He Loved How She Loved Him [99 words]

It wasn’t a lie. He did love her—he always loved them, at first, and she’d been the best one of the bunch. He enjoyed her delicious reaction to his handsome face, quick wit, and vast base of knowledge. It thrilled him when she gazed at him with adoration. She fully understood her proper place in their relationship, which was to make him her number one priority at all times.

That’s why it was so heartbreaking when she chose to visit her sick father over going skiing with him. His rage was completely understandable—she had to be punished!

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Written for the Carrot Ranch 99-Word Story Challenge (using lie).

Branch Manager [100 words]

“I am the branch manager,” Crow declared, “and I have the most important job, which is assigning tasks to you squirrels.”

Squirrel protested, “If it weren’t for us, you wouldn’t have anyone to manage, so therefore we squirrels are the most necessary elements of this operation.”

“We are the most crucial,” Worm disputed, “since we work tirelessly to create the soil which houses the tree where crows and squirrels argue pointlessly.”

“Worms are stupid and everyone knows that,” Squirrel retorted.

Worm sneered, “You’re just a fluffy rat and no one likes rats.”

Crow gobbled up Worm, thus ending today’s debate.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Written for Denise’s Six Sentence Story (branch).

Where’s the Light?

Eddie had said it was the last time he’d leave the light on, but he probably didn’t mean it, so she stumbled toward his house, humiliated by her failure to seduce the famous actor. She sobbed as she recalled the words flung at her when she crashed the private party: old, fat, pathetic. Eddie didn’t think that! Eddie still loved her.

But Eddie’s house was dark. He must have really meant that it was the last time! She turned to leave as a taxi pulled up. Eddie got out, but he wasn’t alone.

The actor’s wife was with him.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Written for the Carrot Ranch 99 Word Story Challenge and inspired by Edward Bear’s “Last Song.”

Structure [100 words]

Darkness envelops each day like a shroud and in turn is surrounded by a gate made of stars.

My home pleases me, for its structure will keep my possessions secure within reach.

My laptop is a vault that preserves all my words and allows me to find the info I seek.

My body is a cage made of skin-covered bones that conveniently stores all my blood in one place.

Our love was cocooned in gossamer threads that disintegrated in the October wind.

In this jar rests your heart, protected, secure, so no one can ever take you from me again.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Written for Denise’s Six Sentence Story (structure).

The Heart-Shaped Balloon

They were always the cutest couple and we all knew they’d get married. I crashed their wedding and ate their cake, but they didn’t even notice because they were so wrapped up in each other. When I saw her mom glaring, I dashed outside.

Their electric blue hybrid waited in front, festooned with streamers, cans, and heart-shaped balloons. Nobody was watching, so I sidled over and took a balloon from the bunch on the bumper ~ the biggest, heartiest, puffiest, reddest one of all.

And now I’m floating, up to the heavens, afraid to let go. What have I done?

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Written for the Carrot Ranch Story Challenge (99 words).

The Broken Armchair

Here’s the photo of us, sitting together in a sheeted chair, our knees bare. You were five and I was three, and your gaze was already drifting away from me.

After Granny passed, I found the chair in an unused room, coated with dust, the air thick with gloom. One arm hung askew and the green velvet fabric was faded and torn.

Dusk flung shadows across the walls, tables tried to trip me, and I sat for a moment to catch my breath. But even now, broken and abandoned, that chair offered scant comfort to my fears.

I walked away.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Written for Emma’s Wednesday Writing Prompt.

Path

I took the path of least resistance and it led to a monochrome meadow full of white flowers, black trees, and grey skies. No wait, I cried, trying to find my way back to color and spice. But it was too late and every road looked the same, circling back around in an impossible bored game. I accepted my fate to wander alone in this frictionless maze, craving the drama I had once despised, until one day a white knight on a black horse arrived.

“Hello,” he said with a smile. “Our records show that your auto warranty has expired.”

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Written for Six Sentence Story.

Cherry 2000

I watched Cherry 2000 because of some man, which is the reason I used to do many things that weren’t my idea.

I liked the film, even though the initial premise that a Stepford wife sexbot would malfunction in water is a bit weak. Naturally the protag falls for a “real” woman on the journey to obtain a replacement sexbot. And here’s the actual suspension of disbelief: that any man would ever choose a flawed real woman over a fake perfect one.

Maybe I’m wrong, but life is so much sweeter now that I no longer look for him.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Written for the Carrot Ranch’s 99 Word Challenge. Image via Reena Saxena.

Relocation Reverie

In his weekly Provocative Q,
Fandango asks where we’d move to,
If we could live any place that we wanted.
Well, except for the moors being haunted,
England tempts me because it’s so green.
But I’d do better in a tropical scene—
That’s the ticket: Maui and mai tais,
Sunsets and surfers… bring on the hot guys!
Chicago’s cold but fab pizza though;
Iceland has the hit Aurora B show;
Australia gives us wildlife galore;
And Paris, ooh la, need I say more?
Yet given my hatred of people and cars,
Perhaps I should head straight out for Mars!

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Written for the Skeptic’s Kaddish W3-11. We are supposed to use 3 proper nouns (I used 10) and keep the poem under 100 words (mine is 99).

Freedom

Some find freedom in romantic love, and others find freedom in releasing the dream. For decades, I nurtured the dream of love like a precious pet in a golden cage, feeding it fantasies and hope, but in 2017 I let it go. I opened the door and the dream soared out and away, circling around as if to be sure, and then taking off until it was a speck against the azure sky and finally gone. Once in a while, I find a feather to remind me that I used to long for love. But now I am free.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Written for the Carrot Ranch (99 words on freedom).