“I’ve got good news and bad news for you, Cindy,” Josh announced to his wife. “The good news is that the guy I flew to Chicago to interview with last week just called and I got the job.”
Cindy looked at her young husband and said, “Well, I’m happy for you, Josh, but if the bad news is that we are going to have to move to Chicago in order for you to take that job, then I’ve got some bad news for you — you’ll be moving alone. We moved here two years ago for your last new job and just when I started making new friends and I found my own dream job, you got laid off.”
“But, Cindy, this new job is a great opportunity for me, for us,” Josh said.
“So was your last job, the one we moved here for two years ago, Josh, but I’ve settled in here, I have my friends and my own job, and I need to do what’s best for me, so I am truly sorry but I’m not moving again for you.”
Written for the Sunday Six Sentence Story prompt from Girlie on the Edge, where the prompt word is “move.” Photo credit: lifeberrys.com.
My parents and a lot of my friends call me a “lone wolf.” And I suppose some could argue that’s an apt description of me. I live alone in a four-story apartment building in my town’s central business district. I live on the fourth floor and there are only two units on that floor. Mine and the unoccupied unit across the hall from mine.
I like living alone. I work from home and I rarely leave the confines of my comfortable apartment. I admit that I’m a bit of an introvert so I don’t enjoy being out and about surrounded by loud, boistrous crowds. And between DoorDash for meals and Amazon for just about everything else, I am all set.
One morning there was a knock at my door. That was strange because the building has a security system where guests gave to be buzzed in, and I didn’t get buzzed. I looked through the peephole in my door and saw a young woman, hands on her hips, standing there. She knocked again, waited a minute, and then I heard her say, “I know you’re in there. I can see your eyeball peeking out at me. Will you open the door, please?”
I opened the door and saw this woman, probably in her mid-to-late twenties. Auburn hair. Attractive. “I am in the process of starting to move into the apartment across the hall from you and I wanted to let you know that the movers will be here in about 30 minutes with my stuff and it may be a bit noisy.”
“Okay,” I said. “Thanks for the heads-up.” Then I started to close the door but she put her hand up to block it from closing.
“I’m sorry, this may sound trite, but could I borrow a cup of sugar from you? I started to brew some fresh coffee in my coffee maker, but I realized that I didn’t have any sugar.”
“You want me to loan you a cup of sugar?” I asked.
“Well, yes, I suppose you can call it a loan,” she said. Once I get moved in and can get to the grocery store, I’ll replace your sugar.” Then she looked at me, smiled, and said, “Or you could simply invite me in and we can have some coffee together, which is much better than having coffee alone, isn’t it?”
I smiled back at her, gestured for her to come in, and thought, My days of living as a lone wolf might be coming to an end.
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 “alone.”
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.
For this week’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, Jim Adams has asked us to respond to this challenge by either using theword alone, or going with the above picture, or by means of the song ‘Sexy Eyes’, or by going with another song by Dr. Hook, or with anything else that we think fits.
Before I get too far into my response to this prompt, let me clarify something. Many people associate the word “alone” as being synonymous with the word “lonely.” But I believe these words have very different meanings. Being alone is being by one’s self. Being lonely is feeling abandoned or sad due to isolation. So “alone” refers to a state of solitude, whereas “lonely” refers to an emotion.
That said, the kid in the photo above is definitely alone and I would venture to say that he’s lonely, as well.
Okay, with that out of the way I’m going with a song from Irish singer/songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan, “Alone Again (Naturally).” The song was released in 1971 and it became a worldwide hit featured on his second studio album, Back to Front.
Songfacts has called this song “one of the most depressing songs ever written.” It tells a sad tale of a lonely, suicidal man being left at the altar and then telling the listener about the death of his parents.
The song connected with listeners on various levels: the downtrodden could commiserate with the singer, and the lucky ones who were not in this position were reminded of their good fortune. It sold 2 million copies, spent six weeks at the top of the U.S. charts and earned O’Sullivan three Grammy Award nominations (Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year). It was the second best-selling single of the year in America, behind Don McLean’s “American Pie.”
O’Sullivan has denied that this song is autobiographical or about the death of his father when he was 11. He said, “Everyone wants to know if it’s an autobiographical song, based on my father’s early death. Well, the fact of the matter is, I didn’t know my father very well, and he wasn’t a good father anyway. He didn’t treat my mother very well.”
She was alone on the remote beach when JoAnne decided to be bold and to remove her bikini top and let it fall onto the sand. She then removed her bikini bottoms and let them fall onto the sand, too, before running naked and jumping into the surf. Enjoying the sensation of the chilly ocean waters caressing her body, she swam out past the breaking waves and floated, letting the rhythmic ebb and flow gently rock her to sleep.
JoAnne must have drifted a bit during her nap because, when she opened her eyes and looked toward the shore, her remote beach was nowhere in sight, and all she could see in either direction was a long stretch of beach crowded with families.
Written for Greg’s Four Line Fiction prompt. Photo credit: HP Koch at Unsplash.
This, That, and the Other 