Wordzzle - the ongoing saga

OK - so before I print my attempt at wordzzles this week a quick shout out to The Watercats who this week launched a Fantasy-Band-Member occasional post.

In response to which I think I will post the below video, which is something of a guilty pleasure - but, and be honest here guys, wouldn't you give anything to be a member of Dr Teeth & The Electric Mayhem?



Right, on with the challenge.

This week I seem to have been away, quite literally, with the pixies, as I was utterly convinced that Raven had not launched her usual challenge this week - utterly convinced, that is, until I re-visited her site and realised I had actually commented on it!!

So: rules are as follows - you get 10 words, 5 words or all 15 words to write a story. You have to use them in your story and add your name to Mr Linky. Much fun and creativity ensues.

Words for this week's 10-word challenge are: swiss cheese, operation, frantic, quizzical, control, shallow, wedding, paranoid, orange, marginal

And for the mini: pepper, island, quintuplets, organic, treaty

I think again I shall stick to the 10 word challenge - and bring you the much anticipated second installment of my story.

Sadly, for those of you wondering what was going on with the box and the dump truck, we are now a week on from those events, so you will just have to wait a few more episodes to really get what is going on...

For part 1 click here

Sleeper (Part 2)

Sophie inhaled deeply on the cigarette and allowed her focus to fade. The glass window of the shop fragmented her reflection until it mirrored the swiss cheese state of her mind. She could just see the girl inside the shop, trying on wedding dresses with gleeful abandon, but for the first time in her life Sophie could find no comparitive emotion to match.

Everything had been in turmoil since the party: she glanced over her shoulder at the Government building that she could still just pick out on the horizon, as if somehow those present inside would be able to hear her thoughts. She was being paranoid, but that seemed to be a constant state of mind recently with the way that Mark had been towards her.

And now there was Richard.

Dear sweet Richard, with his quizzical eyebrow always ready to be raised, his emotions deep and warm and not shallow like Mark's, like their relationship was an operation and Mark was the surgeon: only interested in her to find out how she worked. She felt a moment of guilt at the thought. She and Richard had never been more than friends, at least until that night a week ago. It was as if he had realised the marginal state of her existence and reached out to her and offered her life again.

Sophie blinked. Something moved in the periphery of her vision. There, half-way up the road, as if sommoned by her guilt, was Mark.

She frowned, taking a moment to process the information. He didn't seem to have seen her, was heading away from her: so what was he doing in this area? She felt frantic at the thought that he might have seen the way she and Richard had exchanged glances as they left the building and headed after him calling his name.

There was no response to the call. He just kept on walking. It was only when she reached out and touched his collar that he span and looked at her like a scalded cat. There was a brief surge of cold anger on his face, as if he had been caught in some secret, and then he regained control

'I kept calling your name: what are you doing here?' Sophie asked

'Sorry' he said, not answering the question, 'I was miles away'

He took her for a coffee nearby, made pleasant conversation that was never more than surface deep, his eyes repeatedly falling to her orange security pass until she became self-conscious and tucked it away.

Finally he glanced at his watch, 'I'm supposed to be meeting someone' he said, 'I must be going' He leaned over and gave Sophie a perfunctory kiss and then was gone up the road again, walking quickly.

For a second Sophie fought the urge to follow him, to see where he was going: but it was getting late and she was due back at work. She turned back the way she had come and gasped, blinking with surprise.

Just for a second she had been sure that someone was following her