Happy Friday. Congratulations if you made it through April 1st (April Fool’s Day) without being taken in. I will admit to falling for a post from a local city. To be fair, the council there has voted in some pretty strange regulations, so their April 1st post wasn’t outside of the realm of possibility.
Today, (if you’re reading this on the 2nd) is Good Friday for those who celebrate. For those who don’t there are a variety of other things to celebrate, including “National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day” and “World Autism Awareness Day.”
“April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day. Did you know that CDC statistics revealed that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is 4.3 times more prevalent in boys than it is in girls? This is because girls “often go undiagnosed because they don’t fit autism stereotypes and they mask symptoms better than boys do,” according to the Child Mind Institute. There is no better way to celebrate this day than by becoming aware of the characteristics of people with this condition and how all of us can do better to increase our own understanding and promote kindness..”
Whatever you’re celebrating, “increasing understanding” and “promoting kindness” seem like good all-around choices.
I’m off work today and am quite likely to celebrate “Doing Nothing but Reading Day”, though who knows. The beautiful weather may motivate me to leave the house and do something a bit more energetic. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Somewhere along the line I plan to grab my favorite notebook and give today’s writing prompt and random words a try.
Care to join me?
For those of you working away on a story (whether a first draft or a polished version on its way to publication), if you’re not feeling random, we’d love to hear a bit – whether it’s a scene, a paragraph, or even a phrase that you are especially pleased with and would like to share.
If you don’t have a story in progress, or just want to work on something new, I hope either today’s random words or writing prompt will catch your creative fancy.
Ready?
Prompt: Making a new friend
Feel free to interpret the prompt any way you choose (or ignore it completely) and include any (or all) of the following random words:
moon blueberry crab martyr
rival brimstone cougar audio
nineteen frequent gems junkyard
fabric ranch neon appetite
I look forward to seeing your stories in the comments. If you’re not feeling in the writing mood today, or don’t have time, feel free to post suggestions you might have for future writing prompts. Ideas are always welcome.
Happy writing to all!
Eight Ladies Writing 
I hope you enjoy your Friday, Elizabeth! It sure is a beautiful day out there.
I guess I was feeling ambiguous today…
The Big Lunch
Isolde Faberge sipped her blueberry martini and contemplated her companion, nineteen-year-old Benny Goodman, son of Simon Goodman. Simon had always been a martyr to his appetites, and Benny was the moonchild result.
“Dad’s coming,” Benny assured her. “He said he was on the way. From the ranch.”
That was undoubtedly a lie. “He’s on his way” was among Simon’s more frequent untruthful gems, along with “the check’s in the mail,” and “nothing can go wrong.” Fire and brimstone should rain down on that man’s head for all the junkyard lies he’d told, always with a jaguar smile.
Isolde took another sip of her martini. “How’s your crab sandwich?”
“Really good.” Benny beamed with all the power of a Times Square neon sign. His kindness and generosity rivaled that of Santa Claus, and Isolde felt her irritation melt, even though she was fully aware that the ladies who lunched at the next table thought she was a cougar devouring the defenseless Benny.
“I have to go to the fabric store after this if you want to come,” she said.
“I do!” Benny said, finishing his last French fry. “But what about Dad?”
“I don’t think you have to worry about him,” Isolde said.
Ambiguous or not, you’ve brought two new characters to light in just a few sentences. Now . . . what exactly is going on with Dad?
Okay, this took me a bit more than the fifteen minutes I had planned, but at least it’s done. The “new friend” was going to be a kitten, but then things took a different turn, as they so often do.
Who needs new friends?
Daphne surveyed the junkyard with a practiced eye. Not everyone had the appetite for digging through discarded trash to uncover hidden gems, but she was deeply motivated.
Bethany, her rival and arch-enemy since their kindergarten paste-eating days, had challenged her to stage a house completely with “found” items after one of Daphne’s frequent features in the style section of the local paper.
Daphne embraced the challenge and publicized it heavily. The staged house, a nineteen-seventies sprawling ranch, would be raffled off after the contest, with the profits going to support a range of local non-profits.
A win for everyone. Well, except for Bethany, who’d sadly underestimated her opponent.
Bethany, who dressed like a cougar on the prowl, was a martyr to an oversized ego, with little actual ability to back it up. If Daphne was a nicer person, she might feel sorry for her.
Maybe.
Daphne crab-walked her way over a pile of demolition debris toward a jumble of dining room chairs. The fabric on most of them had disintegrated in the weather, but that was easy enough to deal with. She found a matching set of four with a wonderful shape and added them to her growing pile of treasures.
Further along in the debris were some thick darkened planks—possibly from the old Henderson barn—that could be used to create a stunning farmhouse-style dinning table, as well as occasional tables for the living room.
A few more decorative pieces and she’d be set.
She started to reach for the remnants of an old neon Coca Cola sign but was distracted by something reflecting the sun just off to the left. It turned out to be a decorative bowl and, after she carefully unearthed it, she stared, stunned. Unless she was mistaken, it was a piece of rare depression-era blueberry glass.
Talk about a hidden gem. If she was right, it was worth a small fortune.
It was hardly something to turn Bethany from a rival to a new friend.
Daphne was totally okay with that.
Go, Daphne! I love the idea of auctioning a house furnished with finds. Such a great use of things most people would find junk. And then Daphne is rewarded in her pursuits, and at the expense of Bethany. Gotta love that!