed to the spasms, a side effect of the sedative.
He recalled the first time it happened. Startled, he instinctually pounced, wrapping his hands around the woman’s neck. Letting go after confirming she hadn’t woken and watching the bruises darken through the night. The next morning he could hear gravel in her voice as she fled.
Although I could read the calendar this week my comprehension of how it works is suspect. Truth be told when I got home from work I started watching The Night Agent on Netflix. One in the morning and four binged episodes later with the blog completely on the backburner I crawled into my empty bed and fell fast asleep. So Sunday Digest is a Monday feature this week!
Have you ever started a new job, well new position at the old job and found that a series of predecessors had cocked it up so bad, this is sounding like it belongs on the Monday Peeve, it may take months to recover. So far I’ve found four different filing systems, with parts of each file in different physical and electronic locations. Pieces of files missing or buried in unprotected predecessor emails, or encrypted in a generic mailbox so that I cannot access them. Worse the only way to access the encrypted files is to have the original sender or recipient open it and many of those people have moved on to new jobs and locations. Of course, the encrypted emails should have been decrypted and moved to the corporate cloud where access can be granted outside the encryption process. Apparently, too much effort to click and drag! A week and a half in and I already have staff asking about the status of their requests for which there are no files anywhere or key pieces from their file including personal information is completely missing.
Time for a musical interlude and a chance to breathe, found myself listening to a lot of Glass Animals this week. I love the creativity of this band and one of my faves has to be Space Ghost. Plus the video is one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen.
The rest of the world has gone mad, I think. Sure Trump was indicted by the Grand Jury (about effing time) and I saw one of the funniest memes about it. It is nice to see the racist orange man getting his comeuppance even if he gets off in the end one can only hope the stress takes years off of his pitiful existence. My only concern is if they get the legal shit wrong it could boost his run for another term in the White House. A risk that would be catastrophic for America and the free world.
Even more puzzling is Russia taking the lead of the UN Security Council for April. How in the name of God we can let that happen is ridiculous and shows how toothless our governmental and international governance models are broken. I read somewhere that Ukraine is incensed at the notion of the Russian State dictating the agenda at the UN. Do you blame them, as Putin continues to murder innocent civilians and military personnel protecting their homes the rest of the world allows them to dictate proceeding in an international forum that is responsible for keeping the peace between nations. Shit like this further erodes trust in government agencies as the world hurtles toward anarchy.
My Blue Jays (like I own the team) got off to a great start with a win in St. Louis but then dropped the next two. Everyone says it’s early and in baseball terms it is but it was a frustrating opening series for a team projected to make the post-season. Pitching is still a concern that I don’t think the front office has adequately addressed. Here’s hoping next week is better.
Everyone always says end on a positive note. Despite the mess at work and in the world I have to say I’m grateful for all I have and with spring here and warmer weather on the way I am looking forward to getting back outdoors and into the garden.
Now it’s time for the ‘week in review’ portion of this post…
Five Word Weekly Challenge
Ponderings, Paula at Light Motifs tale of forbidden high school romance.
Think, Think, Think… where Sadje takes us into the mind of a student contemplating the weight of work she needs to complete.
Vitamin D | A beach tale written for multiple Fandango #fowc dailies.
Winter’s Last Gasp | It has been a while since I last posted in the photography category on Greg’s blog. I find the camera, like myself, tends to hibernate over the winter. This one was from my phone and was posted for bushboy’s Last on the Card challenge.
Welcome to Five Word Weekly. Each Monday, I will post five random words to Greg’s Blog at 5:00am Eastern Time (Canada/United States). Your task is to craft prose or poetry using any or all of the word prompts. How you participate is entirely up to you. Your work(s) can be a single piece, a series of stand-alone projects, or an epic serial. Let the words be the inspiration that takes you wherever your imagination leads.
Here are your prompt words for the week of April 3rd, 2023:
Be creative and have fun. I look forward to reading what each of you conjures up. Don’t forget to show your fellow bloggers some love -❤️- take some time to read, like, and comment on their responses.
This was the last image on my phone for March and I am hoping it is winter’s last gasp for 2023. I guess time will tell.
Image was captured in March 2023 in my neighbourhood, Waterloo, Ontario Equipment: Google Pixel 7 Pro (Rear Camera) Settings: 19mm | 1/110 sec. at ƒ/3.4 | ISO12600. No additional processing. Watermark added via Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop.
Edelman lay on the beach basking in the glow of the midday sun. I watched the suntan oil sizzling on his skin as he explained that skin cancer was a fallacy spread by big pharma and the government. Although unclear on the motive he insisted it was connected to vitamin D production and much more sinister than profits and corporate greed.
The conversation slowly turned from conspiracy to a sales pitch. I’m not certain what he was trying to sell but he insisted that he took care of himself and explained that his vitamin D was silky smooth and creamy like milk.
“Would you like a…”
I was certain he was going to say ‘taste’ but just as the words should have been escaping his lips a couple of spry young punks kicked up sand into his face as they ran past. I wasn’t spared as the spray shot across my mid-rift and into my bikini. As I moved I could feel the grit chaff against the tits.
Edelman was spitting sand (and venom) as he jumped up and took pursuit. He was a hulking man with muscles popping out everywhere and washboard abs that would make Dwayne Johnson swoon. What a marvellous specimen I thought as I stood up. I tugged at the bottom of my bikini top while bouncing up and down. Hundreds of lucky white granules fell to the ground as the related ruckus erupted just up the beach. Those poor lads weren’t going to know what had hit them.
I picked up my towel and headed in the other direction. Sure he may have been a smoke show but thank God I wouldn’t have to hear about vitamin D any longer.
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