Story a Day

http://storyaday.org/day-26-the-sale/?ck_subscriber_id=211865176

The Prompt

One character is trying to sell something to another character. .

 

Eddie was a geek and most kids didn’t like him because he was different from them. In grade school, he got called on by the teacher more. Kids were jealous, I think. In the middle school, Eddie only had a couple of close friends, who were also geeky.

By the time high school came around, Eddie had it all planned out. He knew what college he was going to plan to attend. He had prepared educationally so that he could receive scholarships to help him out.

He got a part-time job at McDonalds, so his parents wouldn’t have to help him out too much with spending money.

He got a long a little better during this part of his life. He was working beside adults who seemed to respect him; but there were still those kids who liked to pick on him. He tried to ignore him; but it was hard.

Sometimes he would return to his car after work and there would be standing a couple of co-employees. They teased him about not having a girlfriend and having no dates. They started drilling him on what he needed to do if he wanted to get some.

This went on for weeks and then one Friday evening,  he got off later than usual. It was Fall and the weather was chilly with leaves falling.

Eddie was tired. He drug his feet a little as he made his way to his car. He couldn’t wait to get home and get to bed. He didn’t see the two when he was nearing the car but as he opened the door; the two jumped up beside him.

“Hey, we got the perfect way for you to get a girl. You will be so glad we thought this up for you.”

“Hey guys, I’m not interested. I just want to go home.” Eddie started to sit down in the front driver’s seat, when the two yanked him back out. Before Eddie could do anything, the one guy stuck a needle into his arm.

“No need to thank us buddy.  It was our pleasure.” The two boys laughed out loud and ran off.

Eddie got in his car and left for home. The road started weaving and he felt dizzy; but he didn’t want to stop. He wanted to be home; close to his parents in case he needed help. He looked down at the speedometer. He was speeding way too fast; but he couldn’t lift his foot from the accelerator.

The tree was coming fast but yet seemed so far away. The front of the car slammed into the tree. Eddie’s head leaned into the steering wheel causing the horn to continually blow.

 

Eddie died at the scene. The autopsy said, drug overdose. 

His parents were shocked. They didn’t have any idea their child, who was so smart, would ever get into the drug scene.

The two boys who forced their idea on Eddie were fed Karma the rest of their natural lives.

Daily Prompt/One Word Prompt

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/costume/

The first thing that hit me when I saw the word costume was a covering to hide the truth.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/15/us/florida-high-school-shooting/index.html

 

https://everytownresearch.org/school-shootings/

 

I was thinking this morning listening to the latest updates about the school  shooting in Florida. They are blaming this happening because the teen had a death of a parent. Stating was also heard that the culprit had an unhappy life.

 

I thought back to when I was a teen. No one shot others because they were unhappy or had deaths in the family. What did my era do when there was sad situations? I remember hangings, suicide talk, going to boys school. Girls got pregnant or ran a way.

I am not saying that any of these words are a reason for anything. I am just trying to imply that teens in my day hurt themselves. They didn’t go out of their way to hurt others so they could feel their pain or get their name in highlights.

 

The news said we, the citizens, are getting used to this news of school shooting. Well, I can tell you, I am not getting used to it. It causes me great disturbance. It causes me to think about the family life and lack of it in homes today.

Family split is not the reason behind the bad things that happens today, but I do believe the separation of family, is a good lead that continues on to sometimes permanent and mental damage. Drugs, alcohol, lack of being able to discipline, over-crowded schools, leading to lack of need for those who need extra attention all lead to that one thought that ask, Who the hell cares anymore?

 

I pray harder. I ask God to heal hurting hearts. I pray for God to let all see who he is and how he can help. I am one person and I ask myself, What can I do, just me alone? I don’t have the answers. I think of so many ways to change things but the truth is, only God can put this country back together again, along with a great President and congress working for the people, with the people and by the people.

 

We have way too many costumes out in the world with colorful masks, guaranteed to hide the real pain. It’s time to change. Come on President Trump! Come on people! Let’s kick some ass and change things!!!

Say You Will

SAY YOU WILL

I gave it all to you

You said, you promised

If I could just show my love

We’d be married, say I do.

You said it was the right thing to do

To not give, you’d walk a way

You laid me down, started out slow

Then pain seared my loins, I cried out to you.

You stood up, you looked down at me

Your eyes turned to ice then you laughed

I laid there ashamed of what I had given

Innocence  gone, to never redo.

Written by,

Terry Shepherd

6/15/2015

The Old House on the Gravel Road

Two friends, both 12 years old, hung around together constantly. These two boys were always getting called-out on being too mischievous. They didn’t really get into trouble with the law; but they were constantly testing the waters.

It was a dreary day. In fact, it was January 1, 2014. School was on break and these two, Ryan and Mark were bored. They decided to go out on an adventure. They didn’t know where they were headed. All they knew was that they had to be back by the time their parents got home from work.

They headed down the gravel road. They kicked rocks. They tried to see who could throw the stone the farthest. The boys raced to see who was the fastest. They laughed and didn’t really notice anything about their surroundings.

Ryan and Mark came upon the old house. It was worn down. The story was, an old man went nuts and killed his wife years ago. There hadn’t been anyone interested in the property so it became abandoned. The paint was gone. Windows were broken.

Their parents told them to never go too close, because they could get hurt. Today was different. Having nothing to do led them closer to the front door. They both became quiet as they listened for any unfamiliar noises to shout out at them.

Hearing nothing, Mark turned the door handle. It was broken and the door slowly, squeaked open. Mark and Ryan looked at each other. Both pairs of eyes looking at the others for answers to their question; should they go in.

Mark didn’t go in. He went to the side windows and tried to see the best he could while his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Coming back, and knowing they were safe, they ventured in the front door.

Spider webs greeted them. Dirty, white sheets covered the furniture. Spots of old blood still rested upon a couple of the sheets. Ryan shivered, a little from the unknown. Mark ventured to each piece of furniture, lifting the sheets, trying to imagine what was in the mind of the detectives who had once hung out here.

They then explored the kitchen and the bathroom. Seeing nothing exciting they decided to go up the stairs. The long set of stairs looked warped and uneven. Their first step set off a loud creak. Both boys stopped in their tracks as if waiting to see if maybe someone had heard them.

Seeing no one they continued to climb the squeaky stairs. One stair caved a little and Ryan jumped quick to the next stair afraid he was going to fall through. Once to the top they saw four closed doors.

Opening each one they saw a bed and two dressers. One had a big oval mirror on it and the words murderer were carved in the dust. They left that room and walked into each of the others. They all looked pretty much the same; except this room was bigger and it had a fireplace in it.

They took the dusty sheet off the bed and laid down on it. It was pretty soft which led them to both use the bed as a spring-board. Laughing and tumbling they spent several minutes on the bed.

When they tired of this they sat down and they each pulled out wrapped sandwiches they had made earlier. Ryan had a bottle of pop that the two shared.

Afterwards they both went back down the creepy stairs and they saw a door that was nailed shut going off from the kitchen. They had to investigate this. They worked and worked and finally broke the board.

There were no lights but they could see it led to a basement. The stairs here were cement and both boys headed down. More spider webs attacked them and they were busily wiping them out of their faces.

When they got to the bottom they saw old pieces of chairs and broken picture frames. They saw things crawling on the floor as if to escape being stepped on. There were three basement half-sized windows that provided a bit of light.

One looked like it had held an old coal furnace. There were several black pieces of rock still laying in a pile. The other two rooms looked like they were used for storage. There was one small door that led off of the coal room.

Ryan tried the door handle and it too, was broken but opened with ease. He walked inside but there was no window so he could see nothing. Mark waited on the outside for Ryan to say it was clear to enter.

After a few minutes ticked by and Ryan saying nothing, Mark called out to his friend. ” Hey, Ryan, you ok? What you see in there?” There was no response. ” Come on, quit trying to scare me. You know I don’t scare easy”, he said with just a tiny quiver in his voice.

Still no reply. Mark’s legs became cement. He knew something was wrong. He realized he should go in to check on his best friend; but his legs wouldn’t move. He began cursing himself. He called himself a chicken for standing there and he argued with himself about going further in.

He finally won, and his feet began to move. He walked in the dark room but didn’t see anything or Ryan. ” Come on Ryan, joke’s over. This isn’t funny anymore. I think it is getting time to go home, come on, let’s get out of here.”

Nothing, no sound, no stirring, no Ryan. The door slammed shut. Mark jumped and about peed his pants. Before his heart could quit racing a hand came over his mouth and he was drug into a secret door  he had not noticed.

 

Alright dear friends and followers of my blog; complete this story.

Teen Pregnancy

I am watching this movie  on Hallmark called, Stalked at 17. It is a good movie; but then again most of this station’s movies are.

It brings a lot of thoughts to  my mind. A college age guy has a relationship that is fairly new when he impregnates her. Of course she is only 17. I think back to those days when I was that age and even earlier when I had feelings for boys.

It didn’t matter what family said, if I was in love, I was in love. I didn’t get pregnant at that early of an age, but in ways I understand how this happened between the two. A young lady wants to believe all the love-sick words that are whispered in her ear.

Of course there are those rare instances where life does work out between young people, but most of the time it doesn’t. I believe that a male and a female at this age want to prove they are worthy of love, and being loved and want to belong. They want something or someone that belongs totally to them.

Now that I am older, I can see clear the hardship that can be placed on the parents, the child and the grandparents. Many times today parents are bringing up their children’s children.

To make this movie more intense, the adult male is also messed up emotionally. He wants to belong so bad to someone. His mother is an alcoholic and is serving a number of years in prison for drug abuse. He has missed out on the love only a parent can provide.

It doesn’t really say how he has raised himself the past several years but it makes it seem like he raised himself from a teen forward. Once she tells her boyfriend she is pregnant, you can instantly for a short moment see the anger in his face. He changes quick to the happiest to-be dad and the two plan their lives together. I won’t go any further, in case you want to see this movie.

My thoughts are what would you do in this situation? Would you forbid your teen to see the father to be? Would you go so far as to get a restraining order? Would you threaten your teen to have an abortion? Would you consider booting her out of the family home?

What if you were the parents of the father to be? Would you force him to stand up and take it like a man? Would you consider driving the two teens as far apart as possible? Would you kick him out of the house?

Today, compared to when I was a teen, there have been many changes in how we look at teen pregnancy and how our teens act towards each other. When I was a teen, there was a certain fear of God that my parents placed in my head, that having sex was wrong unless you were married.

I am not saying I always obeyed their rules, I had boyfriends; but that fear of what my parents would do to me stood stronger than my so-called love for a guy when it came to undressing and laying with him.

There was no way I would even consider having relations with a guy when first meeting him. I got more excited about holding hands, love letters, or sitting close to each other, and of course that special kiss.

Today from what I have been asked by dating sites, it must be a common thing to have sexual relations on a first date. I still can not do this. I must have feelings for the guy and they don’t appear after a few dates. I guess I am old-fashioned?

The good thing today is there is no more hiding about ways to prevent pregnancy. Condoms are passed out freely. Classes are taught on what it details of being a young mommy or daddy.

The bad things that haven’t  changed is that we we are humans. We are still feeling the urges. We still have needs. Sad to say, the heat of the moment can block the brain of putting a condom on. Birth control pills have to be taken regularly and not only when it is thought of.

Like I said earlier, there is much to think about when parents find out their children are becoming parents.  I asked you earlier, what would you do if your kids came and told you they were going to have a baby?

 

I Thought I Knew Everything

Get out of my room and get off of my back, were the words heard as the boyfriend came out of the bathroom. He ignored the tone and went back to the living room and plopped himself down in front of the TV.

Music jams were blaring. Screaming coming from the bedroom, and Brittany was on her bed in tears. All she ever wanted was someone to love her, but this isn’t how she thought is would be.

Pregnant at 15 her parents kicked her out. They hadn’t called or tried in any way to contact her. Brittany knew inside her heart that she had disappointed them badly with her news. Her parents were stiff. Rules to follow and consequences if you broke them. Now she looked back and wished she was home.

Rock her boyfriend was the scum of the earth. Lazy and always thinking of himself. He had told her he loved her when he scored with her one night weeks ago. The two had met at a party of one of her friends. He smiled big, showing he was interested.

The two escaped the party and went out in the backyard. The words were thick as fog. Nobody cares about me. I have tried to get a job, but no one wants to hire me because I have all these tattoos.

Taking pity on each other led to a quick slam-bang thank-you mam finality. That was the beginning and the end of her life. The next night they hooked up again. Rock wasn’t afraid of  her.  Hell she was already knocked up, so he didn’t have to worry about any child support down the road; and besides, she was good at what she did.

Brittany had been staying at her friend’s house and they had been pressuring her to find a place of her own or go back home. Well, she sure wasn’t going back home to that hell hole.

She told Rock about it and with some dickering the two had an apartment. Before long a friend of Rock’s moved in. From day one he had been putting the move on her. Brittany would complain to Rock but his words were, he’s harmless, just ignore him.

All Rock seemed to want was his beer, TV and sex. Although the sex was good, it got old fast. Her belly was getting bigger as the baby grew inside. She became more tired and was contemplating giving up her job as a waitress.

She hated to do this because this is the only money that was coming in. She now knew that Rock was not interested in working and it was up to her to make the bread. The new live-in was no better than his friend. So here was three people, living in a shabby dump and the rent was due, but no money was ready for transfer of  hands.

It was a balmy night. There was no air-conditioning in their tiny place. The windows were open but no breeze. Rock was passed out on the sofa and hearing the door open, the roomy had come home.

She heard him shut his bedroom door and she began to relax enough to go to sleep. She must have started to doze because she wasn’t aware that her door had opened until she felt hands grabbing at her breast.

A hand over her mouth he was able to have his way with her in a matter of seconds. Afterwards he let himself out of her room shutting the door behind him. Brittany started crying. None of this was worth it. Being with a bum and a rapist she had no one to lean on.

She went into the bathroom and washed her body as good as she could. She crawled back in her bed and lay there staring at the ceiling. The night went on for what seemed forever.

Soon is was dawn. She got up and dressed. She slipped out of the house with her purse and went down the block to the pay phone. Slipping the coins in she listened and heard, ” Hello.”

” Hi mom, it’s me Brit. I need help.”

It Makes Me Sick

Today while was helping Al to feel the Christmas spirit, outside in the world it was gruesome. In our local news the headlines were, A School Teacher was involved in some form of sexual action with a student. There may have been touching.

This made me ill. How many days and days are we going to hear this? Why didn’t I run for the bathroom and vomit? Because we are getting used to hearing those ugly words. The police are keeping their lips sealed it is so brutal. The school is clamming up but did say they fired the person.

What about the student? Touching? It lets my mind wander? Was he/she hurt? Were they raped?

In another big headline, and I hate using this term like they do. It isn’t headline news. It is sick news. Another school shooting. What is going on? Can this all be blamed on the fact that God is being taken out of the schools? Should the parents be blamed? How do we fix this when the first thing the news does is go into detail about how the shootings happen. What ingredients, guns, forms were used. What a way to give another mixed up person bad ideas to get in the spot light.

Last week a girl who left her home was found in a woods and of course she was dead. She had been missing for some time. She was a teen attacked by a brutal sick person.

I just want to scream I am so sick of  hearing this. I can’t fix it, not all by myself. I don’t even know what it will take to fix the world. Maybe start all over, a new world. The words rape, brutal, shootings, teacher molestation, church sexual scandals, drugs, these all make me want to vomit, it all makes me sick, because I can’t fix it.

Following The Bumpy Road

 

She was walking down the road. Gravel biting at her face as the winds picked up. 15-year-old Dawn had a messy life at home. Her mom was rarely home. She spent most of her time with the opening and closing hours at the local bar. Her dad always looked at her in a way that gave Dawn the creeps. An older brother who had run a way a few years back she never heard from.

For the most part Dawn had raised herself for the last several years. She got up for school with her alarm. She fixed a bowl of cereal and packed her own lunches. Dawn liked school. Not for the fact that she was shaping her life for adulthood; but because she heard noise. Kids running to and from classes. Teachers mumbling out of books.

She had a couple of friends but nothing really she could call close. It was fall and decorations were seen everywhere.  Hanging ghosts from trees. Pumpkins sitting on porches. Orange lights hanging from windows giving off a spooky glow.

She was almost to school one day when a girl about her age hopped off her front porch and slid up beside Dawn, feet in rhythm, she walked beside her.

” What’s your name? Mine is Molly. We just moved here. This is my first day of school. You know I just hate school. My parents ride my ass all the time about how I need an education.”

Molly pulled out a pack of cigarettes from her back pocket. Lighting one up and making an O ring she offered one to Dawn who turned her down.

” So what did you say your name was?”

” I didn’t but it is Dawn.”

” Dawn huh, nice name I guess. Dawn and Molly, sounds good together.”

The two girls walked until they came within a block of school. She didn’t know what planet this chick was from but hey, someone was talking to her. Dawn stopped behind the school trash dumpsters. Molly stopped too and Dawn whispered, ” I think I will take one of the cigarettes if you still want to offer one.”

” Sure girlfriend, what are best friends for?”

Molly lit it for her and Dawn swallowed hard in order not to show this new friend she had never tried smoking before. Molly slapped her on the back and laughed. ” Don’t worry kid, it gets easier with each one.”

The two stood there while Dawn forced each puff. squashing it out with her feet the two went inside the school doors.

After school was over Molly was waiting right in the same spot the two had split. Going behind the trash cans Molly offered another cigarette which Dawn took. The two girls inhaled and chatted about the day. The girls walked home. Molly did most of the talking and Dawn listened.

It was obvious Molly had lived a more exciting life than Dawn had. They parted ways and once home Dawn went to the fridge and got herself a pop and some crackers. She went to her room and closed the door. Laying on her bed she ate and thought about everything Molly had said.

She wished she lived this kind of life. Molly smoked and had even tried pot. She even had sex already. Dawn had not even had a serious boyfriend yet. She fell asleep dreaming of how her life could change now that she knew Molly.

Day after day the two girls met. They went to school and went home. They started spending weekends together, and Molly even taught Dawn how to skip school. After all, there was so much more to life than just school, Molly would say.

Molly made friends easily. She introduced them to Dawn and soon she was popular. This crowd she was running with wasn’t the kind your mother dreamed of you being around. More drugs were introduced. Drinking on the weekends became a regular thing.

It wasn’t long at all before skipping school became a once a week thing. Then it was two, then three, graduating up to a week one time. The school was calling but no one was answering.

One time when Dawn was smoking a joint in her room the doorbell rang. She peeked out her window. It was a cop. Dawn’s heart began to race. What should she do? She quickly called her friend and was instructed to get a small bag together quick. Quietly slide out the back door and high tail it over to her house.

It took less than five minutes and the house was empty. When Dawn walked upon the porch Molly was standing there waiting for her with her own back pack. The two said nothing. They started walking not looking back.

Dawn’s mind was asking so many questions. There was a little fear making her stomach hurt. But she wasn’t going to get the shit kicked out of her for not going to school. She had no choice but to follow or go back.

The two had made it to the edge of town when a car pulled up next to them.  Gravel biting them in the face as the winds picked up. Three guys were inside. Smiling they told the girls to hop in. Molly did just this and Dawn followed.