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. This is a writing exercise. It doesn't have to be perfect. The idea is to let your mind wander and write what it will. I'll also attempt to write something using the same three words.
Leave a comment if you participate.
This week's words are:
Hoarse
Bended
Downtown
As Grant strode down the sidewalk, downtown was coming alive. Music from inside the bars wafted out into the avenue and blended with voices to create a spirited feel. Yet it was all just background noise to him, save for the occasional boisterous laugh or someone yelling a name.
Grant had never liked the lights or the crowds before. But now they represented a distraction. An escape from the loneliness and deafening silence of home. Something to take his mind off of her. But it never lasted.
Eventually, thoughts of her would return. And he would remember the last night he saw her. The fight. Her voice hoarse from crying.
Then he would remember how they began. He didn't understand how something that seemed so perfect could turn bad. How black and white become gray, straight becomes twisted, and clear becomes murky. And he had never been any good at putting things back together once they came apart.
He had come here every night for two months. Either to remember or to forget. He knew the streets so well, he could walk them with his eyes closed. And sometimes it seemed as if he did.
He passed O'Malley's, Jupiter, The Bended Elbow, and the tattoo parlor. Then on the corner was the old man who was there every weekend, always wearing the same winter coat, even though it was June, telling anyone who would hear him that Jesus was coming soon.
Some nights Grant would think, "Not soon enough." Other nights he would pray for more time. But he always dropped a dollar in the old man's bucket. Just in case.
"My shadow's the only one that walks beside me. My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating..."
{{{{Bones}}}} You got the words up early so I can play before work!! I lovers Bones....
ReplyDeleteAnd... I'm up :-) I'll have to check everyone's out after I get home from working this evening. It's a long day. Sigh.
Hi Bones,
ReplyDeleteThis is my first time... mine is up too.
bended? Ok, I gotta think about that one. give me time..
ReplyDeleteNo tengo suficiente paciencia para esperar su cuento...
ReplyDelete0:-)
hey, I posted...its not very good...another attempt at poetry...:(
ReplyDeleteKeep forgetting the words--my third click to remember them
ReplyDeleteYou didn't tell me we have to do this in Spanish :)
Since I don't have mine written I can't complain about yours not being up
Judy: Yes, I'll try and start posting them early each week :)
ReplyDeleteMert: Hi. Thanks for participating. I'll be over to check yours out in a bit.
EofO: Yeah, I thought bended was a bit of a tough one, too :)
TC: Umm, you don't have enough patience for something?
TagAlong: Thanks for playing! I'll be over in a bit :)
Pia Savage: English is still the official language of IYROOBTY :)
I've been a bit later posting my entries the last few weeks. Next thing you know, I'll be posting on Thursday or Friday.
mine is up.
ReplyDeleteI don't have enough patience to wait for your post. :)
ReplyDeleteBut, of course, I did, and it was once again fabulous.
And Pia, if you should happen to decide to write a post in Spanish, I'm allllll over that! :-)
He had come here every night for two months. Either to remember or to forget. He knew the streets so well, he could walk them with his eyes closed. And sometimes it seemed as if he did.
Wow.
The entire post is great, but this paragraph really stuck out at me. You can feel how much Grant is suffering from it.
This is the most amazing piece of fiction you've written. There's not a doubt in my mind. Certainly worth the wait.
ReplyDeleteAnd how he didn't understand how something that seemed so perfect could turn bad. How black and white become gray, straight becomes twisted, and clear becomes murky.
That is every relationship I've ever had. I would venture to say it's the same for most anyone else.
You find words for emotions we didn't know we had.
Some nights Grant would think, "Not soon enough." Other nights he would pray for more time. But he always dropped a dollar in the old man's bucket. Just in case.
ReplyDeleteI can totally relate to that.
Think you wrote a similar one sometime ago, but this one is more real
Loved the paragraph TC picked out
It's a melancholy yet vivid post
I really liked your 3WW, and loved how he was surrounded by everything but was still alone.
ReplyDeleteRenee: You know, you should really do this every week :) Very cute story this week.
ReplyDeleteTC: Thanks. It's always interesting to hear particular lines or parts that stick out to people.
And hey, I was close on the espanol! :)
Avery Laine: Wow, thanks. Yeah, I can definitely relate all too well to that part of the story.
Pia: The ending was my personal favorite part. And I wasn't even thinking about the other post. But you're right. I did write something similar. Is that bad?
Mert: Thank you :) That is one of the things I was trying to convey.
You were very close. :-) I was impressed...
ReplyDeleteOutside a downtown cafe many years ago, my love spoke on bended knee -and asked for my hand. I cried, with a hoarse voice saying yes, yes, yes!
ReplyDeletehey, not bad...really liked the part that Avery picked out...and the fact that he started out and didnt really see...cool :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like Grant is in Austin this week for SXSW.
ReplyDeleteAs usually, I love it.
Good story!
ReplyDeleteAs I didn't go for the shortest 3WW this time, I've posted my submission in my blog (after a story I wrote that has nothing to do with my 3WW which will make people's head spin).
TC: Muchas gracias, chica.
ReplyDeleteEofO: I love downtown cafes. True story? :)
TagAlong: Thanks, Tag.
HotPinkSox: Thanks. So, you're gonna be enjoying lots of live music, I assume.
Sage: Oh wow, you're actually posting a story on your blog for 3WW?! That's new :)
De nada, claro. :)
ReplyDeletethe bended elbow? *raising my eyebrow*
ReplyDeleteI've found that if the story doesn't come to me immediately then it usually doesn't come...so that's why I don't do them every week.
ReplyDeletethen after the basis for the story comes then the characters come. Today I tried on purpose to write something out of my comfort zone...young boy going to his first game. The story was almost about a girl going to a game...but she wouldn't have had that much fun.
On a dark and hazy night(or early morning,being as the time was about 2am),me and my mother {and a few others}where taking a late night walk,through the downtown cemetery/park,and I being rather farahead, stoped and waited for{some of) them to catch up.But when my mother,didn't see me and passed right by me,I couldn't help it, I said, in a hoarse,Gollum-like,voice ''there you are, my precious''. Then she screamed and said ''damn!I thought you were some sort of ax murderer!'' And I said ''sorry mom,I didn't mean to get you all bended out of shape''. She said ''you meant 'bent' out of shape.The word 'bended' is somewhat antiquated''. And I said ''umm,yeah,ok''....The End
ReplyDeletewell I emblished it a bit :)
ReplyDeleteMy husband proposed not on bended knee, but it was outside, not downtown either. It was romantic tho.
Me and my ,1/3 part, irishness wanted to wish you a happy St. Patrick's Day :)
ReplyDeletesomeday I will be here on a Wed and play again! lol I was away last week hummmm actually I was in Jamaica on Wed! =] Wish I was still there!
ReplyDeleteTC: Claro? (I can see, I'm gonna have to babelfish that.)
ReplyDeleteQuestion girl: A creative name for a pub, doncha think? :)
Renee: Well, I know the feeling. I feel obligated to write something though, since I started this whole thing :)
Girl FPS: The word 'bended' is somewhat antiquated.
I agree! I always say "bent." Happy belated St. Patrick's Day to you, as well.
EofO: Ah, I see.
Xinh: Wow. Xinh is back :)
Kate: I think being in Jamaica will suffice as a valid excuse for missing 3WW :)
Claro= of course
ReplyDeleteYou rely entirely too much on babelfish you know. It's high time you learned some of this stuff... and remembered it, though I know that's the "challenging" part for you. *er*
TC: Oh, of course! I called you Chica, so I thought you were calling me claro. lol
ReplyDeleteI did not use babelfish. I waited for you to tell me what it meant :P