I was in my room, sitting at my dressing table putting on my makeup when the policeman flung-open the door and walked right in. I batted my false eyelashes at him and said, “I hope you have a warrant, deputy.”
“You want to see my warrant?” he asked. “Here it is,” he smiled, grabbing himself by the crotch and making hip pumping motions.
I started giggling. “You’ve got game, officer,” I said, pointing at him with my index fingers, curling them up in a gesture beckoning him to come over to me while I gave him my best come-hither look.
He walked over to me, pulled out a pair of handcuffs, and said, “I need to arrest you for practicing the psychology of love without a license.”
“What a sexy dynamic we have, don’t we?” I said, just before I planted a deep, passionate kiss on his lips.
Written for these daily prompts: Ragtag Daily Prompt (in my room), My Vivid Blog (eyelashes), Fandango’s One Word Challenge (deputy), Word of the Day Challenge (game), The Daily Spur (psychology), and Your Daily Word Prompt (dynamic).
For this week’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, Jim Adams has asked us to respond to this challenge by using the prompt word “ground.” The first thought that came into my head was that old Stevie Wonder song, “Higher Ground.” It’s a song from his 1973 album, Innervisions. It reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the U.S. Hot R&B Singles chart.
“Higher Ground” is about getting a second chance (“So darn glad he let me try it again”) and making the most of it. I was going to use the idea behind the song to write a piece of flash fiction about getting a second chance in life and using it to reach a “higher ground.” But as I was drafting different takes on that theme, they all sounded kind of cheesy. So instead, I decided to just relate Stevie’s actual experience.
Guided by a mix of Christian morality and astrological mysticism, Wonder believed he was writing a “special song” whose lyrics suggested a coming day of judgment. “I did the whole thing in three hours” he told Q magazine. “It was almost as if I had to get it done. I felt something was going to happen. I didn’t know what or when, but I felt something.”
When asked by the New York Times if the song was about reincarnation, wonder responded, “I would like to believe in reincarnation. I would like to believe that there is another life. I think that sometimes your consciousness can happen on this earth a second time around. For me, I wrote ‘Higher Ground’ even before the accident [see below]. But something must have been telling me that something was going to happen to make me aware of a lot of things and to get myself together. This is like my second chance for life, to do something or to do more, and to value the fact that I am alive
Wonder recorded the song three months before he was almost killed on his way to a benefit concert in Durham, North Carolina. The car he was riding in was behind a truck carrying a load of logs, which stopped suddenly, sending a log through the windshield and hitting Wonder in the head.
The accident put Wonder in a coma for four days. His road manager and good friend, Ira Tucker Jr., knew that Stevie liked to listen to music at high volume, so he tried singing this song directly into his ear. At first he got no response, but the next day, he tried again and Wonder’s fingers started moving in time with the song — the first sign that he was going to recover.
People keep on learnin' Soldiers keep on warrin' World keep on turnin' 'Cause it won't be too long
Powers keep on lyin' While your people keep on dyin' World keep on turnin' 'Cause it won't be too long
I'm so darn glad he let me try it again 'Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin I'm so glad that I know more than I knew then Gonna keep on tryin' 'Til I reach my highest ground
Teachers keep on teachin' Preachers keep on preachin' World keep on turnin' 'Cause it won't be too long
Oh no Lovers keep on lovin' Believers keep on believin' Sleepers just stop sleepin' 'Cause it won't be too long
Oh no I'm so glad that he let me try it again 'Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin I'm so glad that I know more than I knew then Gonna keep on tryin' 'Til I reach my highest ground Woo 'Til I reach my highest ground
No one's gonna bring me down Oh no 'Til I reach my highest ground Don't let nobody bring you down (they'll sure 'nough try) God is gonna show you higher ground
Included is today’s JusJoJan prompt from Linda G. Hill, where the word is “cheesy,” suggested by Yvensong, who resides here.
Today, January 25, 2024, the WordPress Daily Prompt asks what do I enjoy doing most in my leisure time. On January 27, 2023, the WordPress Daily Prompt posed the exact same question. Nothing has changed in my life in relation to what I enjoy doing most in my leisure time in the past year.
So here is how I answered this question the first time.
More recently, on October 9, 2023, the WordPress Daily Prompt question was, “What is your favorite hobby or pastime?” I thought that question was similar to the one asking how I enjoy spending my leisure time, but I answered it a little differently.
Here is my response to that very similar question.
Maybe tomorrow WordPress will come up with a daily prompt question it hasn’t already asked multiple times.
David and Carol heard the banging at the front door. “Police, open up!” a man with a gruff voice shouted just before a battering ram smashed into the door.
Hearing the commotion above them, David told Carol to put out the candles. Shaking, Carol bent over and blew out the two candles. There was yelling upstairs on the main floor. Then a shot rang out, followed by the unmistakable sound of the thud of a body hitting the floor above them.
Carol started to silently sob, and David put his arm around her in an attempt to calm her. Suddenly from above them the trapdoor to the basement opened up and a flashlight lit up the basement. “Ah, where there’s smoke there’s fire, am I right, Danny?” the policeman with the gruff voice said to his partner. The two cops walked down the steps to the basement. “What have we here, Danny? A basement hideout with two stowaways onboard?”
David, his arms wrapped tightly around Carol, spoke, “Please, we have done nothing wrong.”
“Then why are you hiding from the law down here in this basement?” the cop asked. “You must be guilty of something, and as judge, jury, and executioner, it’s my job, by the powers vested in me by the president of One America, to sentence you to death. He held up his semiautomatic rifle and fired at David and Carol, killing them instantly.
“Who were they?” Danny asked his partner.
“I don’t know,” the cop responded. “Jews, queers, immigrants, liberal activists? Doesn’t matter, Danny. Our one job is to Make America Pure Again. We shoot first and ask questions later.”
Written for Sadje’s What Do You See prompt. Photo credit: Kier in Sight Archives @ Unsplash.
Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).
Today’s word is “deputy.”
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, ÿplease manually add your link in the comments.
And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. Show them some love.
This, That, and the Other 