opened my story file [did you know unused fils do collect rust? have you ever seen cyber rust trickling from a monitor?] and the first one I opened was this old dog from a prompt from a writing site:









This started out as the 250 word scatterbrain prompt, but ended-up being the 3 interconnection story prompt (with 300 word max).

I don’t believe #s 2 & 3 stand completely alone, but I’m mostly beyond caring



269



“...Let’s go let’s go let’s go, down to junior’s farm where I wanna lay low...”

Katrina asked, “You make a New Year’s resolution this year?” She turned up the stereo, then dipped her long fingernail in the hospitality tray on the table and inhaled a rather large quantity of Cocaine.

“Yeah, three of them, and I plan on sticking to them, too.” John Blain didn’t possess long fingernails, he was a biter to the Nth degree, so he snorted a rail with a rolled-up five dollar bill.

“...I was talking to an Eskimo. Said he was hoping for a fall of snow, when up popped a sea lion ready to go...”

Nodding her head to the beat, Katrina asked, “Well, what are they?”

“What’re what?”

“Your resolutions, smart-aleck.”

“I can’t tell you, that’d ruin it.”

She scrunched her face and rolled her eyes into a how-silly-can-you-be gesture, then fingernailed a huge boost of the numbing white powder.

John followed suit with the straw again.

“...Take me back to junior’s farm, everybody tag along...”

“I love this song.” Katrina twisted the volume higher yet. Over McCartney’s voice, she said, “Please tell me what your resolutions are.”

“If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you,” John answered with an exaggerated wink.

“I guess Ill take that chance.”

“Okay then, you asked for it. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to save money by stopping your coke usage.”

“Ha! Over my dead body you’ll—” and a bullet hole appeared above and between Katrina’s eyes.

John lowered his pistol. “Like I said, I intend to keep my resolutions this year.”






177





Junior Farmer held a poker game every Saturday night. He’d shovel all the cow dung from the barn floor, sprinkle some lime, and drag out the huge velvet-topped table into the center of the room. His games were legendary around the small town of New Kinston, Ohio, if only because of the large amount of cash won and lost.

Junior kept a bankroll in his pants pocket, besides being a gambling house proprietor, he was a loan shark.

With less that an hour before game time, he felt something small and hard pressed into the small of his back. Then a familiar voice said, “Hand it over. And don’t turn around.” He didn’t need to turn around; the voice was none other than last week’s big loser: John Blain.

Junior said, “You’ll never get away with this.”

The robber argued, “What makes you think that?”

“I’ll hunt you down and kill you.”

John pulled the trigger and a 9mm slug tore through Junior. As he collected the blood-soaked money, he said, “Get rich quick, resolution number two.”






97





Black’s funeral home was packed. Katrina and Junior were well known in New Kinston. The parking lot was filled beyond capacity and many cars were double-parked along Main Street. Families of both the deceased along with most of the local law enforcement attended.

As Preacher Dan read a quote from the Bible over Katrina’s casket, an immense explosion leveled the building. No one survived.

John Blain, from across town, said, “Resolution number three, make sure I get away with resolution one and two.” He tossed the remote detonator in the creek as he drove out of New Kinston.










I just thought it odd of all the files with names I cant remember Id open one about new years...

and, btw, Im sticking good to my resolution. no sugar in coffee...and not suprising, I feel better. I was a 2 or 3 pot a morning drinker [more during the day and evening, even, in a snagglepuss voice] and imagine all that sugar. also, candy is a no-no, but I did "accidentally" eat a cinnamon roll today

the reason I opened my documents was cuz I had (still got) a quickie idea and just wanted a blank page to put it on. been busy since just shy of 5AM, tho, keeping that 13 degree air outside from coming in here. it's damn near toasty right now, but theres a few more things I wanna check before I commit idea to page...so with that kind of attitude, it'll prolly never see daylight [I might not either; up til 11:30, up at 2:30 firetending, then up again, my eyes're tired].

someone stole my chainsaw cuz I cut wood NYE and it got stuck in a tree...was late in the day and got dark...partied that night and because Im out of practice I was a zombie NYD...so wednesday morning when I took my buddy's saw up to cut mine loose, twas gone. a little frownieface does not quite convey my feelings about that, btw.


re: zombie day, jan 1st...watched 2 & 1/2 dvds of the lord of the rings (couldnt quite make it through the last half of the third movie) and really really dug it. had read the books many years ago and didnt think 9+ hours of film would be something Id like, but I was wrong...go figger, eh. matter of fact, might watch it again soon. theres some stuff in #3 that are foggy...I actually got sleepy at the beginning; the hour & half I did see is somewhat blurry.


aint been here cuz just aint into it. online: I play chess with my son and my bud in florida, check weather & bank, read both the local news and the odd news (gotta love the odd news) and maybe 2 or 3 times a month surf and sift through porn collecting quasi-erotic pics for my screen saver. at one time it was a hard PG13 but Ive kinda got stuff in there now that blows that rating all to hell, giggle. [I used the words hard and blows in that sentence, wonder what that means...)

in closing, have a nice 2008.