Time loses meaning during a pandemic.
Written for Shweta Suresh’s Saturday Six Word Story Prompt, where the word is “time.” Image credit: Vice.com.
Day: July 18, 2020
Factory Reset
“I just read a review in the paper about a new bakery that recently opened up in the neighborhood,” Gail said. “There are a number of items on the menu that the reviewer described as mouthwatering. He raved about the Black Forest cake, which is one of my favorites. And the ambience, for a neighborhood bakery, is surprisingly inviting, the reviewer wrote.”
Gregg, sitting across the kitchen table from his wife, briefly looked up from his smartphone and absently said, “right.”
“Right what?” Gail asked. “Did you hear a word I said?”
“Um, you were saying something about cakes, right?” Gregg responded, a somewhat sheepish look on his face.
“You never listen to a thing I say, do you? Your nose is always stuck in whatever you’re doing on that goddam phone,” Gail said. She reached across the table and grabbed Gregg’s smartphone.
“What are you doing?” He shouted. “Give that back to me.”
“I’m going to obliterate whatever it is on this smartphone that so captivates you that you never listen to a word I say,” Gail said. And with that, she went to the smartphone’s setting and tapped on “Erase All Content and Settings.”
Written for these daily prompts: Jibber Jabber (paper), The Daily Spur (number), Ragtag Daily Prompt (mouthwatering), Word of the Day Challenge (cake), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (ambience), and Your Daily Word Prompt (obliterate).
SoCS — The Missing Link
“Did you get that article I emailed to you,” Amy asked Gene.
“Which one?” Gene asked. “You’ve been emailing or texting me two or three articles a day, lately.”
“It was the one about the so-called ‘missing link’ in the human evolutionary chain,” Amy said.
Gene started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Amy asked, a hint of irritation in her voice. “Did you get it or not?”
Gene cleared his throat and said, “Yeah, I got it, but you forgot to put the link to the article in your email.”
“Are you saying that the link to the article I referenced in my email to you was missing?” Amy asked.
“Yeah, that’s what I’m saying, Amy,” Gene said. “Kind of ironic, don’t you think?”
“Ironic?” Amy said. “How so?”
“You emailed an article about the missing link and the link was missing,” Gene said. “The email about the missing link had a missing link. That’s hilarious.” Gene started laughing again.
“Well I don’t see the humor in that at all,” Amy said. She picked up her smartphone and began tapping away furiously on the keypad.
“What are you doing?” Gene asked.
“I’m sending you a text with the link to the article,” Amy said.
Gene’s smartphone pinged and he saw her text. He clicked on the link, but when he did, all he got was an “Error 404: page cannot be found” message. “I think you sent me a bad link in your text.”
“Dammit!” Amy said. I must have fat-fingered the URL. Let me re-text you that link.”
Gene grabbed Amy’s hand, and giving her the most serious look he could muster, he said to her, “You know, Amy, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link,” at which point he literally doubled over in laughter.
Written for today’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt from Linda G. Hill. Linda gave us the word “link” and asked us to use it as a noun or a verb; use it any way we’d like.
FOWC with Fandango — Ambience
Welcome to July 18, 2020 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.
I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).
Today’s word is “ambience.” Note, some use an alternative spelling, “ambiance.” Either spelling is acceptable.
Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.
Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.
And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.
This, That, and the Other 