Hi. I wrote this for the national novel writing contest in November. The idea was that you would write a 50,000 word novel in one month's time: the catch was that it didn't matter what you wrote as long as you got to 50,000 words. Of course, I didn't get that far (I got a bit over 14,000) and then of course I got a nice email saying that they overemphasized the 50,000 word part on purpose and that basically even if you didn't reach 50,000 words you were still a winner because you at least tried. The email actually did make me feel better about not getting to that 50,000 word mark. So here is a snippet of what I wrote. The other parts were failed plot ideas that didn't register in my head. Maybe I'll post those someday, too.
Enjoy, but trust me, it sucks.
mary
Annie woke up again in another fit of coughing attacks. She sighed as she ran to the bathroom again to spit out whatever gunkiness had come up again. It wasn't pretty and she was glad it was not light enough yet outside for her to be able to see what had just come up. She sighed and trudged back to bed, hoping she would be able to fall asleep again in a few minutes. Unfortunately her coughing decided that she needed to get up again and after a few more long minutes of this battle with her cold, she gave into it and turned on her computer.
While her computer booted up, she grabbed a drab, green colored sweater from off the hook on the back of her bedroom door, found a pair of old slipper socks and shuffled into the kitchen. The bright fluorescent light shined down on her and made her squint as she rummaged through the pantry for a box of hot coca. She figured some hot liquid would help ward off any further coughing fits. She put on a kettle and opened up a box of pop tarts and tossed a couple of those into the toaster as well and waited.
Annie gathered together her pop tarts and cocoa and headed back to her desk in the living room. She balanced the plate and cup in her hand as she tried not to trip on her own blue and white striped pajama pants which were entirely too long for her. She never bothered to take them into the seamstress since after all, they were just pajama pants. Besides, sometimes they kept her feet warm for those few moments when she got up in the morning and walked on the cold tile in her kitchen or on her bathroom floor. She always had to be a little careful not to trip though, but she had managed to get it down pretty quickly.
She sat her dishes down around her desk next her computer. Her desk was fairly neat looking with a few strays papers and scribbled post-it notes stuck to the monitor. She started nibbling on her pop tarts and checked her email. Her desk was situated near the window in her apartment and she started to gaze outside. It was still a little dark and the sunrise was set to happen for another half hour or so. She had a view of the street below her from her third story window. She lived in a building in the suburbs in a small side street but a few blocks down she could see the busier cross street had a few whizzing cars even at this time of the time'the streetlights were still on but as she watched she saw them flick off, one at a time. She spotted an old man in a brown jacket with a cane hobbling down the to the busy cross street. She glanced at her watch and wondered what the old man could be doing up at such an hour of the day and wondered about where he could be off to. It was a chilly morning and she got up again to fetch a big fleece blanket to cover her as she goofed around on the computer, waning the hours away until she thought of something better to do with her time.
A half hour passed away and she glanced out her window again as sunshine started to stream through her window, making her living room glow with the morning light. She again saw the old man with his cane hobbling down the street. He paused in his movements and sat down on a bench. He had a small gray beard and he wore a disheveled looking brown hat. He leaned on his cane and glanced around the quiet neighborhood for a moment before getting up again and hobbling back down the street.
THE OLD MAN
Henry was quite out of breath as he sat down on the wooden bus stop bench. He leaned back against the bench, the advertising billboard pushing into jacket a little though he could hardly feel it. He hated that his leg was always giving him problems now. He sighed heavily and patted down his inner jacket pocket to make sure that the Tylenol was still in his pocket. He had a bad habit of always checking to make sure things were still there when he very well knew that the couldn't have moved since he had put it there. He leaned on his cane and looked down the street he had just walked along. When he was younger, heck, even before his stroke he was able to get to the small 24 hour market in a matter of minutes. But since his stoke and now that his leg wasn't working as well as it used to, it took him three times as long to get to the market and back. Normally he wouldn't have bothered to make such a trip, but Maggie wasn't feeling well and they had run out of Tylenol. He would have waited a few hours until daylight and called their son, Scott, and asked him to get some for them but he insisted he go out and down to the market. It made him feel good that he could still make it, even if it took him so long to get down there. Besides, the reward of having Maggie feel a little better in the end would be well worth the trip.
Henry glanced around the neighborhood. It was a quiet Saturday morning and the sun had just crested over the land and was dawning down onto the land'the grass was wet from the overnight chill and the few remaining birds sand their songs and flew from tree to tree. One little bird flew down onto the bench that Henry sat at and he watched it carefully'the little bird tilted its head and blinked fast before fluttering off again into the sky. Henry glanced at the apartment building he was sitting across from. It was a slightly older building and the paint on the outside was peeling off the walls'the windows though were all brand new, installed just last year after many of the tenants complained of drafty rooms. The landlord of the building appeased his tenants by installing new windows as well as installing a new rent price. A few of the tenants moved away after the rent increase but most of them stayed. It was hard enough to find a decent apartment in the area but at least they knew that they had some new windows to help combat the cold winter ahead.
Henry noticed that there was at least one person awake at this time of day'there was always someone else up with you no matter what time of day it was. Henry wondered briefly why this person was awake at such an hour, too. He wondered if they also had to make a trip down to the twenty four hour store for some medicine. Maybe they were just early risers and liked to start the day before anyone else had the chance to. He always felt that way since he normally got up pretty early. He felt like he had the city to himself for awhile'the stillness of the morning made him smile.
As Henry was watching the person in the apartment building, he saw them glance out the window down at him. He thought briefly of waving at them but figured it might not be the best thing to do. And in any case he needed to get going again. Home was only a few blocks away and Maggie was waiting for him, depending on him to get home soon. He stood up slowly and rebuttoned his jacket. He turned and started taking a few steps towards the warmth of home.
As he started walking down the street a rusty looking car was driving slowly down the road. A young woman about the age of 25 was driving slowly down the road with her head outside her side window. Henry watched her for a moment as she drove by, wondering why she didn. t just get out and clean the windshield of her car. He shrugged his shoulders and continued home to his Maggie.
RUSTY CAR
Lacey couldn't believe it. Michael had actually left her the bad car.
"That bastard! Why does he always leave with the good car? All he ever goes it go to that stupid bar. It. s not like Michael has ever actually helped me out in any kind of situation, he always gives some kind of excuse to not be there for me or to totally cop out and go and hang out with his stupid bar friends who always seem to be more important than I am which I can't figure out in the least bit because they never do anything for him either and they certainly don't ever bail him out of jail or feed him a hot meal or take care of his lousy bills or take care of anything at all that involves his life, no, no they just sit there at the bar eating those stale pretzels and guzzling that awful cheap watered down beer watching that same old black television that sits in the corner of the bar, always tuned into ESPN for whatever kind of sports that are on be it tennis, golf, bowling, pool, or those strong man competitions where they heave those steel chains and chop wood as fast as they can and their strength is all trained for these worthless strong man competitions that these beer guzzling losers sit around watching and they don't put that strength toward any good use like hauling around new shipments for the goodwill but instead they just lift things and pull things around that don't mean anything and don't help anyone out at all like winning the strong man competition will give meaning to their lives somehow they don't do anything for anybody just like these damn useless men sitting at this bar sipping at their beer hardly even talking to each other, my god, how can they sit there for so long on those stools not even exchanging words with one another I just don't understand it one bit, I don't have to understand it either but one thing I want is for Michael to at least help me out once in awhile by leaving me the good car so that I don't have to run my errands with my head sticking out the window because the god damn windshield is all iced up and the wipers are broken and throwing water onto the windshield don't help it because it. s just a little icy and it would probably defrost if the defroster in this hunk of junk even worked but it doesn't work because it. s the god damn oldest car ever and I have to sit in this god damn old car with the broken wipers and the hole in the back window so that it. s always cold when I go to work at six o. clock in the morning and by the time I actually get to work my whole backside is frozen and I can't feel my toes anymore and I just want to drive over to that bar and wring Michael. s neck for being the insensitive bastard that he is. In fact, why I am still with Michael? How can I be with such a loser for three years? THREE YEARS. I could be out there meeting a better man, being wined and dined and treated right for once in my life but instead I. m with Michael Huntington. When I met him he did sweep me off my feet, but I never expected us to end up like this three years later. When I first met him he was going to law school and he had big plans. He was going to become a hot shot lawyer and work the good cases and bring home the money to me and I would take care of our nice little house and I wouldn't have to work this crappy shift at Dunkin Donuts making six dollars and twenty five cents an hour and handing out these flyers in the afternoon after my shift is over just to have the extra money to help pay the rent at the end of the month. I could probably junk this piece of crap car too and get a couple of hundred bucks but then I know damn well that Michael would come along and get up before me in the morning and take the good car and leave me stranded at home, forcing me to call up Marcie at 5:30 in the morning to ask for a ride and to be in debt to her again. I am going to break up with that man tonight, I don't know what has happened to him. I know I should be sensitive to his feelings since his father. s death six months ago but that was no reason for him to drop out of law school and to completely give up on his life as it is! What about the future? His father wasn't always going to be there, and I know I sound like a bitch for even saying this because my father does mean a lot to me as well but I wouldn't just stop living all together because my father or my mother died. I would want to do something with my life! God damn that Michael. I need a more supportive and loving man in my life. I need a man that will take the bad car sometimes! God, please give me a sign here. Should I break up with Michael? Are you even listening to me, God? I must be talking to myself again."
Lacey continued chugging down the road in the beat up, rusted out car with her head out the window and the cold morning air rushing over her face. She shivered and swore again at no one in particular'the windshield started to defrost a little and she kept puttering down the street'the Dunkin Donuts she worked at was about five miles away from where she and Michael lived and she was almost there. She prayed that the car would make it that far so she wouldn't be late for her shift'the morning crowd was always a bit edgy and she had to help make some of the donuts for the rest of the morning. On her way to the shop she passed The Tom Cat, which was the bar that Michael always hung out at. She spotted their other car which was a 1989 yellow Toyota Corolla which was also a pretty old vehicle but it was reliable and the heater worked and the windshield wipers also worked and more importantly there were no holes in any of the windows! Lacey grumbled and honked her horn several times while passing the Tom Cat, hoping to disturb the inhabitants in any way possible. She couldn't believe that the Tom Cat even opened that early in the day. She swore again and made her way to the store and parked in the back and strode in, barely on time.
Lila, her co-worker, spanked her on the ass as she walked in.
"The natives are getting restless out there! There. s a bit of a line already. Fred has been waiting for you to come in, too."
"Great, you. d think I was the only person who worked here. I don't know why he always wants me to serve him his donuts. It. s not like this is even a restaurant!"
Lacey put on the rest of her uniform and punched in her timecard. She peered out the door to the front of the store and watched Fred, one of the regular costumers, as he patiently sat at one of the tables reading the morning paper. He had no coffee or donuts at his table and he kept glanced towards the door. She knew that he was expecting her to walk through and that. s when he would get up, paper in hand, and come to the counter and ask her politely for his usual: a medium sized black coffee with two sugars, a chocolate donut with sprinkles and a jelly filled donut. She was sad that she knew his order by heart. She sighed and pushed through the door and started her day.
FRED
The alarm buzzed right at 5:30am every morning and Fred bolt right up out of bed. He switched off his alarm and plodded into the shower. He took very short showers, averaging about five minutes each. He didn't like to waste extra water by showering. He liked to step right into the shower and turn it on after he got in despite the fact that the cold water would sear over his body. He was used to it by now and in fact it gave him a little bit of a morning jolt. He immediately stuck his head under the cold water and let it run down his back and by the time the water started to heat up he was already rinsing his hair of shampoo and moving onto lathering his body with his bar of Irish Spring. One good go over with the soap and he jumped right back out of the shower and was practically ready to go.
Fred liked to make sure that he had enough time in the morning to hit Dunkin Donuts before going to work'there was a pretty lady there by the name of Lacey who was always so nice to him. She knew his order and served it right up before he even got to the counter most of the time now. Fred liked to watch her as she served the other customers and usually there was a pretty good line for donuts at that time of day.
He finished getting dressed, wearing his old faded blue jeans with a white t-shirt and an old plaid shirt that had brown and blue on it that he had had for years. His wardrobe consisted mainly of plaid and plain white t-shirts with lots of pairs of old jeans. He owned one suit coat with a pair of faded gray slacks that he had had since high school'they still fit him pretty well and he hardly ever had to wear them and didn't have a need for another suit so the lone one that he had stood hanging up in the closet wrapped in a plastic bag.
Fred drove out to the Dunkin Donuts and got there at promptly 5:45am. Lacey was usually right about six am, but he liked to walk across the street to the 7-11 for the morning paper. By the time he got it and walked back over to the Dunkin Donuts she was usually pulling into the parking lot'today though she was a little late. He decided to sit inside and read his paper and glanced out the window for a sign of her approach. He didn't like to buy donuts from the other ladies at the shop. None of them had the signature smile that Lacey had, nor did they have the body to go along with that smile. He imagined trying to ask her out for a date once, but he got so nervous that when he tried to pay his bill he fumbled his wallet and all his change came tumbling out of his pocket and fell all over the floor. He had to get on his hands and knees to pick up all the change and by the time he had gathered it all and stuffed it back in his pocket he had lost his nerve and Lacey was already getting ready to help the customer behind him.
A few minutes later he finally saw her pulling into the driveway with her head partially stuck out the window. He frowned and wished he could do something for her so she didn't have to drive that car around. He wished he could take care of her and that she would take care of him in return. It seemed like too much of a fantasy, though. He pretended to read the front page of the paper again and kept glanced at the door to the back of the store, waiting for her pretty face to appear. Finally she emerged from the back and he sat right up and jumped into her line, the first person that she would serve today. He stomach twinged as he looked at her and he smiled at her. Without a word she fetched the donuts that he liked, chocolate sprinkles and a jelly donut and gave him a medium sized coffee and put two sugar packets on top of his cup. His heart flipped inside his chest and he smiled at her.
"Good morning, Lacey."
"Hi, Fred. How ya doin?"
"Good& good'thank you. I see that you drove in that uh, that uh, hunk of junk again today."
"Yeah, my bastard boyfriend took the good car today when I specifically asked him not to take it. I swear, I don't know why I stay with him sometimes."
Fred shook his head sadly and handed her the exact change for his donuts and coffee.
"You deserve better than that, Lacey."
"Thanks, Fred." Her blue eyes twinkled in the glow of the neon lights and Fred almost melted on the spot. He took his bag and his cup of coffee and lingered for a moment, watching her sparkling eyes.
"See you tomorrow."
"Yeah& see you tomorrow, Lacey."
Fred scooped up his donuts and coffee and headed back out to his car. Since Lacey was a little late this morning he would not be able to eat in the shop today like he had hoped to, watching her serve the customers and fetch donuts and make more coffee with her bright sparkling blue eyes. He sighed and walked out to his car and made his way to the antique shop that he worked at'the shop did not open until 9AM but Fred always had a little work to do before opening the store up for the day.
He arrived at the shop about ten minutes later and parked in the back. He brought his donuts, coffee, and newspaper with him and he fished for the keys to the shop. He balanced everything for a moment as he jiggled the lock open and rushed inside the shop. It was a good sized shop filled from head to toe with odd knick-knacks, pottery, collectible toys and coins, lots of lamps as well as furniture that looked as if it hadn't been touched in years'there was also a wall full of old electronics such as some dusty record players and old style radios plus a couple of bins of records in varying conditions. Fred put his coffee and donuts on the front counter and took out a duster from behind the register and began to sweep around the shop, dusting some of the old chairs and tables and swinging the duster over lamps and pottery. He replaced the duster for a bottle of Windex and a rag and started to clean the window on the front door. As he began to work on the windows he noticed an a shiny new silver Lexus pull into one of the parking spots parallel to the sidewalk right in front of the store. A middle aged woman with big blonde hair primped in her rear view mirror and eyed Fred as he finished cleaning the glass on the inside. He watched her briefly and went to the back of the store again to turn on all the lights. It was just a few minutes shy of 8 o. clock and he decided to unlock the front door a bit early'the blonde woman was standing patiently in front of the door, waiting for the store to open. He unlocked the door and opened it to let the morning air in and propped it open and flipped over the sign.
"Good morning!" The blonde woman exclaimed in his ear quite loudly.
"Hello, ma. am." Fred smiled politely at the woman who was wearing far too much makeup and reeked of expensive perfumes. She hobbled in on her high heeled shoes that did not look too comfortable on her. Her shoes clang rapidly against the tile in the store and Fred made his way back to the front counter to sip on his coffee and eat his donuts. He eyed the woman as she studied various knick knacks in the store. He heaved a sigh and leaned back in his chair and bit into the chocolate sprinkled donut.
FURNITURE HUNTING
Fran was the type of woman that usually got what she wanted because of her looks. She turned quite a few heads in her younger days and still quite a few more as she got older and she found that with her beauty she could wield her power over men into giving her the things that she wanted. She dated rich men, she dated artists, she dated business men and the like so that would buy her pretty things and take her to expensive places. She finally settled down one day with a well to do entrepreneur named Tyler Keating who owned a chain of family restaurants called "Milo. s", an Italian style family restaurant that was successful on the West Coast. He also owned shares of Wal-Mart and Home Depot and was a pretty sharp businessman who was willing to take risks and in the end the risks paid off very well. Fran knew that Tyler would always take of her as long as she took care of him.
They moved into the town of Three Rivers not too long ago'tyler was settling up a new chain of restaurants in Southern California and wanted to be nearby to keep an eye on the opening of the new restaurants. He moved himself and Fran to a second home for the next six months'the home was sparsely furnished, just the way Fran wanted it to be. Their last home was completed by an interior decorator and Fran was convinced that she had good enough sense to decorate their new home. Besides, she didn't have much else to keep her busy since all of their friends were back in Malibu and she was stuck down in Three Rivers without her usual affairs and meetings. She had bargained with Tyler to let her redecorate their new home for the fact that he was moving her away from her circle of friends for six whole months. He relented and gave into her, figuring that it couldn't turn out that badly.
Talking with her friends they gave her all sorts of suggestions and places to go to for new furniture. Some told her to shop online and order special handmade furniture from France or Italy, one woman, a Mrs. Elena Huffton, suggested that she hire a local carpenter to build some nice wood furniture for them. Mrs. Peeta Lark suggested that she peek around some stores such as Neiman Marcus, the Bombay Company or perhaps Pottery Barn. But the best suggestion of all came from Mrs. Leanne Richly who told Fran to hit some old antique shops. Most of the time you could find one of a kind items in the old shops, pieces that no one else had, and that. s exactly what Fran had wanted. She wasn't very into computers or shopping online, she didn't want to hire a carpenter since that could take months to finish a project and she did like some of the furniture from the local stores and might hit those up at a later time but she truly felt that antique shopping was for her.
Fran didn't know what the antique shops were like around town, but she did know of at least one that she drove by on her way home a few times. It was near downtown in Three Rivers and it was a quaint looking shop called Creaky Old Antiques. She figured it was a good place to start since she had seen it a number of times and from there maybe she could ask a clerk to direct her to some other local shops. She might even break down and use the yellow pages to give her more places to go to but for now, Creaky Old Antiques would have to do. She resolved to hit the shop first thing in the morning.
Fran woke up about 7am the next morning just as Tyler was getting dressed for work. She slipped on her furry high heeled slippers and puttered over to him and slid her arms around to hug him from behind. He was standing in front of the mirror putting his tie on and smiled at her as she peeked around his side to give him a grin.
"Good morning, Fran. You're up early today."
"Yes, I told you last night I was going to go downtown and do some shopping today. I. m going to that old antiques store."
"Oh yes, I remember. Well, I. m glad you have some goals in mind for the house, honey."
"I do! It. ll look beautiful when I. m done, you can count on that sugar plum."
She gave him a squeeze around the middle and then turned to stand in front of him. He smiled at her and she reached up to adjust his tie. He looked fine in his gray suit and he was wearing a blue and dark yellow tie that she had given him as part of an anniversary present. She tugged on his tie and made him bend down and kissed him hard on the lips. He obliged and kissed her back and straighted up again. She threw her arms and one of her legs around him and started kissing his neck.
"Fran, honey& I have to go soon& and I haven't eaten breakfast yet& "
"You can have me for breakfast!" And with that she started kissing him again, pushing him back against the bed. He didn't resist.
Fran got showered and ready for her morning outing. She opened the door to her closet and stood inside, looking over her many ensembles. She had everything separated first by type and then color'the entire left side of her closet was filled with various types of blouses and shirts: fur lined, silk, polyester, wool, button up, turtleneck, mock turtleneck, cotton, cashmere, velour, v-necks, striped, plain, with dots, camisoles, tank tops, strappy shirts, halter tops, beaded, with sequins, with rhinestones, floral prints, shells, mesh tops, glittery tops, fleece, metallic colored tops and more'the right side of her closet was filled with different tops of bottom ranging from pants, leggings, jeans, short skirts, long skirts, and shorts. Some of these (mostly the jeans and some shorts) were stacked in a series of wooden shelves. Next to the bottoms she had her sweaters. She didn't have quite so many sweaters and most of the heavier things were still in boxes in the guest rooms. Her had her assistant arrange most of her closet for her that week and it was almost complete'there was a closet within the closet that held most of her dresses, and those were as varied as her tops. Fran decided that today she wanted to wear something not so nice since she would be walking around in dusty old shops and decided on a pair of black leggings with a dark yellow scoop neck top that was lined with fur'to go on top of that she chose a black button up cashmere sweater and her usual black flip flop high heeled shoes. After getting dressed and having a little breakfast consisting of toast, eggs and herbal tea, she set off downtown to tackle the antique store.
It was a partly cloudy day and the sun was peeking in through the clouds as Fran drove downtown. Her mind wandered a little as she hit a few stoplights on the way. At one light she watched a young man with headphones on drumming his fingers on the inside of his legs as he sat waiting at the bus stop. He looked up while Fran was watching him and blushed, folding his hands together and pretending he had not been drumming his fingers. She laughed at his reaction and the young man blushed again when he glanced up at her a second time'the light turned green and she proceeded on down to the shop.
She pulled into one of the parking spots parallel to the sidewalk and watched a man cleaning the inside window on the door'the sign that hung said that the shop was still closed. Fran primped in her rear view window, pulling out a compact from her purse and powdering her nose one more time before getting out and waiting at the entrance to the shop. She could feel the man. s eyes on her as she checked her hair and makeup one more time. She stood patiently outside the door and waited for the shop to open. She checked her watched and watched the street. A few other shops were just getting ready to open for the day. While she was looking around the man from the shop opened the door and propped it open.
"Good morning!" She exclaimed to the shopkeeper who reeled back from her for a moment but Fran didn't notice.
"Hello, ma. am." He said softly as Fran rushed by him and started clacking around the store'they had a lot of junk but they also had some pretty good finds as well, thought Fran as she poked around the store'there were no shopping carts as the store wasn't quite spacious enough for a cart to get down very aisle. But since there was no one else in the store at the moment she figured that she had free reign over all the products. She walked up to the front and asked the store keeper how she could mark the products she wanted since some where quite bulky and she couldn't carry them around.
"Oh, don't worry about that, ma. am. You just let me know what you like and I. ll place one of these tags here on the item." He gestured to a stack of blank white tags.
"Oh, great! Thank you." Fran smiled at the man again as he returned to his paper and donuts. She eyed him a moment longer and continued browsing around the store. She found an old checkered colored rug that she thought would look quite nice in one of the guestrooms and asked the storekeeper to place a tag on it for her. He grudgingly got up with one of his tags and asked her what her name was.
"Mrs. Fran Keating. What. s your name?"
"I. m Fred Whittham. Are you new in town?"
"Yes, my husband and I just moved her last week. I. m hunting for things to decorate our new home in. It. s just a temporary home for the next six months or so but I have to do something with my time, you know."
Fred nodded his head at her and taped the tag to the rug.
"Thank you, Fred. May I call you that?"
"Yes, ma. am, whatever makes you comfortable." He walked back over to the front counter and sat down again, picking up the next section of his newspaper and not paying Fran any mind. She found a few more items that she liked immensely, including an old Tiffany lamp that looked like it just needed a little cleaning and a new light bulb, an old wooden coffee table with small drawers underneath, and an oil painting of a city at night. She also picked up a few vases in various floral patterns and a crystal dish that she wanted to place on the coffee table to hold little candy treats. Fred tagged and marked all the items she wanted and marked the prices down onto a pad of paper to ring up the prices.
"I. m afraid I won't be able to haul all these things back with me today. Do you have any kind of delivery service?"
"Well, we don't do deliveries directly you see, but we do offer references'there. s a club, or a company, whatever you. d like to call it, over at the college'there. s a group of boys who take turns doing deliveries around town from shops to homes for people for a fairly good price. I can call them and arrange it for you and have them bill you or you. re welcome to find another delivery service on your own."
"That. ll be fine. Can you please make arrangements for these things to be delivered for me. I. d like to have them this afternoon if possible."
"Sure thing, I. ll give them boys a ring for you'they. ll give you a call later this morning to arrange a time for you.
"Thank you, Fred! You. ve been very helpful today."
Fred took down her name, address and number and Fran smiled and paid for her purchases'this turned out to be easier than she thought! She asked Fred about some other antique stores around town and her directed her to one that was on the other side of main street as well as a couple on the outskirts of town. She thanked him again and hopped into her Lexus to continue her hunt.
BUS STOP
Charlie cursed at his car and kicked one of the tires. He knew it was time to get a new car since this one was on its last leg, but he was hoping that it would at least last him through the semester'the car had other ideas though and refused to start for him this morning. He sighed and checked his watch. He was glad he had gotten up early that morning otherwise he would never have made class that morning at the local college. He popped back into his car, grabbed his backpack and headphones. He locked the car (like anyone could steal the car) and trotted down to the bus stop on the corner to catch the next bus to school. He would deal with his car problems later.
Charlie slipped his headphones on clipped his tape player to his jean pocket. He made it to the bus stop in ten minutes and checked the schedule'the next bus was due in about ten minutes, just enough time to get him to school and to his first class. He checked his wallet for money and found a few dollars, enough fare to get him home and back and a soda for class time. He sat on the bench and started drumming his fingers on his thighs, imagining in his head that he was a drummer for Tom Petty who sang about an American girl through his headphones.
As he was drumming his fingers together he looked up and noticed a pretty blonde lady watching him. He was suddenly aware of what he was doing and how silly he must have looked. He blushed and folded his hands together instantly and started humming to himself, trying to make off that he wasn't just air drumming along to the music. He glanced up again and saw that the lady was laughing at him and he blushed again. He didn't like being caught off guard like that, but at least it was a pretty woman who caught him if nothing else. He sat silently at the bus stop after she drove off and in a few minutes he could see the bus approaching. He stood up next to the bus stop sign and waited for the bus to pull up to the curb and stop. He clambered on and paid his fare and chose a seat in the middle of the bus. It was quite full but there was one seat left next to a bald man wearing a suit coat with jeans. He was hugging his briefcase and eyed Charlie as he sat down. Charlie noticed that he was also wearing black cowboy boots with spurs on them. He thought it was odd for a man to be wearing spurs in a town like Three Rivers that had no horses around'then again, it could just be some find of weird fashion statement that he didn't know about. Hell, the guy could just really like spurs. Spurs were kind of cool. He shrugged his shoulders and forgot about it and fell back into his seat and waited for his stop to arrive.
His stop came sooner than Charlie had expected and he hopped off the bus and ran to class. He wouldn't be late if he ran and when he appeared in class most of his classmates had snagged their seats already in the lecture hall and Charlie took a seat in the back. He normally liked to sit in the middle but it would be too difficult to climb over people to get to a good seat'the professor had not arrived yet but some of the assistants were handing out study packets for the upcoming midterm which was why he could not miss class today and he cursed his car for almost making him late. He had a few minutes to kill before the professor arrived and Charlie fished his notebook out of his backpack and then leaned back in his chair and glanced around him. He knew a few of the people in the class and some of his friends were already seated down front but he didn't notice them in his rush to find a seat. One of his friends, Peter, turned around and looked at him and motioned for him to come join them but just as he was motioning to Charlie the professor walked into the auditorium and went up onto the stage. Charlie shrugged at his friends and figured now was not the best time to be changing seats. He. d catch up with Peter and the others after class anyway.
Professor Andrews began the lecture in a couple minutes and started to go in depth into various parts of the history of Ireland. Charlie wrote down key items from time to time and did his best to pay attention. He was glad he took pretty good notes and would be able to study for the midterm.
After class ended Charlie caught up with his friends Peter and Harry'they chatted a bit about the upcoming midterm and made a date to study together over the weekend.
"Hey Charlie, do you want to meet up for lunch later after class?"
"Sure, you get out at 11, right?"
"Yeah. We. ll meet you over in the student center."
"All right, cool. See you guys then."
Charlie trudged off to his next class which was a literature class. After class he headed to meet Peter and Harry in the student center. He made it before them and sat on one of the benches inside the center. He watched streams of students pass by, heading to different classes, picking up lunch, or stopping in the convenience store for a pick me up or maybe a magazine to flip through between classes. Charlie checked his watch and saw that it was still ten minutes to eleven. His class had let out a little early and he still had a few minutes to kill before his friends joined him. He decided to stop in the convenience store and browse through the magazine racks.
The student store carried a variety of magazines, mostly women. s fashion magazines and the typical male magazines such as Maxim, Men. s Health, and various car and driver magazines. There was also a slew of political magazines and your usual staples of Time, People, The New Yorker, Newsweek, National Geographic and an assortment of entertainment, sports and technology magazines to boot'there were even a few Playboy and Hustler magazines up at the top of the shelf, covered by a black partition. Charlie had a small urge to sneak a peak behind some of the magazines behind that partition but lost his nerve after eyeing a cute a brunette standing next to him who was flipping through a Scientific American magazine. He didn't want to get that typical glare from a girl and decided it would be best to make that purchase another time. Charlie watched the brunette for a moment longer and she even looked up from her magazine to give him a smile. He smiled back instantly. He debated on whether or not he should talk to her.
"You know, I don't really like this magazine very much," the brunette suddenly said aloud, surprising Charlie.
"Why not, it. s a great magazine filled with scientific & discoveries and & stuff."
"Have you ever read this magazine? It. s kind of dry."
"Actually, no I haven't. I. m kind of more into, you know, entertaining magazines."
"Like Playboy?"
"Playboy has good articles."
"Does it?
"Yeah. Well, you know, that. s what I. ve heard at least."
"You. ve never read Playboy?"
"Well, maybe once or twice."
"Are you sure you don't have like a two year subscription?"
"No, no, it. s a once in awhile thing."
The brunette eyed him for a moment and reached up past the black partition and grabbed a Playboy. She browsed through the table of contents and nodded. Charlie smiled to himself and watched her.
"I wonder if Playgirl has good articles, too?"
"Now that I couldn't tell you in no way, shape, or form."
The girl laughed and placed the magazine back onto the rack under the black partition.
"Maybe I. ll try picking this up some other time."
"I don't know, maybe you should get it now while it. s still available."
She smiled at him again and Charlie felt his heart skip a beat. He was about to say more to her when Peter came up from behind him and slapped him on the back.
"Hey, Charlie, what. s up man?"
"Hey, Pete. I was just uh, having a conversation here with this lovely lady named & .?"
"Tracy'tracy Brown. And you are& ?"
"Charlie David'this is Pete Carson."
"Nice to meet you, Charlie. Pete." Tracy shook each of their hands and smiled. Charlie held onto her hand for a little longer than he probably should have, but she didn't really seem to mind. Pete eyed his friend and almost started laughing but instead broke into their lingering moment.
"Tracy, would you like to have lunch with us? We. re headed over here to our fine student center for a scrumptious and nutritious lunch before afternoon classes."
"Thank you, but I can't. I have a meeting with one of my professors in the science building pretty soon."
"Oh, that. s too bad. Maybe another time then."
"Yeah, maybe." She smiled at Charlie again who started to blush. "Hold on, I. ll be right back." Tracy dashed over to the register and purchased the magazine she was holding. Charlie watched her for a moment before Peter began to rattle off in his ear.
"Man, she is cute. Ask for her number, dude!"
"No, no, I don't want to make her uncomfortable."
"Don't cop out on me now, just ask her. Oh, oh, here she comes."
Tracy walked back up to Charlie and gave him the Scientific American magazine she had been browsing through before.
"You. ve never read it before, so I thought maybe you should start. Even though it is a little dry. I recommend the cover story'that one isn't too bad."
"Thanks."
"See you around. Nice meeting you Charlie, and Pete." Tracy gave them a little wave and then was lost in the sea of students.
"Man you blew it."
"Oh, be quiet." Charlie pouted for a moment and really did think that he blew it. Maybe he. d see her again though'there was always a chance. He stuffed the magazine into his backpack and left the store with Pete. Harry was not too far away waiting for them'they grabbed some lunch in the food court and started talking about their midterms. Charlie pulled out his notebook and the magazine to go over some of his notes from that day. s lecture.
"Since when do you read this magazine, Charlie?" asked Harry, picking up the Scientific American.
"Since cute girls started buying them for him," chimed in Pete with a grin. Charlie snatched the magazine out of Harry hands and started to flip through the pages.
"Hey, it could be interesting."
"Yeah, I guess so. So tell me this story! What did this cute girl look like?" Pete started a rambling story and describing Tracy in detail to Harry as Charlie browsed through the magazine. He flipped to the page that had the cover story and there at the top of the page he read, "Give me a call sometime on my cell phone, 555-6227, Tracy." Charlie started to laugh.
"Guys, look, she gave me her number!"
Charlie turned over the magazine to a dazed Pete and Harry as he tapped the top of the page.
"Man, you lucked out. I was just about to tell Harry how you blew it and didn't get her number and all this time she had given it to you!"
"I. ll call her this afternoon. Hey, Harry, can you give me a ride back to my house? My car like, blew a fuse this morning."
"Sure thing. I don't have class this afternoon so I. m ready to go whenever you are."
"All right, yeah, I don't have class either. We can go after lunch."
Charlie smiled to himself and put his notebook and the magazine back into his backpack and finished lunch with his friends.
TRACY, TRACY BROWN
Tracy smiled to herself as she walked away from the student center and down to the science building to meet her professor. She hoped that Charlie was smart enough to flip through the magazine that she had given him or that he was interested enough to go through and actually read the articles. She didn't really expect that to happen but if it did, all the better. She liked intelligent men and if Charlie managed to figure out that she had actually given him her phone number then she would like him that much more. She hoped he would call her sometime, after all he was pretty cute.
She enjoyed walking in what sunshine the day felt like releasing and almost skipped all the way to her meeting. She just had a few questions for Professor Adams about whether or not some certain material would be on the midterm that they were having next week. She made it to the science building in record time and hopped up the stairs to the second floor where most of the professors had their offices'the building was a drab, gray color and the inside of it was no different'there was a squeaky clean, white tiled floor and the walls were painted a dull blue color. She passed a number of storage rooms and labs on her way to room 245, peering in momentarily on a few experiments that were going on in the building. A few goggled heads turned to watch her as she passed by and she watched them in equal interest, wondering what they were working on. Finally, she reached 245'the door was open and Professor Adams was sitting behind her desk typing away at her computer'tracy knocked on the door and waited for the professor to look up.
"Hello there. Just a moment, come on in."
Tracy shuffled in and placed her bag on the floor. She fished out her binder and looked over the notes she had made in the biology section of her notebook. Professor Adams continued to tap on her keyboard'tracy. s eyes wandered the room: Adams office was not too spacious and had a few bookcases that were stacked full of biology and anatomy books'there were also some books about dolphins and whales and above the bookcase there was a Wyland painting depicting some dolphins and fish under the sea near an island shore.
Professor Adams finished up her work and looked to Tracy'tracy began to talk, explaining what class she had with her and she questions about the upcoming exam'they went over her questions and Professor Adams patiently explained everything that Tracy wanted to know.
"The test won't be too difficult just as long as you. ve kept up with your reading and have paid attention in class'there won't be any trick questions. Students usually do well on my exams." Professor Adams smiled at her and Tracy thanked her for her time. As she got up to leave, a tall sandy haired man was standing near the doorway and peering into the office. She recognized him as one of the teacher assistant. s from her class. Professor Adams asked him to come inside just as Tracy left. He smiled at Tracy and said hello as he brushed past her and into the office. She looked back into the doorway and saw that Professor Adams was beaming at him'the man was standing in front of her desk, leaning against it and speaking softly to the professor. Professor Adams looked like she was blushing as she nodded at the door. He turned and caught Tracy. s eye as he reached for the doorknob. He grinned at her as he shut the door'tracy thought it was a bit odd for them to be acting that way, but shrugged it off. She moved off down the hallway to leave the building and heard a click of a lock before she reached the end. She paused for a moment, wondering about the look her Professor had given the teaching assistant. He couldn't have been much older than Tracy since he was only a second year graduate student. She thought about walking past the office again but just then her phone began to ring. She hastily pulled it out of her book bag and answered it.
"Hello, is this Tracy?"
"Yes, who. s this."
"Oh, uh, hi'this is Charlie. We met today& at the student center."
"Oh yeah, the guy who wanted the playboy!"
"Yeah, okay, yeah, that was me," he said with a laugh. "Listen, I can't talk long but I found your number inside the magazine you gave me& I was wondering if maybe you wanted to get together for coffee sometime? Maybe tomorrow evening?"
Tracy. s face split into a grin. "Sure, that. d be great. Do you want to meet at the coffeehouse on campus, say around 7:30?"
"Sure, that. d be great."
"Awesome!"
"I. m sorry I have to cut this call short but my friend is waiting for me, he. s giving me a ride back to my place."
"Oh sure, no problem. I. ll see you tomorrow."
"Great, bye."
"Bye."
Tracy forgot all about her professor and teaching assistant. s potential affair as she floated away from the science building and back to her dorm. She was so lost in thought that walked into a pale, dark haired boy made him drop some of his books out of his hands. She also walked past her dorm and didn't realize it for a half a block. She rolled her eyes at herself and turned around and walked into her building and up to her room.
TAD SUCKS
Tad grumbled to himself and stuffed some papers into his books. He was walking slowly along the sidewalk when all of a sudden a girl walked right into him, and he dropped off of his books on the floor. He grumbled again as the girl apologized and helped him pick up his books. She apologized again and patted his shoulder before skipping off again, humming to herself. He scowled at her and rolled his eyes and walked back to his car'tad never was in a good mood but today had been especially shitty for him. He first he locked himself out of his apartment in the morning when he went outside to take out the trash that had been overflowing in his kitchen. He had to bang on the door for fifteen minutes before Mark, his roommate, finally got out of bed to let him in. After getting back into the apartment he went to use the bathroom and take a shower only to have the toilet get backed up and find that the shower head was broken. Because he was locked out for a bit he ended up being late for math class that morning and his professor had called on him more than once because he walked into class late. Being bumped into on the sidewalk and having his books scattered all over the floor had been about the last straw for him. He almost told the girl that bumped into him off but she was off in another world and he figured that she wouldn't have paid any attention to what he had said, considering she hadn't even paid attention to him walking in front of her on the sidewalk.
He got to his car and threw his books into the backseat. He needed some relief. School had been weighing down on him and he didn't know if he could take it anymore even though he was only taking two classes'tad didn't like to have pressure on him very much.
"God, I can't wait to get home," Tad said to himself. He pulled out of the school. s parking lot and started to drive home'tad liked to switch lanes without signaling and thus he cut off a bunch of people on the way home, all of who flipped him off and honked their horns at him. He flipped them off, too, swearing at them even though they couldn't hear him. He ran a couple of stop signs as well and miraculously didn. t get caught by the police, considering he lived only a few blocks from the police station. He pulled into the driveway at his apartment complex and trudged upstairs.
Tad found that his roommate wasn't home and that for once he had the place to himself.
"Let. s see, I can clean the kitchen, maybe vacuum the rug, I need to do laundry, the bathroom is kind of gross, and we have no food to eat. I think I. ll play some video games."
So Tad played video games.
He was flying a full-screen game on his computer and was just about to kill another monster when his screen minimized and up popped an AIM chat window.
"A/S/L??"
Tad grumbled and looked at his AIM window. It was under his girlfriend. s name and she had accidentally left it running under her screen name "SexxyGrrl". He was surprised there weren't more windows popped up all over the screen.
"I cant talk now d00d, I. m playin a game."
"R U REALLY SEXXXY? I LIKE SEXXXY GURS"
"wtf is a "gur" you tard?"
"SORRE I MEEANT GIRRL"
"well I. m not a girl either"
"WHY RUON THEN? DO YOU WANT TO CYBER"
"you fucker, I just told you I. m a guy"
"I DON't CAR I AM SO HOT SUCK ME"
"fucken sikko get away from me you ass"
"OH BABY TAKME"
Tad promptly blocked the cyber sex-er and then switched to his regular screen name'then he stuck up an away message and played Everquest again until his hand started to hurt and his eyes were watery.
OH BABY
Hank needed to get off badly. He had just gotten off of work and had spent the last few minutes before leaving flirting with the new receptionist who liked to wear short skirts to work. She had brushed his hand giving him a fax and he thought that she had winked at him. This had sent a flurry of thoughts running through Hank. s mind and he desperately needed some relief.
Hank. s wife, Irene, had gone out to pick up the kids'their son, Rob, had baseball practice and their daughter, Susan, was at dance class. Irene wouldn't be back for at least an hour getting the kids and he had caught her as she was leaving the house. He hopped on the computer and signed onto AOL in the hopes of finding a young girl willing to have some hot cyber sex.
He did a search on names and found a girl called "SexxyGrrl" and decided that it must have been his lucky day.
I, as the author, will spare you the rest of the torrid details only to say that he tried in vain for a few hours to find any woman who would even answer any reply that he made. Gross.
PS - I was going to magically connect all these characters but I'm tired now. I will add to this later. If you actually even read this far you must have been really bored. I'd give you a metal if I knew you.