Write a short piece - 600 words max - that begins with the words, "This was absolutely the last time" and ends with "She was wrong."
Have fun with it. Think outside the box. Don't go with the obvious. Happy writing!
This was absolutely the last time she’d repeat the conversation, which only stirred up negative, angry thoughts. And yet, as much as she wanted to, she just couldn’t stop. It didn’t seem to matter that so many others had been so gracious and generous with their care and concern -- checking in, reaching out, and helping her, in big ways and small, to hold it all together during what Queen Elizabeth surely would call an annus horribilis.
Still, she looked for any excuse to repeat it -- as if each repetition could somehow erase a little piece of the spot where a red hot poker had seared it into her memory.
“I know she didn’t mean anything by it,” she told Meredith, as they sat catching up over coffee after way too many months without a girls’ weekend together. “I even understand that she thought she was being supportive and funny, but Oh! My! God! I’m in the midst of making impossibly tough choices about my body, my health and my life, and all she can tell me is that ‘it’s time to lop those puppies off??’ Really?!?”
* * *
So, was she wrong to keep repeating the story, perpetuating the hurt, the anger and the disbelief she felt when she first heard the quip? Wrong to fail to let it go, unable to exhale it forever in one deep cleansing breath? Wrong to judge someone else’s personal best? Wrong to let another’s seeming lack of empathy overshadow countless blessings from others? Yes, yes, yes and yes. On all counts. She was wrong.
RRed Writing Hood is the writing meme of The Red Dress Club. The finished piece should be no more than 600 words of either fiction or non-fiction. Thanks for reading...and feel free to offer thoughts, ideas and/or constructive criticism. I appreciate hearing what you have to say.
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