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Wednesday, October 03, 2007

3 Word Wednesday #55



Welcome to Three Word Wednesday. Each week, I will post three (or more) 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 words.

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

This week's words are:
Feather
Misplaced
Useless


The slamming of doors echoing thru the downstairs signaled his arrival home at least three days out of every week. A bad day at work for him meant a bad night at home for her.

Grace had grown used to his misplaced anger. No, you never got used to it, but she had come to expect it. She avoided him whenver possible, staying upstairs, sometimes pretending to be asleep. But some days it was useless. Some days he was bent on finding an outlet for his anger, and far too often it was her.

She sat upstairs cross-legged on the bed. Everytime another door slammed, her heart would pound a little faster. She picked up one of the feather pillows she had cried into countless times before and buried her head in it. Then silently prayed she wouldn't hear his footsteps on the stairs or him calling her name.

She didn't. Not on this day.

Grace heard the familiar noises of cabinets opening, bottles clanging, and the TV being put on, and she began to relax. Still clutching the pillow, she drifted off to sleep.

Sleep was sound and restful, her dreams happy. And when she woke up, she wished she was still asleep. The room was rather dark. Terrified she had missed supper, she hurried downstairs. First, she went into the kitchen, then to the other rooms. There was no sign of him, and she figured he must have gone out to drink.

Lastly, she ventured into the living room. It was there she saw the empty pill bottle on the coffee table and the body lying limp on the couch.

Grace ran.

As she knelt down beside the couch, she was curiously calm. Gently shaking the listless body, she pleaded quietly, "Wake up, Mommy. Please wake up."

"If you hear something late at night, some kind of trouble, some kind of fight, just don't ask me what it was..."

66 comments:

  1. Hi y'all, this is Rose. A short little poem today called "Scouring".

    Rose

    xo

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  2. Bookmarking this page with a feather is useless. No matter what, I get it misplaced.

    Post coming up soon....me thinks!

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  3. I tried for beauty this time. My name is the link

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  4. I have my 3-word Wednesday (in Haiku form) here.

    -Charles

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  5. Without the feather tipped pen I've somewhere misplaced, this bottle of ink is useless!

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  6. After more than a month's absence I finally have a post.

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  7. Hi everyone,

    There are some more Irish adventures awaiting. This week Simon tastes some of the joys of language learning.

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  8. It was a useless feather that I misplaced... I can do better than that, I hope.

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  9. Thanks for the prompt and the site!

    My post:

    3WW Tanka

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  10. Wow so many postings :)

    I posted.

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  11. Mine is up. It's Norbert and Smedley's 40th episode!

    Gay

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  12. This one might be a little too much "inside baseball". Hope someone finds it amusing.

    http://www.herburban.com/?p=2256


    Go Phillies!

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  13. I promise by next week to learn basic hmtl so I can use hyperlinks from now on. I feel like such a luddite.

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  14. ok so i think im making up for last week...Ive posted...hopefully ill be back before next wednesday to read everyone elses...

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  15. I'm not sure where the fashion references came from seeing as I'm NO WHERE near being a fashionista myself. But it just felt right.

    Hope you're doing well, Bone!

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  16. Ok, so maybe a bit less than a whole poem...

    Your flock?>

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  17. Mine is done, though I have to say...seriously, Bone, we need to talk about these words you picked this week. Uff da.

    I'll be by to read ya'll's later tonight! :-)

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  18. Happy Wednesday Everyone.

    My week's entry isHERE

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  19. Mine went in an unexpected direction again this week - what fun - Patron Saints

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  20. wow.. excellent turn out... i made it.. late but here....

    "stuff"

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  21. I went with the Weird Al does Children's Songs take this week.

    Here's mineSylvia Monys Al

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  22. Here's my entry:

    Her words

    or here

    http://walktotheleft.blogspot.com/2007/10/three-word-wednesday-10.html

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  23. Interesting stories and poems for this week's 3WW.

    I've done mine at work and will post once I return home. It's titled Oasis.

    I'm sorry computers dislike me (or is it the other way around).
    Anyway how does one insert a link in clickable form in the comment section?

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  24. My blog's been wonky all day. Posts take forever to load. Somehow my 3WW went from published to private--new one for me. Sorry.

    Bone--first reminder of three: Seinfeld's on 30 Rock Thursday night--8:30 my time

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  25. Finally...a link to the post the HTML way!!

    Oasis

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  26. To answer this
    I'm sorry computers dislike me (or is it the other way around).
    Anyway how does one insert a link in clickable form in the comment section?


    I just copy the same code as if I was going to link to something in a post on my blog.

    I hate dealing with html. ugh.

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  27. Sorry about the deleted post above...I wanted to try and see if I could do a link for the first time. Here goes:

    Silent Wings

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  28. Bone, you can solve the problem for those who can't link directly by putting the mister linky thing. Nothing can go wrong with that!

    Hello all, I hope I get around reading all of you soon!

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  29. back from the grave. here's my uhmm... contribution:

    Finito

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  30. romance writer, go to One Deep Breath site and there's a great (perma)link tutorial in the righthand sidebar.....here's the link

    http://onebreathpoetry.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-to.html

    sorry no time to prep a proper link now LOL.

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  31. Short and sweet for Emily Dickenson fans: Hope

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  32. A THOUSAND KINDS OF RAIN

    Please click:

    http://web.mac.com/rwellsrwells/iWeb/Site/Resident%20Djinn/419D29F8-CCAE-48B8-A52D-F40724313D40.html

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  33. Hmm, well, that didn't work.

    Here's the website: www.bundleofhiss.com

    click on Resident Djinn, the poem is A Thousand Kinds of Rain.

    But here it is without the clicks:

    A Thousand Kinds of Rain

    Funny,
    no sooner have I
    misplaced that hat -
    the one with the tiny red feather
    that caught your eye -
    than the weather breaks
    and I stand here
    all useless
    while a thousand kinds of rain
    soaks me to the bone.

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  34. working on it. Haiku coming up-

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  35. I so apologize:

    A Thousand Kinds of Rain

    Funny,
    no sooner have I
    misplaced that hat -
    the one with the tiny red feather
    that caught your eye -
    then the weather breaks
    and I stand here
    all useless
    while a thousand kinds of rain
    soaks me to the bone.

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  36. Wow, I think there are even more participants this week than last.

    Hopefully, I'll make it around to read everyone's sometime before next Wednesday :)

    Welcome to our newcomers this week, and thank you all for participating in Three Word Wednesday.

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  37. Amazing. Totally amazing.

    You perfectly capture an abused woman and then the ending...

    How do you do it Bone?

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  38. Landed here from Jo's site, couldnt resist but drop a line.

    I am catching a new group each day this week, and throughly enjoying this experience.

    Here's my contribution for the day -

    A wish

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  39. That was an entirely unexpected twist. I was anticipating the wife being beaten regularly or just emotionally abused by a husband who wouldn't or couldn't find an outlet for his anger OR another job. :(

    The daughter finding a mother who couldn't take it anymore . . . that was far worse.

    This is one of the most gut-wrenchingly painful stories you've written. I've never been so depressed and amazed at the same time. An all too imagineable story written brilliantly.

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  40. http://www.heavenly-creatures.net/xinher/?p=2002

    A day late, but done.

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  41. Here's what I have... Lengthy thing...

    http://writethatromance.blogspot.com/2007/10/3-word-wednesday-feather-useless.html

    Thanks for stopping by--sorry I'm late!
    ~Saoirse

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  42. There are so many little hints about the horror that is Grace’s life, so many lines that lead to Grace’s eventual heartbreak.

    It wasn’t until it said she was scared of having missed dinner that I realized she was a little girl, and my heart, already half broken for a woman suffering from that kind of abuse, split the rest of the way. No one should be subject to someone’s “bad mood” like that, least of all an innocent child.

    Maybe I’m being totally naïve, but I can only hope that the death of her Mom will force an examination of that home life and maybe, just maybe, Grace will get out and get a better life. Maybe not the life she deserves, but better at least than the life she currently is living.

    P.S. It took me three tries to find “feather.” Then I sat and frantically searched for the other two words. I’ve always believed that if you have to look that hard for the words in a story, the writer did something unbelievably right.

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  43. sad story, very well written though!

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  44. Bone,

    A very chilling piece and one that is all too common.

    Rose

    xo

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  45. Bone, your piece is very chilling and so very sad.

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  46. Pia Savage: Thank you. I move fingers over keys like a ouija board until they begin typing ;-)

    Ul: Welcome. And thanks for participating.

    Avery Laine: Thanks. I had the idea for the twist at the start, but originally she was going to wind up trying to wake her daddy.

    Xinher: I'm almost always a day late. Thanks for playing!

    Saoirse: Thanks for participating.

    TC: I agree. No one should be subjected to that. I wish every child in those situations could be rescued and loved. Thanks for the PS.

    Jujee and Carlos: Thanks. I know it's difficult to comment on such a sad piece.

    Rose: one that is all too common.

    That's what is most heartbreaking.

    Jo: Yeah, sometimes the words lead to something sad and dark.

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  47. Bone, thanks. I just read your piece, it's a haunting tale, and was a kind of reminder that not everything in this world is as pleasant as I would like it to be.

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  48. Your story hit home. I think I mentioned here some time back, I work for abused children. This too is part of it if you know what I mean.

    A girl abused by her father and losing her mother. Nothing can be worse than that. And it happens...

    Believe me, I try to keep that part of me from my blogging world but it still comes out when I read something like this. Good or bad, I don't know..

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  49. Took me a while to get an idea this week but here is my story

    Goodbye, Mr. Understanding

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  50. Sad story, Bone, so honest and true and the song says it all.

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  51. Very sad tale this week, Bone. I thought it was from the wife's POV but at the end realized it was the innocent, little voice of their child. The story was very touching.

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  52. Bone-- in answer to your question-- I didn't find it, I photoshopped it. (Actually the software I use is called Serif, but same idea.) Take another look at the post and you'll see I posted links to the originals.

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  53. Bone- this was really just stark in my face close to home. I pretended to be asleep too. How do you write something you couldn't have possibly seen or experienced, so well?

    Now I feel all flippant for writing a silly one. Usually I'm the one that's overly deep with all the layers. What's up with that?

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  54. I would never just comment I've posted mine! on anyone's blog unless I'd already commented on their writing for the week.

    But, since I've already given my opinion on how brilliant your work was this week, I feel very little shame in saying: Mine's up! :)

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  55. I hat to think that the little girl was so detached from her mothers death, like she had been expecting it...so sad.

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  56. Ebony Cricket and the Crow is up at Poefiti. Your story caught me off guard at the end. I wasn't expecting the story to be about a woman and her child. Nice read. Keep up the good work.

    I wanted to e-mail you about my new site Poefusion but, I couldn't connect with your e-mail link from your profile. So, I will do it here. I have made a Friday 5 but, I worry you will be upset with me because it is like 3WW. If you don't like my doing this please let me know and I will take it down. I plan to place other ideas on the page as well but, the Monday Mural and Friday 5 were going to be consistent. The page is meant to be more of a catch all prompt page than a meme really. If you want you can e-mail me from my profile link.

    I am sorry if I upset you with my new page in any way.

    Michelle Johnson

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  57. ok - wednesdays not posted till sunday ... but better late than never

    http://uplatette.wordpress.com/2007/10/07/3ww-7/

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  58. Dark, but moving story Bone. Well told. Sorry I didn't comment on it sooner.

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  59. Unlike TC, I didn't get the dinner thing...perhaps because I was rushing through. I judy thought it odd that she thought about dinner, because if he were that awful he would have had her down there to cook it, oops, then you showed me how wrong I was; caught me off guard with your ending... I love the way you write...

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