It’s all been a bit serious lately, with heart break, discrimination and cliff edges, so this week something different.
Oh and my math might be bad, but I haven’t spontaneously jumped into decimal numbers for no reason. I’m cheating. I’d already scheduled 83 this week and changed my mind because tomorrow is my birthday and I wanted to play a fun game instead.
So what is this riotous affair I speak of? I’ve done worst opening lines, and worst closing lines before. But this time, I want both.
Your challenge is to write the WORST opening line to a story you can, and then write the WORST closing line to the same story.
The badder it is, the better, if I see even a hint of good quality writing I’ll disqualify you faster than I can eat a family sized bar of chocolate, and don’t be fooled, that’s fast. Post both lines in the comments, or on your own blog with a ping back here so I know you’ve entered.
First in Marina, who hasn’t participated before, with this beautiful tale, and if you click her name you can read the full story behind it, so heart wrenching,
When you are thirteen, your cousin’s best friend is the knight from fairy tales: tall, dark, handsome, blue-eyed. How could he walk, talk, breathe amongst us mere mortals? And yet he looked at you, kissed you, so you wrote to each other for two years. You lived for your brief meetings. No cross word ever passed between you.
You parted as good friends, moved on to other lives, other people, marriage, children, divorce, remarriage. You studied and worked in different countries, met again on LinkedIn. Grey hair, little paunch, wrinkles – and that’s just the flattering pictures. Older yet not much wiser, you knew he had been The One, but you were both too young to understand or to need each other all those years ago. No going back, no proof of discontent with your present life, but you wanted to let him know how you felt about him back then.
You let him in through a gap in your armour. You held out the shivering pulp of raw heart. You try to be fair, not see disgust or hasty retreat where none was intended. But the silence was thunderous.
Next in Jane, with a piece of full of loss and bitter sweet memories it is sure to choke you up. Stunning piece that reminded me of my own impassable bend. Oh and by the way, (she didn’t ask me to do this, but I figured I would anyway) Jane has just published her new book through Finch Books. I am reading it now, and you really ought to check it out… here.
***
You have both gone now, both buried in a corner of a churchyard that had never been yours. Beneath a tree, because trees don’t mind if you were Catholic or Protestant. Or foreign. Or if your living heart had always ached for a place not so far away, but unattainable. Trees understand and bow and bend and whisper in sympathy. You had both put down roots here, children, a scattering of friends, too much to let you pack up and leave when you retired. Too much, too late. The furthest you moved was to a small house down in the town to be close to the shops and the buses, pretending it was only temporary. But you stayed and you sighed, and eventually you died, and the setting sun carried all your longings away into the west.
We dry our tears, we children left behind, and walk up the steep hill out of the town, the road that curves and uncoils as it rises up to the moor. The house of our childhood is beyond the bend after the bridge over the disused railway, that peaceful, tree-filled gulf that has been silent since before we were born. We walk, remembering the way we poked our fingers in the holes of the millstone grit walls, remembering long-dead dogs that ran barking behind garden fences. We cross the bridge and remark how tall and dense the birch and hazels have grown, obscuring the valley bottom and the stream that runs there instead of railway tracks.
We fall silent when the road curves again. Beyond the last sharp rise we will be able to see the tiny hamlet and the house where our childhood ghosts still play. I hear the foxes playing on the lawn, see the dewy morning rabbits, the banks of opium poppies and broom, roses and laburnum, stone flags and apple trees. I hear the songs of bees and swallows and see white clouds scudding overhead in the summer breeze.
Soon, in a moment, the gentle barrier of time will fall, and harsh, brash reality will jackboot its way across tender memories. I will see what the new owners have done to the house in the ten years since you both moved out. I know, without ever having seen it, that there will be a garage now and a fitted kitchen, and your Victorian scavengings from junk shops, Dad, will have been replaced by furniture from Ikea. There will be a sterile lawn and a trampoline and begonias instead of the savage mass of vegetation you loved so much, Mum. I will feel the imprint of these unconscious Philistines like a physical violation.
I stop, we all stop, we grown-up tiny children. I shake my head and my siblings too hang back. I turn back down the hill, the last bend in the road impassable, like the entrance to a lost domain, my precious dreams, your dreams, clutched tight against my heart, safe from the shredding claws of disillusion.
Next up Geoffle, with a post and pictures that speak a thousand words. I really think you ought to have a look, instead of cutting all the paragraphs and piecing them together, I have copy just one paragraph of the moving post:
“Parents lie; but however consummate their lying they can’t hide their own hurt. It might be in the timbre of their voice, in the shape of their shoulders, in the stiff way they stir something as mundane as porridge.”
Go. Read.
Next up Judy, with a really amazing, but emotionally charged poem, prepare to be choked up
I thought my life was over
The day I walked away
Ten years down the drain
Nothing left to say
I gave you everything I had
My heart, my love, my soul
But, you had never loved me
Just wanted to be in control
The day that we got married
You said that I was fat
Just two guests at our wedding
It was over in 10 minutes flat!
Then you became possessive
And wracked with jealousy
Stupidly I was pleased
Thought it meant you cared for me
I always wanted children
You said you wanted none
Yet an affair I found out later
Had produced your eldest son
I really tried to make it work
But I became so trodden down
The final straw was knowing
That your wife had come to town.
I left your life with nothing
But a few clothes that I packed
And the freedom to be me again
And to never, ever look back!
Next in Jade, with her first entry to writespiration, and what a beautifully emotional piece.
I know it’s only been three weeks, but I swear I can still feel you kicking inside me. The doctor said writing in a journal would help, but it doesn’t. It doesn’t help knowing that my own body rejected you. You were my precious baby girl, who was supposed to grow up with springy little curls, curious hazel eyes, and all the energy of a small tornado.
The doctor said it was a tragic accident, but there are no accidents. The doctor said time would make it easier, but that’s a lie too.
I miss you so much baby girl. Some nights, I swear I’m hugging you, only to wake up in the middle of the night and feel the emptiness flooding back. Some mornings, I swear I hear you running lightly behind me, giggling in that innocence that you would have, only to turn and hear the silence mocking me.
I wanted you so much, baby girl. So much. But I wasn’t strong enough. I wasn’t strong enough to take care of you and bring you into this world, and now…now I don’t know if I’m strong enough to keep missing you.
Next in Lori, with this emotional rollercoaster of a true story
I met my someone playing an internet vampire game called Vampires: A Dark Alleyway back in the mid-2000s. We met in a chat room set up on a proboard site for the game. For the longest time, probably a couple of years, we remained in character only. My character and her character became lovers in the game. After roll-playing them for those two years, our “humans” (a term used to described the creators behind the characters in the game) became good friends. A romance struck up between us. So you can imagine my excitement when she made plans to come down from Canada to visit me.
Shortly after our plans were made, but before she could come for her visit, she lost her residence. She was homeless and living out of her van. I talked it over with my then-husband and we agreed. She would still come down to visit and could stay as long as she wanted. The moment we met, I knew she was my perfect someone, the one I had longed for all of my life. She was beautiful, witty and uber intelligent.
She became my saving grace as things with the then-husband progressed to a horrid state. He became increasingly jealous of my friend, even though he knew I was bisexual from the get-go. He also knew that she was a lesbian and that there was no way she would have a relationship with him too, which ultimately was what all the fighting was over. He and I had talked it all over before she came down from Canada, but by the time she arrived, he got it all twisted up in his head (or his dick) and decided if we didn’t share with him, he would make our lives miserable and then proceeded to do just that. After one horrible physical altercation where he threw me into a heavy wooden bookcase and injured my back, my new friend and I moved out and into an apartment of our own.
I hadn’t had a real home since I left my childhood home at the age of 17. I’d always lived in shitty apartments with barely enough furniture and even the house I lived in with the then-husband was a wreck since he was such a pack-rat. This wonderful woman created such a space for me. Believe it or not, all of our nice furniture was a result of curb-side finds and dumpster dives except the bed and the kitchen table. She cooked for me and kept the house clean since I was the only one working at the time. We lived in bliss this way for six months. Then I had a mishap at my job, got fired and we lost it all.
We ended up living back with the then-husband, but things between she and I worsened. She didn’t like him and she didn’t like the way he treated me. She also knew that she couldn’t keep living on no income and couldn’t find a job in the US. On my birthday that year, she got on a bus and went back home to Canada. I was devastated and slipped into a deep depression, so deep that it would take the next three years to get me out of it.
We managed an internet and phone relationship for a couple more years. During that time, we both ended up with uterine cancer, both had surgery, and both underwent chemo. Near the end of the chemo treatments, she stopped contacting me. For seven months, I heard absolutely nothing from her. I kept emailing her, sending her messages on Facebook, and even tried calling a few times. No response. She’d made new friends in Canada, was living with her mother and working in her mother’s shop. She didn’t need me anymore. By the time she finally contacted me again on Christmas Eve in 2013, I had already worked her out of my system through therapy and writing. I was still in love with her, but done waiting. She claimed that she wasn’t over me though and wanted us to pick up where we left off, but I just couldn’t. I treasured my growing sanity too much. I broke off all contact with her. She was the one who got away and will always remain one of the truest loves of my life.
Ladylee has joined in for the first time with this heart wrenching poem that you can find here.
Her heart is hard enough as it is
Her voice softens and opens up
Threading a tremulous quaver
Through its tranquil melody
As she wanders through the city
With all its baroque architecture
Customs and traditions they adhere
She remembers the times in their lives
When they used to wander together
When they were happy and inseparable
But then that love didn’t hold them together
There was something missing she can’t identify
Perhaps forgotten reveries and visualisations
They were not destined to be together
If it’s goodbye
Then they should do it right
She has no regrets
Thanking him for being part of her life
He made her happy, he made her sad
He made her care, he made her cry
But let him listen, can he hear that?
It’s her heart, smashing into pieces
She knows it will take some time
For everything to be alright
But one day, it will be fine
For now, let them part as friends
And leave some beautiful memories
Perhaps one day they’ll meet again
Lori Carlson says
Wonderful writings from everyone here last week. Wow, some really talented writers are joining in 🙂 Thank you, Sacha, for the link up. Bad lines.. hmmm.. I will see what I can come up with. This may prove to be harder than it looks *laughs*
Sacha Black says
Thanks Lori I agree some super talented writers join in its a great honour.
Haha the first time I did a bad first line it was real hard to do! But it was dead fun ??
Lori Carlson says
My pleasure, Sacha. I am going to give it a try… I am such a perfectionist and majored in English in college.. I am sure it is going to be quite difficult.. but yes, maybe fun to just let loose for a change 😀
Sacha Black says
You just have to remember all the bad habits you unlearnt!
Lori Carlson says
True! I am about to try my hand at it now 😀
esthernewton says
Damn! I missed this. But I loooove your new prompt. I’m gonna have to do this 🙂
Sacha Black says
Ah no matter ?? and yay can’t wait to see what terrible stuff you come up with ?
Al The Author says
Great posts!
For the challenge –
“I woke with a start…
It was all a dream”
🙂
Sacha Black says
Ohhhhhh a classic but a reaaaaaaal bad one! ?? excellent effort ?
Al The Author says
I think with a challenge like this, you either go cliché, or ham. I went for the veggie option 🙂
Sacha Black says
hahahahaha you crack me up, that is an AWESOME way to describe it. Bonus points to you for making me laugh! :p
Al The Author says
🙂
Rosie Amber says
Love this challenge.
Opening line…Ann sighed, she looked out of the window at the dreary, damp wet clouds, they were heavy with fat droplets of rain, she stopped listening to the teacher who was droning on about someone famous in another lifetime, and somehow let her mind drift to last year when her life changed forever.
Closing line…the thing was gaining on them, they ran faster, jumping over dropped branches, Ann looked back to see how close it was, she glanced at Paul and caught her breath as he began to glow, she smiled, could they really make it in time? ….continued in book 2
Sacha Black says
OH MY GOD. Rosie….. proper lol!!! I bloody hate endings like that, you made me laugh out loud!!!! awesome entry, thank you so much for playing 😀 <3
davidprosser says
The rain only lasted 5 minutes but outside was wet.
Sacha Black says
LOL….. and in one sentence! You hero! <3
Jane Dougherty says
First thoughts
In the beginning, the earth was void and without form, darkness was on the face of the deep, but after twenty-four hours somebody got the lights working.
“I think that bloody darkness is coming b—”
Sacha Black says
PAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHA ohhh Jane, I would love to meet you. I nearly spat my juice everywhere! WORST STORY EVER #truth you’re my bloody hero <3
Jane Dougherty says
The actual words of the King James are quite beautiful, it’s the story that’s so terrible 🙂
Sacha Black says
Or perhaps the interpretation of the story…. Personally I prefer Zacharia Sitchen’s interpretation…. Of course even thinking that is blasphemous :p
Jane Dougherty says
I don’t believe in blasphemy as a concept, so blaspheme away.
Sacha Black says
haha excellent! Right then… *rolls sleeves up*
Jane Dougherty says
Ready for a bit of god bashing.
Sacha Black says
Amen…. oh wait…
Sacha Black says
p.s. how did you write it so well? It was meant to be badly written! :p – it was the symbolism behind it that got me chuckling fyi!
Jane Dougherty says
I bent the rules a bit. I’ll have another go 🙂
Sacha Black says
you did but it was OH so perfect. tailored to my sense of humour too, if there were a prize, you’d have won it :p
Jane Dougherty says
We are obviously on the same wavelength. We could share fatwas 🙂
suzie81speaks says
Brilliant posts – I follow a number of these already but I’ll certainly be following more now!
Sacha Black says
thanks Suzie 😀 Hope you’re having a lovely week 😀
Rachel says
All great submissions from last week! I’m going to have to see what I can come up with for this week’s prompt.
Sacha Black says
Yay, that would be awesome, thanks Rachel 😀
Mary Smith says
Some very emotional writing here from some amazing writers.
Sacha Black says
1000% agreed 😀 <3
Jane Dougherty says
Couldn’t resist having another go.
King Tron settled his crown straight, frowning at the ladder in his tights and sent his squire for a bottle of nail varnish.
The battle was won, but King Tron frowned at the menacing darkness that still hung on the horizon, and the ladder that had started up the other leg of his tights.
Sacha Black says
oh my days, this is abysmal! The repetition, the lengthy sentences, the utter chaos. I simply adore it. This is seriously cheering me up today. You, Madame Dougherty are on fire. <3
Jane Dougherty says
But no, but no! It’s awful because King Tron would have been stomping around his palace in golden full plate armour and he wouldn’t have SEEN that he’d laddered his tights. Apart from that, it’s beautiful, gripping prose. Isn’t it?
Sacha Black says
I mean yeah…. of course…. basically shakespeare. *cough* but a tights ladder….. OMG, sweating at the thought…. do you know whats worse? I don’t even own a pair of tights!!!!
Jane Dougherty says
I do. They come in useful for robbing banks.
Sacha Black says
lol, and there I was thinking you were a good little girl…. I mean it’s not like your novels dark or anything… 😛
Allie P. says
Happy Birthday!
The day started out exactly as the day had before and the day before that. Nancy sighed as she looked out her bedroom window. The story of her life lacked a hook.
“Good morning Nancy,” her mother called from the hall. “It’s another perfect day in paradise!”
Oh yes, perfect, Nancy thought with a snort. If by perfect, you meant nothing ever happened and everyone was content.
“You are going to sleep the day away,” Nancy heard her mom shout as Nancy pulled the covers back over her head.
The day ended exactly as the day had before and the day before that.
Sacha Black says
Thanks Allie 😀 <3 That is….. ummm….. HELLISH – sounds like my worst nightmare! :p
Allie P. says
This would have also been my submission for the whole utopia thing. Blah.
Sacha Black says
I can see why – HORRIFYING! Bloody love utopia!
Lori Carlson says
A dark, stormy day proceeding the hunt, wagging tails, beating hooves thundering the ground, the readying of guns.
who outfoxed who?
Gosh that is some sad writing, but honestly, I couldn’t think of what to write or how to write it… damn perfectionist grammar whore that I am
Sacha Black says
Lol, thanks Lori, cracking entry…. in a terrible way! :p Perfect. <3
Lori Carlson says
Thanks, Sacha.. it really was awful
Ali Isaac says
Some gorgeous writing here, Sacha! Love so many of them!
Sacha Black says
Thanks Ali xx
annestenhouse says
Little Mrs Grandison, who was always known as such to distinguish her from big Mrs Grandison who wasn’t really that big, but always wore her hair in a beehive which was a very popular style then, crossed the Church behind a huge bouquet that dropped petals, leaves and water over her feet.
Little Mrs Grandison tucked the secateurs into the font where, what with dropping numbers and so few baptisms no one would find them for an eon or two, and crossed herself before the altar in a defiant gesture that spoke more of ticking all the boxes than of religious observance before she left by the side entrance as it was furthest from that gruesome sight under its old-fashioned beehive.
Anne Stenhouse (who’s just spent an eon selecting flowers for Sunday’s service.)
Sacha Black says
oh my gosh, this is…………… well, if I had any, you would definitely win a prize!! thank you so much for entering 😀
annestenhouse says
Thank you, Sacha, I enjoyed the challenge and it got rid of the frustration associated with doing the flowers. They didn’t fall over which is always my big worry as I’m an amateur flower-arranger. Anne
Sacha Black says
Glad you enjoyed it 😀
Mike M says
Loved this idea, and had a fun, yet surprisingly challenging time thinking these up. Ended up writing more on my recent post.
But, to add to the topic:
My mind raced like a speeding NASCAR driver rocketing down the road turning unsuspecting animals into gooey road pizza.
And as I wrote “c=sin1” on question 50 of the exam, I looked back and felt supremely confident that the only question I answered on the test was correct. Maybe.
Sacha Black says
Haha great entries Mike thanks very much loved the last one I HATED maths at school! I will hop over and check you’re post out when I get a second ?
Charli Mills says
Once upon a time I wished upon an alien star to give my blogger bestie beastly inspirations, you know, like reptilian googly-eyed characters or maybe hot-mama androgynous Viking Argonauts to the cosmos, but I never dreamed in a million years it would bring me dark and stormy nights.
Now I’m terrified to go to church or trust the government because aliens are real and aliens live in Idaho and screw it all, I thought I only had to worry about grizzlies.
Sacha Black says
PAHAHAHAH Charli this is genius! Made me laugh out loud, it’s poetic! ??
Sarah Brentyn says
Oh, I LOVE this. <3 I wrote a post two years ago about this — writing badly. It's not easy! (But it's fun.) So I'm sort of cheating because the first line is from that post but I'll make up a last line for you, too. Okay, here goes nothing…
First Line:
The waiting room smelled like cheap air freshener, fake rose and sickly sweet vanilla, mixed with the lingering scent of hopelessness as Tiffany and Pierce sat separated by loathing and distrust on a blue, faded couch.
Last Line:
And, as they walked home, holding hands, they knew they would be one of the lucky couples people envy as they gaze at each other over their half-full glasses of white zinfandel.
Sacha Black says
You guna play?
Sarah Brentyn says
Whaa?! Those aren’t bad enough??? ?
Sacha Black says
Weird – only just seen them. Sorry let me read Duno how that happened
Sacha Black says
lillllllllllllll half full!!!!!! They can fuck right off! I can’t be dry and sarcastic with no half FULL cup! loved this entry!
Helen Jones says
Oh, such lovely sad stories, all of them full of nostalgia – great writing as usual for your challenge, Sacha! Now, this week’s challenge – let’s see…
It was a dark and stormy knight who rode in on a white horse to delicately scoop her up like ice cream onto a cone, skirts a fluttering as they rode into the sunrise.
‘I never liked ice cream anyway,’ he said, closing his visor with a snap as he rode stormily into the sunset, skirts still fluttering, leaving her there alone, or should I say, a cone.
Not even sure if it makes sense 😀 Quite sure it’s awful though…
Sacha Black says
leaving her ‘a cone’ that made me roar with laughter!!!!!!! Hilarious Helen <3
Helen Jones says
Thanks Sacha – I have to be honest, I think I had a fever when I wrote it LOL Glad it made you laugh 😀
Sacha Black says
Well it was worth the fever then! ?
Helen Jones says
Ha ha yes, writing while delirious is always recommended 😀
D. Wallace Peach says
Wow, these are beautiful pieces, Sacha. I had to read all of them. I’m glad you’re going with something light!
Sacha Black says
Thanks Diana, I know, it was a little intense, but produced so much awesomeness it was totally worth it 😀
D. Wallace Peach says
Made me want an anthology of the best stories from your prompts 🙂
Sacha Black says
Funnily enough, you’re actually not the first person to mention it. Maybe I could do it for charity one day. <3
D. Wallace Peach says
That would be cool 🙂
Sacha Black says
*pulls out to do list, rolls out parchment and pens it in ink….* :p Ok, I shall give it some though 😀 <3
esthernewton says
Here goes:
The beginning:
Princess Fluffy Wuffy Woos gazed adoringly into Prince Hunky Dunky Doos’ eyes and felt herself drowning, dripping deeper down into his soft, shiny, whiny, choccy, woccy eyes: it was love at first sight.
The ending:
Princess Fluffy Wuffy Woos gazed adoringly into Prince Hunky Dunky Doos’ eyes and felt herself drowning, dripping deeper down into his soft, shiny, whiny, choccy, woccy eyes – again.
There’s nothing like taking a story full-circle back to the beginning 🙂
Sacha Black says
pahahahahaah, you’re such a genius, this is brilliant… sort of, ah you know what I mean!
esthernewton says
Thank you. It was great fun; I couldn’t miss this challenge! A fab idea 🙂