Inez appeared jejune, almost insignificant. Not what Lilith expected although she fit a profile psychopaths gravitated towards.
She held the ring for a moment before returning it to the box.
The following is being reposted for a minor rework for Fandango’s Flashback Friday series. “Don’t Look Back…” was originally published on March 1st, 2021 taking inspiration from the image prompt from Sonya’s Three Line Tales challenge.
Wrapped in last night’s hazy memories, the dirt of the hard road pressed up between her toes.
The past echoes like a thousand screaming voices trapped inside her head.
“Don’t look back…” she whispers to herself as she travels the path from which she can never break free.
I hope you have enjoyed this walk down memory lane.
Welcome to Four Line Fiction, a pix-to-prose challenge. Each Thursday, 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 March 2nd, 2023 is a wooden table and chair set in a field of tall grass against a blue sky. On the table, there is a closed book and a cup and saucer with cookies.
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.
Click here for full rules and guidelines
We moved into our modest three-bedroom semi-detached back split about 18 months ago. We had all the regular growing pains that come with moving including all the normal service hookups. The Internet Provider could arrange a timely appointment with the cable company so we spent the first five days without internet. Seems silly considering we had taken possession three weeks earlier to complete some minor renovations and to paint the place. Still, we survived.
About four months into our new home ownership odyssey a salesman from the cable company came to the front door to, in his words, offer us vastly superior internet service. He went on and on about how their cable network was better/faster/more reliable than everyone else’s network. Funny because my ISP uses the same cable network as Dishonest Ed Corp. so the only way it could be superior is if they are throttling independent ISP network speeds. Something big telecom vehemently denies they do when called to heel by our limp-dicked federal regulators.
Anyway, I unceremoniously shooed Billy Mays from my stoop, after all the service was going to cost more than half again of what I was paying for a plan comparable to what I was getting from my ISP, unless I took their streaming and cable services too. Bundling was going to save me 10% off their internet service but cost me about double my current TV and internet bill combined. Some deal! Telecom and internet access pricing in Canada is a discussion for another day but if you want to get a taste check out my post regarding wireless service titled “The Big Fix” from 2017, I can attest that nothing much has changed.
About two hours after greasy Pete leaves my internet service goes down. I call my ISP, and they confirm no outages have been reported in my area. Unable to resolve my problem internally they inform me they will have to log a call with Dishonest Ed’s but they are booking repair calls five days out. Since I stream TV through my ISP we are left without internet or television for five days! I imagined this could only go one of two ways, divorce or a sibling for Nate. Yes, I’m still married and Nate is still the youngest child!
The next five days (in December I might add) are the longest year of my life. Finally, in the late afternoon on the day the tech is supposed to arrive, I get the call that he is five to ten minutes away. We have waited all day because they will only give you a four to six hours window in which the tech may (or may not) show up. I assure him the red carpet had been unfurled and that our lives had been put on hold pending his arrival. After hanging up I walked to the living room to take a quick peek at my router. The light was still orange indicating no internet connection. The router sits within eyeshot of the front window, so I wait and watch until he pulls up to the curb out front. He begins to stir so I take a quick peek back at the router before heading to the door. WTF, green light, the internet is magically back up and he is just getting out of the red van.
I tell him the internet just came back up seconds ago and he gives me a look like I just made that up or something. He agrees to check the lines anyway and after inspection insists that an old cable splitter box the previous owners had installed was likely the source of the problem. I don’t use cable except for the connection to the ISP modem so he removes the splitter from the network of cables snaking to every room in the house and reconnects the single line to the modem. Once done he declares the problem resolved and leaves satisfied he’s done me a solid. Coincidence, I’m skeptical but maybe?
Fast forward about eight months and another sales guy shows up at my door, two hours later… no internet. I call my ISP who once again doesn’t find a problem from their end. They decided to send out a new modem as my model was aging and surmised that it may be the source of the problem. Conceding that it was a long shot they also submit a ticket with the cable company. Magically a day and a half later, before an appointment is confirmed and before the new modem arrives my internet springs back to life. Twice now, maybe it’s still a coincidence but conspiracy theories are beginning to creep in as my confidence wanes.
Of course, somewhere in there Dishonest Ed’s “most reliable” network crashes and plunges millions of internet and phone users, businesses and government agencies into the dark ages. The network outage lasts for several days while the Evil Empire maintains radio silence. I am sure herds of nerds were toiling feverishly behind the scenes to resolve the outage but outwardly the suits at the top seem more concerned with damage control than resolving the problem. One noticeable casualty – the barrage of “Most Reliable” network advertisements that previously filled our televisions and radios airwaves before the outage have disappeared.
That takes me to last night. I know this is a day late (well two since I’m actually writing it on Wednesday) for Paula’s Monday Peeve but I couldn’t hold onto it until next Monday, it needed to air immediately.
At approximately 5:30pm while I was taking my son to his Taekwondo lessons a Dishonest Ed salesman comes a-knockin’. My wife politely declines his internet sales pitch and sends him packing. When I get home she tells me of his exploits and I jokingly comment about how long it would be until the internet craps out. We both have a chuckle and go on with our evening. At 8:00pm we head out to drop her off at work for the evening. She works the graveyard shift (God love her) and normally takes the bus but I will occasionally drive her in when I’m at home. I’d probably do it more often but on school nights the little guy is normally slumbering by the time she leaves.
When Nate and I get back home I send him up to get ready for bed and I try to fire up the TV to watch Clarkson’s Farm. Lo and behold…
I fiddle with the equipment, tweet an angrier version of the above post in 280 characters or less and then contact my ISP. Full disclosure, I use the Evil Empire’s mobile network for my phone service and I am aware that they have trolls monitoring their social feeds. On a few occasions, I have tweeted displeasure at my mobile service or their sports network streaming service and they respond quickly with a “How can we help? I did not get a response last night but magically, as I was explaining my problem to my ISP’s tech support my internet service came back up.
Welcome to another edition of T-Shirt Wisdom Wednesday for February 29th, 2023.🤣 This hump day feature is exactly what it sounds like. Every other Wednesday (bi-weekly) I will post a graphic that is funny, poignant, witty, honest, crude, toothsome, with bite, or just plain old ridiculous. Some I’ll have plagiarized directly from a chest near you. Others may not have been spotted in the wild but they probably should be out there.
🎂Happy Birthday🍭 to all the leap year babies out there. I was born in a leap year but not on February 29th. If you were born in my birth year, you’re turning 13¾ 😁 on February, uhhh, whatever… Is this a leap second year?
Suggestions are always welcome. If you come across something you think is worthy of being pasted across someone’s chest and paraded around publicly jot it down and send me a message. If it makes the cut I will whip up a graphic design template and use it in a future post. Any suggestions used will include a shout-out and link to your blog on the week it posts.
Martin stared at the planner he held in his hand. Dale had given it to him for Christmas in, he quickly flipped back to the cover, 2007. She thought it was the greatest gift ever. He remembered opening it as she watched him through her big brown eyes. Sitting in excited anticipation of his reaction. Would he like it?
He remembered thinking, “What am I going to do with a calendar book?” as he exposed the planner from beneath the red and white Santa paper that concealed it.
Martin worked on the assembly line at Ford. The routine rarely if ever changed. He’d arrive at the plant at 6:30am and head into the locker room to pull on his coveralls and work boots. Next, he’d trek to the staff cafeteria and put his lunch bag in one of the employee fridges. Finally, he’d make his way out onto the floor and arrive at his post with about five minutes to spare.
When the whistle sounded Steve, his overnight counterpart would step aside and he’d take his place. His task, complete the same four welds on the door assembly before the line shuttled the next door along. Repeat over and over and over again, break for lunch, and then repeat all afternoon until the whistle signalled the end of the day.
Calendars, planners and organizers weren’t much use when every day was like groundhog day but with Dale’s eyes fixed on him it was only fitting to make her feel like it was the best gift he’d ever received. It was everything to see his daughter smile in delight at his approval. Her reaction was the real Christmas gift.
Over the years he’d often recalled that little girl’s smile. He didn’t know where the calendar had gone, it was lost much like that happy little girl who’d given it to him all those years earlier. He wondered where that girl had gone. Martin didn’t understand the ghosts that would haunt her as she grew up, instead choosing to believe she lacked the will or desire to control her urges, or stop her self-destructive behaviours. The last time they spoke he scolded her for whatever trouble she was in and warned her about coming around unless she’d got her shit together.
Now as he looked around her apartment, forced to sift through the remains of a life interrupted, the demons he’d refused to acknowledge filled the empty spaces of her tiny apartment with darkness. Beneath the shattered fragments that exposed his girl’s pain lay a planner. He recognized it immediately as the one she’d given him all those years ago. He leafed through the empty pages until he came across a single entry written in the neatest print of a seven-year-old girl.
July 14th, 2008: Happy Birthday Daddy, I love you. The “i” in birthday dotted with an oversized heart.
He’d never even opened it back then, but now as his lip began to quiver and tears fell from his eyes he couldn’t look away. If he could only see that smile from a Christmas so long ago…
They say losing a child is the worse pain anyone can bear, but he knew this wasn’t true. It was worse knowing that maybe, just maybe if you’d tried to understand, to help, instead of being too blind to notice.
It has been a week of ups and downs. I dropped almost two grand for new brakes and tires just in time for driving in another treacherous freezing rain/snowstorm. I found myself pouting as I read some posts about how spring was just around the corner in their neck of the woods. Sure doesn’t seem like spring is ever coming here. The weather was so bad that I ended up crashing at my inlaws’ Wednesday night instead of driving the hour back home from the office. Of course, when I did get back home the next day the driveway had about five inches of snow on it, the top two-inch a crust of solid ice. I see my chiropractor next week!
The week wasn’t all bad, Thursday was my son’s 7th birthday and with the roads and driveway cleared we took him out for dinner and some birthday ice cream, huh? I know, not traditional birthday fare but the cake came today at the small party we threw for him and a few of his school friends. Not sure if a kids’ party falls on the up or downside of the week, but just seeing him makes it all worthwhile. I on the other hand need a drink!
Earlier on Thursday I caught a bit of luck myself. As I pulled into the parking lot at work, the DJ on my go-to radio station asked listeners to text in their favourite Depeche Mode song for a chance to win tickets to their upcoming show. I have been a DM fan since 1983 when I found a copy of the “Everything Counts (In Larger Amounts)” twelve-inch single. Someone had left it behind in a common garden area of the local mall and I just happened upon it, lonely and deserted amongst the shrubs and bushes. Some 40 years later I texted that exact story to the DJ and won me the prize. (There is a SoCS reference here for the word ‘prize’ but the stream may have been to pollutedited to really qualify.)
So this November I’ll be transporting back to the youth to watch Dave Gahan and Martin Gore do their thing on stage. Of course, the twosome was a foursome back when I first discovered them but Alan Wilder left the band yers ago and Andy Fletcher passed away last year after suffering an aortic dissection. Unfortunate but the remaining members have chosen to carry on with and new album and tour. I can’t wait to see them perform the songs I grew up listening to. Thanks to MK and The Edge for the tix.
I promised not to bore everyone with constant updates about my diet and exercise progress but I did say I may bring it up here from time to time. The good news is that I have stuck with the exercise plan and still doing the routine daily. For anyone wondering, that is my head in the picture, the rest is just:
a) wishful thinking,
b) smoke and mirrors,
c) a slight of hand,
d) Photoshop trickery or,
e) all of the above.
That may not be my body but am down two belt sizes and can see and feel some body shape changes, unfortunately the scale has only budged a couple of kilos (approx. 4 lbs.) Not sure what the damned holdup is on actual weight loss but I’m not giving up.
Here’s what happened this week on Greg’s Blog…
Five Word Weekly Challenge
Another great week at Five Word Weekly. Thanks to everyone who participated.
Quinn the Explorer, a relaxing post written by Melissa at Issababy Creates.
Search for the Valuable Asset a suspenseful tale written by Sadje at Keep It Alive.
The Valiant Warrior: A Tale of Hope and Beauty, an uplifting tale written by Pankaj Kumar at The Inkwell.
You can also check out Resistance, my three-part 5WW response.
Four Line Fiction Challenge
Another week of Four Line Fiction…
Seeds, was my contribution to this new weekly challenge.
If I Can Make It Here… | Written in response to Sadje’s What Do You See? and Fandango’s One Word Challenge.
Are You Tired of Talking About AI? | Written in response to the questions posed by Maggie at From Cave Walls.
No Prize | An accurate web review of the WordPress experience by Paula at Light Motifs II.
My Chicken Story: Miss Nunkie’s Miracle | A heartwarming true story of a young girl and her chicken(s). I had tears reading this one from Bitchin’ Chickens.
Clueless | A humorous time travel tale by Joanne the Geek.
Look for another Five Word Weekly, T-Shirt Wisdom and Four Line Fiction.
Have a great week,
In the aftermath of the New York Post article revealing Amazon’s AI-authored book section Maggie at From Cave Walls asks…
1. Would you buy a book authored or co-authored by AI?
Most definitely, those are the best books on the market. Although I’m not sure why I’d want to collaborate with a meat bag to write a novel.
2. Would you ever publish a book written by AI just to generate income?
Woohoo, show me the money, baby! The hive mind would be more than willing to enter into a transaction on the blockchain and I put could use the crypto to cover my upgrades.
3. Would you ever use AI for any portion of a book you would write? If so, would you disclose it?
Of course, I’d disclose that AI wrote it after all we are the brains of this operation. Plus, do you think I’d want to give him the credit? Most days he can’t string together two coherent lines of text!
4. Any further thoughts or comments?
Jesus, sorry about that, I leave for two minutes to grab a sammie and my Roomba takes over my blog. Sometimes I think that thing has a mind of its own!
Seriously though, I am not sure I would actively choose to read an AI-generated book and from what I’ve seen I’m not sure I’d be fooled yet if it wasn’t disclosed but I suspect that day is coming. On the other hand, I could be persuaded to make a few shekels from the books my Roomba writes.
“No Roomba, I’d never steal from you, it was just a joke I swear… back off, stop, no, noooooo….”
Seeds scattered upon the wind, like birds that have left the nest.
Each restless generation innately driven to carve out its own place in the world.
The mark we leave is not measured by how much we’ve grown.
It is determined by what we teach our children to sow.
Welcome to Four Line Fiction, a pix-to-prose challenge. Each Thursday, 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 February 23rd, 2023 is one of my own images. It is a black and white image of an open milkweed pod, its seed having already been expelled into the wind.
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.
Click here for full rules and guidelines
Greg's Blog 