Month: May 2023

Who, me?

~ annemcsommers ~ 6 Comments

This week’s six sentence story is based on the word of the week YELLOWBELLY, which I managed to shoehorn into these six sentences twice.  This one is about our narrator trying to talk their way out of a sticky situation, which is a complete misunderstanding and doing whatever it take to escape.  I hope you enjoy, and that you get the reference inside. Also PRIDE MONTH STARTS TOMORROW!!!

If you had asked me last week, I would not have said myself to be a coward, and truthfully, I would have said the same thing three minutes ago, but then he walked up.

The man had a good two feet on me, was the kind of big that blocked out the sun, and he was angrier than any person I ever did see.

I started with truth, reason, logic, because I was not actually the man he was looking for, had no idea who Lenore was, and definitely had not been sleeping with her, but he was not going for it.

He demanded satisfaction, whereas I mostly wanted to demand a new set of trousers, and there was no way for me to get help before he pummeled me with fists the size of my head.

I was no fighter, so I yelled the first thing that came to mind, “WHOA, LOOK, a Yellowbelly Sapsucker,” pointed behind him, and took advantage of the distraction to make a break for it.

I ran faster than I had ever ran before in my life, and when I was finally safe, it took about ten minutes on google to discover that it was in fact a yellow-bellied sapsucker, but in reality, I had used a half remembered cartoon to save my yellowbelly self.

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Neon Dreaming

~ annemcsommers ~ 5 Comments

Hello Hello and Welcome to this week’s six-sentence story, based on the word CAROUSEL. I went about 16 dark places with this, and yes, apparently the word can inspire some pretty good horror, but instead I went to a slightly different place, well a dream really. It’s a bit odd, but for once no warnings apply, so I hope you enjoy!

Sometimes when I am dreaming, there is a moment when I realise that this is a dream, and usually that is when I decide to wake up, because the possibility that I might be late overwhelms my desire to try lucid dreaming.

Tonight, for the first time I had kept going onwards, and exploring the increasingly unrealistic dreamscape my mind had created, which was something akin to a rainforest, if the rainforest was coloured by a child with only neon paints.

The most unrealistic part of it all was the complete lack of heat or humidity, the entire place was perfectly temperate in a way I rarely experienced, though I thought I must have overdone it yesterday, because the pain in my legs could be felt in the dream as I walked along.

I laughed aloud when I figured out that I was dreaming of Faerie, and while it was strange that this is how I had conjured it, because this is not how I had imagined it, the increasing number of mushroom circles I had seen definitely pointed in that direction.

I wondered absently if they all went to different places, were they like single use portals, a fountain alternative, but it was only as I bit into the apple that I didn’t notice myself picking, the tart juice bringing my taste buds the life, that the whole place came into focus in a way that made me suddenly terrified.

I tried to wake up, but to no avail, my mind spinning with a carousel of thoughts, that kept coming back round to hit me with the unescapable truth, that this was not a dream, I had eaten the food in Faerie, and I would never be able to go home again.

A Farewell to Clive

~ annemcsommers ~ 4 Comments

Hello hello, welcome to this week’s six sentence story based on the word of the week FLUSH.  This one is a little twist, not nearly as dark as it first appears, and features someone getting their comeuppance when deciding to be an ass.  I recommend reading it twice for the full effect, but I don’t want to ruin it by giving away more, so read on and I hope you enjoy.

I felt my face flush with heat as I tried to quietly explain that I had to leave early tomorrow, not wanting to go into details, but George is an asshole, so once he loudly proclaimed LEAVING EARLY ON A FRIDAY, I loudly countered it was for a funeral.

George was the one red in the face after that, asking exactly zero more questions, just stating his condolences, switching out 2 hours PTO request with a full day paid bereavement, refusing to accept no as an answer when I tried to explain this didn’t qualify under our policy.

I would have gone into details, but it wasn’t the first time George had pulled this kind of thing, he only did it with the women, and humiliating people every time they ask for time off was bound to come back and bite him eventually, though by the looks of disgust the rest of the staff was throwing him, I might have made it today.

I spent the next morning writing the eulogy, trying to get the words right, because it would be my funeral next if I screwed this up, Tally was already upset with me for not wanting to attend the funeral, and in trying to backtrack I found myself in charge of the whole ordeal.

I dressed in all black, standing beside my three siblings, and I spoke from the depths of my heart about Clive, how he was always there for us, the perfect listener, never complaining, always content till the day he passed on, though he would always live on in our hearts.

I waited for the tears to subside before I moved on to the next step, watching as Clive spun round and round, moving on to his eternal resting place with a single flush of the toilet, and I made a plan to head to the pet store next weekend, when it wasn’t quite so raw, and pick up another 10 cent feeder fish.

Promotion Perks

~ annemcsommers ~ Leave a comment

Hello hello and welcome to this week’s Microfiction Monday, where I will be answering the prompt to write a contemporary piece under 300 words about a character that tells us something about who they are, through what they say, or the actions they take. Follow the narrator, as they encounter one of the usual suspects, and not everything turns out the way they expect…

I sat down at my desk, and paused, something was not right.

I moved the pens from the left side of my desk, to the right, ignoring Bryan’s snickers, and wondering again if I should contact HR.  On the one hand, it was harmless, moving my stuff around didn’t hurt anyone, and he didn’t hide anything anywhere I couldn’t find it.  On the other hand, he had no reason to touch my things, and he knew that it bothered me, so that was harassment, right? 

It didn’t matter though, I wouldn’t be here for much longer, not that he knew that. 

I had applied for certification last week, my documentation was all order, and I had aced the written exam.  Once I received the paperwork in the mail, I could apply for somewhere else, somewhere without Bryan, and maybe the next person who occupied this desk would be less easy to rile.

The job offer preceded the paperwork, and it came from my bosses boss, who had heard I was getting certified, and had a vacancy that would be easier to fill by someone who already knew the landscape. 

There would be better offers at other places, we paid at the low end of the scale, but the experience would be an asset for my next job, and the perks were what sold it.

It wasn’t the bonus, or that I would get an office with a door that locked to prevent people from touching my things, it was that my role would be a supervisory one, to a single employee.  I could barely contain my smirk as I thought about Bryan’s up performance review…