Wednesday, May 30, 2007

3WW #38



Welcome to Three Word Wednesday. Each week, I will post three (or more) random words. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write something using all of those words. It can be a few lines, a story, a poem, anything. I'll also attempt to write something using the same three words.

Leave a comment if you participate. Many fun and interesting people might visit your blog.

This week's words are:
stroke
summer
leave


"What are you drinking?"

Skip was sitting on the steps in the shallow end of the pool. He finished his current sip before answering, "Doctor Thunder."

"Where'd you get that?" Zach inquired from the opposite end of the pool, anchoring himself there with one arm holding onto the diving board.

"There's a machine out there," Skip said as he nodded towards the building which housed the restrooms and dressing rooms.

"Go get me one," Zach responded.

It was Zach's momentary stroke of genius that had led us here. We had been standing around his truck in the Wal-Mart parking lot, trying to think of something to do, someway to prolong the night. He suggested we could sneak into the city pool.

I'm not exactly sure at what point in the evening certain ideas stop sounding completely insane and begin to seem entirely reasonable and normal, but it does exist. And we had passed that point. So after a token objection by Brian, always the voice of timidity, here we were.

I cannot speak for anyone else present that evening, but it was my first and, to this point, only time skinny-dipping. Looking back now, it seems quite odd. But at the time, it was either swim in my faded maroon briefs or become one with the chlorinated water.

We all opted for the latter. It was dark. We were young. So we swam, talked about anything and mostly nothing at all, and just hung out.

As Skip climbed out of the water to go to the drink machine, the catcalls and the barbs flew.

"My eyes! Make it stop!"

"Cover yourself with something. Good heavens!"

"The water's not that cold!"

Skip disappeared around the side of the building. Brian, who appeared to be taking full advantage of our illegal activity to work vigorously on his backstroke, called from across the pool, "Hey, J, do you think I should shave my legs for swim team?"

"Dude, I don't know," I replied. I was by the rope separating the shallow end from the deep end, my arms up on the side of the pool. Zach was in the deep end to my left. Brian had been swimming laps across from me. He stopped.

"Well, Coach Bishop says I should."

"Then do it," I encouraged, hoping to end the conversation.

"Would you shave yours?"

"Um, no." No way, no how, not ever.

"Then why are you telling me to?"

"I don't know, man. I'm really not comfortable talking about this right now."

Brian opted for a second opinion and began swimming towards the diving board.

"Zach, do you think I should shave my legs?"

As Brian invaded his personal space, Zach leaned back trying to avoid any accidental contact and waved his hands as if shooing a fly.

"Dude, get back!" Zach chided.

"Swim away, tiny stroker, swim away!" I added.

Our antics were interrupted by a car slowing down and then turning into the parking lot.

"Get down!" I yelled.

The good thing about the city pool is that it's located on a little traveled road, with no houses or apartments nearby. The bad thing about it is that it's surrounded by only a chain link fence.

I saw Skip start around the corner of the building. He stopped and retreated when he saw the headlights. The rest of us hid against the side of the pool nearest the road, keeping our heads just above the water, but below the edge of the wall.

The headlights shone across the pool, reflecting brightly off the slide and the fence on the other side. All I could picture was the four of us being led single-file to a police car, covering ourselves with our hands.

There is some undefined amazing something about a summer night. Something intoxicating. Something that causes you to leave your inhibitions behind, and do something stupid.

"Hold me closer tiny dancer. Count the headlights on the highway..."

34 comments:

  1. Hi Bone. This is Rose and this is the first time I am participating in your prompts. It's a short story .

    Thanks.

    Rose

    xo

    "Never The Same"

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  2. I hope to have mine posted by 1:00 EST today. I never got last week's finished, so I am consolidating the two lists into one story.

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  3. Oh my, Bone, what have you done? I write few stories but your words just pulled one out from somewhere.

    I don't know how form the link like Rose did so to read Alley Jump:

    http://meeaugraphie.blogspot.com/2007/05/3ww-alley-jump.html

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  4. Ode To Arizona On This, A Three Word Wednesday

    spring fades with a stroke of summer.
    please sun, just leave me alone.

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  5. I played--another episode of Norbert and Smedley. In fact, I had such fun with Norbert and Smedley last week that they have their own blog now, with regular episodes popping up to continue their story. My husband thinks I've lost my mind, but the two of them are really a whole lot of fun...

    Read it here.

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  6. As usual I posted a poem. And on time too!

    Here is mine:
    Phantoms Play

    Now I go over to read others!

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  7. Whew! I really sweated these characters out.

    Have a good one!

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  8. Bone, why do I always have the worst urge to come up with a one-sentence reply to your 3WW?

    stroke
    summer
    leave

    "Knowing he would leave at the stroke of midnight, she prayed for summer to never end."

    My, that was quite lame. *red face*

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  9. Taking a stab at it again! :)

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  10. I posted my story

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  11. here's mine.

    enjoy. looking forward to reading the others! :)

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  12. I remembered....did a continuation of my previous 3WW.

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  13. hey Bone! Mines up! I'll be back tomorrow to read peoples!

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  14. I was late posting, but at least it's still Wednesday!

    I prefer the one-liners ;)

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  15. I'm finally up... maybe it's still Wednesday in an alternate universe???

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  16. One day late (again) but here it is:
    http://readingtoknow.blogspot.com/2007/05/3-word-wednesday-on-thursday.html

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  17. Thanks to all for participating this week. I hope to make it by to read everyone's by tonight.

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  18. I'm not exactly sure at what point in the evening certain ideas stop sounding completely insane and begin to seem entirely reasonable and normal, but it does exist. And we had passed that point. So after a token objection by Brian, always the voice of timidity, here we were.
    really like that paragraph

    and the last

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  19. I order 1/2 portions whenever they let me...but most places here restrict that to Seniors. I don't get it as they don't 1/2 the price. *sigh*

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  20. The whole story is intriguing but I love the ending. Using "tiny dancer" makes me think of Elton John. Sorry this is short but I have tons of work to do before I sleep, price of vacations I supose.

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  21. This story is hilarious . . but it also brings to mind a TON of questions. I'll stick with just one:

    Three guys - skinny dipping - ALONE????

    Having gotten that off my chest, let me say that I had to search for the words. A good story makes you forget that it's an exercise and you get lost in the words. I was so lost in your story - and my own pool antic memories - that I had to check and recheck to make sure you used all the given words.

    Good job, Sir Bone.

    This makes me want to tell the story of the night my friends and I broke in to the city pool . . Thanks for the inspiration!

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  22. Love yours Bone--glad you took the time this week.

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  23. 'Doctor Thunder' ha, Dr pepper is my favorite soda ( there is a lot of other'Dr' sodas like: Dr Star, Dr Foots, Dr Fresh, Dr Good Guy, Dr Holiday, Dr Gulpster, Dr. Fizz, Dr Dynamite, Dr. Fine, Dr. A+ ect.).
    ___________________________________
    "It is not a good idea to leave this air conditioned truck while in Death Valley in the summer to try and go jogging around, but if you do anyway just remember it was a bad idea as you pass-out from a heat stroke, ok?". Said Chuck-the-lizard to jimmy-the-lizard.

    "I don't care what you say, yaaaaaahh!!". Screamed Jimmy-the-lizard as he leapt out of the truck window. THE END

    Jimmy and Chuck were a bithday gift I gave to my youngest brother a few years ago, and Jimmy did jump out the window of my truck onto the hot desert sand but he is fine now .

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  24. Hot summers nice! You got me thinking about other memories. My post is up, it's a poem this week. (it's only Friday after all).

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  25. Thank you for the laugh. :) I think this is one of my favorite TWW yet. ;)

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  26. Pia: Thanks. It always helps when people point out their favorite parts of a story.

    Renee: Oh well, just twenty or thirty more years :-P

    Clockwork: Thanks. Yeah, tiny stroker/tiny dancer, that's what I was thinking.

    Avery Laine: Three guys - skinny dipping - ALONE????

    Well, it's four guys, first of all. Although I'm not sure what difference that would make.

    I did wonder about that, but I remember Bo & Luke Duke went skinny dipping one time. And if they can do it, it must be fine, right?

    Looking forward to your own pool story.

    Gay: Thank you. Thanks for taking time to come back and read my entry.

    GirlFPS: Ah, yes, I remember you mentioning Dr. Pepper in a previous comment some time ago.

    Glad to know your lizards are OK. Pablo is acting sick and not eating again :(

    Sage: Thanks. I'll be over to check yours out shortly.

    Carmen: Why, thank you. I definitely tried to go in a lighter, hopefully humorous direction this week.

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  27. mine's finally up. I've done better in the past but I did the exercise nonetheless. I'll do better next time I think.

    take care :)

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  28. Ditto what Shelby said. I finally wrote one. It's not very good, but I figure you can't really appreciate the good ones unless you write some bad ones too, right? :-)

    And speaking of good ones... your story hilarious, Bone. I laughed so hard.

    As Skip climbed out of the water to go to the drink machine, the catcalls and the barbs flew.

    "My eyes! Make it stop!"

    "Cover yourself with something. Good heavens!"

    "The water's not that cold!"


    Seriously, I can hear their voices! I'm, of course, substituting the voices of guys I grew up with in their place... it's so easy to envision!

    I honestly held my breath throught part of this story, wondering if they'd get caught. I really didn't want them to get caught: I couldn't help but root for young and dumb at a time like that :-)

    All I could picture was the four of us being lead single-file to the cop car, covering ourselves with our hands.

    ROFL

    Oh, I'm soooooooo enjoying that visual... O:-) Seriously though, that's a great line.

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  29. Err, your story WAS hilarious.

    I, clearly, can type.

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  30. oh my! so when I first started reading this I thought maybe this was true...lol I loved it! it was great!

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  31. Darn! Poor little guy.

    All you can do, if you don't really know whats wrong with him, is make sure to gently change the water {try to have the new water about the same temp. as the tank water} about once a week and keep his tank warm (with a temp. of 78-80).
    Oh and did you add a bit of salt to his tank?

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  32. Great story. Reminded me of the time some friends of mine and I broke into the pool on base after hours. No skinny dipping involved on my part though.

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  33. TC: Thanks. I find it surprisingly easy to write from the perspective of a seventeen-year-old. Go figure.

    Tagster: Thank you. I've never done exactly that, but know people who have :)

    GirlFPS: Thanks. I started back giving him the medicine I bought a few days ago. I had stopped when he got better for a bit.

    Xinher: Hopefully we all have some memories of good, mostly harmless fun :)

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