Thread: Writing Challenge [5/24/08]: Life Cycle

Writing Challenge [5/24/08]: Life Cycle.
Type: Fiction/Short/Autobiography
Posted: 11:27am (GMT -6)
Deadline: 5:00pm (GMT -6) 5/25/08

Lie shamelessly about your life up to this point in 300 words OR LESS.

Something quickly, I was wondering whether we were set to one post only?



Being a kid sucks. Your mind is constantly being grinded and pummelled by everything around you as if your head were in some huge cooking bowl. Life was great up until High School, were everything just began to go down-hill. The one girl I ever really liked was too unpopular with my mates so I rejected her and we lost the huge friendship we’d built up, all because I couldn’t bare with the on-going shit from my friends. Looking back now, I wish I’d had the courage to stand up and speak out but I hadn’t, I’d given into peer pressure. So, a year went by and then I finally had the courage to apologise and explain everything, and hell, we’re friends now, but not as good as I wish. I’m never her first choice…or her second. I did get new friends though, better friends, people I can trust, people who like me for who I am, not who I hang around with. Anyway, as the days, weeks and months went by I found my passion for writing and began to expand from their, constantly sharing my work with my friends. They read it, they enjoy it. That makes me smile, all the time. My school work has seemed to progress rapidly, from being the worst in the year at the beginning to one of the top of the class at the present. I suppose Life sucks in all its ways, but Life is what it is. There is nothing we can possibly do to fix that. I always wish that I could go back in time and re-do everything, but we can’t. All we can do is dream about what could have happened if we’d had the courage to get that girl.



Tom.

Originally Posted by Tom

Something quickly, I was wondering whether we were set to one post only?

Multiple posts are fine, just make sure you identify which one is your 'actual submission' before the deadline.

At seventeen Fiona planted the seeds. The garden was less impressive than she had been lead to believe. Still, she worked through the shit fertilizer, the hard soil and the burning sun to plant the seeds. She was terrified that they wouldn’t grow.

At eighteen the garden was something Fiona could work with. She was a prisoner to its fickle ways.

At nineteen the garden was something handsome to improve and maintain. Fiona felt the bonds of motherhood. The garden was her child.

At twenty-four the garden got in the way. “I need more time. Forget the damned garden.” Mark had said. Fiona ignored him.

At twenty-seven Mark was gone but the garden wasn’t.

By the time she was thirty-four, the garden was winning contests, prizes and local fame.

By the time she was forty-four, no one cared, and she struggled to make them remember.

When she turned fifty-two she thought about opening her own gardening store, but she was scared and she didn’t.

When she was fifty-seven she suffered her first stroke and working in the garden became more tasking.

One day, when she was sixty years old, she realized that she had become the crazy old garden lady. Her hair had grayed, hey face had wrinkled, and she wore a big straw hat, every day as she dug in the dirt.

When she was sixty-two she suffered her second stroke, and working in the garden became impossible. Her longest love, her only child and her best friend was suddenly inaccessible to her.

At the beginning of her sixty-fourth year the weeds had overtaken the flowers and the garden was dead. At the end of her sixty-third year, so was she.

It's three am, if I could sleep I would. Laying alone in my queen size bed I miss her warmth beside me. I left her. I shouldn't feel this way.

I close my eyes in the darkness, the world spins. My apartment smells like I feel. A cockroach scurries across my feet. I kick. Pain ensues. I regret.

Feeling for the door, one hand on stomach the other searching frantically on the wall. Finding the handle I fall through the door onto towards bathroom floor. My face connects with the toilet bowl. I sprawl out onto my back.

Head in toilet. Tears on cheek. I scream, but my throat is full of vomit. The only sound that escapes is a whimper. This is the same way I always felt around her, I try to scream, but the only sound I make is a whimper.

I come to. Rolling off the toilet I lay on my back. Cold tile floor below. Blinding light above. Forearm over my eyes. My head is imploding, I can't think, feel or hear. The pain in my skull is all encompassing.

Crawling from the bathroom I return to the darkness of my room. Greeted by stale smoke and alcohol. I return to bed.

Waking up sunlight infiltrates the gloom of my own torture chamber. Noxious, always noxious when I wake.

It’s time for dinner and I’ve only been awake for a couple of hours. I spent the time hibernating. Cold pizza. Warm beer.

It's three am, if I could sleep I would. Laying alone in my queen size bed I miss her warmth beside me. I left her though, I shouldn't feel this way.

...so...did you give up on us too?

Originally Posted by Kast13

...so...did you give up on us too?

Nope, was at the in-laws this weekend and was knee-deep in 10 years olds, just didn't have time. =P

[Tom] 293 Words
Upside: Quick and honest, wraps up everything it starts. Feels like an essay, and wraps itself up like one.
Downside: A couple grammatical and spelling mistakes. Not sure if this is fiction or not.
Favorite line: I suppose Life sucks in all its ways, but Life is what it is.

[AA] 282 Words
Upside: Nice and clean, fast. Nothing unnecessary here. Every line is more or less essential, repetition paces well.
Downside: No explosions.
Favorite line: " By the time she was forty-four, no one cared, and she struggled to make them remember. "

[Kast] 278 Words
Upside: Nice emotive piece, solid snapshot of misery.
Downside: Some spelling/grammar.
Favorite line: Repetition of first and last name, was cyclical and appropriate here.

[The winner]

AA was my favorite. I'll give no literary explanation as to why, it was just my favorite. This means that AA gets to message me with the next topic (the next one after the one I'm going to post now) and gets a notch.

Way to go, AA, and great job to the other two entrants, it was damn close. Posting the next topic now!