Tagged: friends

#649 – A Friendly Neighbor…

…whose child is best friends with your own is picked up on suspicion of planning a suicide bombing.

We were all mystified when we got the news.  People were confused and outraged that something like this could happen in our neighborhood.  Everyone kept talking about how Clint was such a sweet quiet boy who never showed any signs of anti-social behavior.  Straight A student with a free ride to university, he was the main reason why my son was able to graduate with honors, with long nights of studying and tutoring.

Phil was taken it hard.  Nobody wanted to talk to him really.  The police questioned him, wondering if he was connected somehow.  His wife left him, angry about the media circus their life has become.  I felt bad for him.  He’d always been helpful, lending me a hand whenever I needed to fix or move something.  It was hard to watch.

All the neighbors wanted to know what led up to it.  Nobody had seen Clint for days now and rumors were flying.  He was shipped off to a government facility.  He was being tortured for information.  He was already dead.  He’d escaped and was now hiding with an anarchist group plotting their next attack.

My son was taking it the hardest though.  He refused to come out of his room for days.  It was devastating for him to learn something so horrible about his best friend.  All the suspicions on him didn’t help.  Lots of people thought he was in on it too.  Which was ridiculous, really.  He would never go along with something like this.  Then again, I suppose everyone thought the same thing about Clint.

The only thing I wondered at the end of the day.  One unasked question I didn’t dare voice.  How in the hell did my plans got into his backpack?  Now I have to start over from scratch while the law watches over us even closer.  This doesn’t make things easier, but the job must be done.  The establishment must fall, even if I have to die to do it.

Behind the Random: Not much to say on this one.  The twist came to me just a few minutes before I started writing it and it feels a little obvious.

#629 – Write About a Recreational Hike…

…that turns into a struggle for survival.

It was supposed to be an ordinary hike up the mountain for five friends, enjoying the warm sun, clean air, and beautiful scenery of the wild world around them.  However, as the sun began to dip below the horizon, they learned that some things weren’t as natural as they believed.  A terrible force has awoken, buried deep beneath the mountain, and preys upon their worst nightmares.  Lost and afraid, they have no choice but to brave the trip back to civilization or stay lost in the madness of their own creation.

Can they find the willpower to stay together or will their own paranoia break them apart and doom them all?  Old wounds will be reopened and rivalries rekindled and in the end, they will have to choose what’s more important to them; friendship or their own survival?

Behind the Random: It seems like there’s been a few prompts in this book that involve hiking and terrible things that happen while taking one.  Makes me want to stay indoors more, really.

#206 – You’re in a Room…

…with a half-open door.  There’s a party going on in the rest of the house.  Describe what you hear.

I hear the sound of friendship.  Those rare times that we can actually get together and enjoy each others company.  I listen to them talk about the latest movies or reminiscing about old times, poking fun at our failures while raising up our successes.  The topic changes a dozen times in as many minutes.  Kids, hockey, movies, games, work, parents, pets, love, hate, religion, politics, life.  It’s a verbal whirlwind that can leave the uninitiated feeling a little lost and overwhelmed.  For me though, it’s the kind of sound that makes all the crap from the daily grind wash away.  Even when a stupid argument crops up about who did what or when something happened where, it’s still all in good fun.  We don’t always see eye to eye and get along, but we’re friends.  Hell, we’re family and there’s a love there that surpasses time and place.  What do I hear?  I hear the sound of happiness.

Behind the Random: Once upon a time, all of my closest friends lived within blocks of me.  We would get together at least once a week and hang out, playing games or watching movies or shooting stupid videos of each other trying to be funnier than the other guy.  As time went on, we all parted ways.  Some moved out of town, others went on to take more of a part in that life game.  Suddenly, those times we were together became further and further apart.  Which makes the next time even more important than the last.