This is for a mini challenge. The instructions were:
1. Write two ultra-short stories (no more than 75 words each)
2. They should be completely different in mood, tone, genre
3. Each should BEGIN with this sentence:
Megan stared at the stain, horrified.
For Better or Worse
Megan stared at the stain, horrified. She pulled her sweater across her full breasts and tried to ignore the crying baby at the next table. Who brings a baby to an elegant restaurant?
She hoped the dim lighting camouflaged the circles under her eyes. She wanted her husband to see her as the vibrant woman he’d married, not the lactating, sleep-deprived mother she’d become.
“You’ve never been more beautiful,” her husband said with perfect timing.
Death Do Us Part
Megan stared at the stain, horrified. She clutched her stomach as the red liquid oozed from her, saturating her hands and dripping to the floor. Her legs collapsed beneath her as she looked with wide eyes at the one she’d pledged her love to. Her betrayer stood arrogantly above her, still holding the smoking revolver.
“Why?” she managed as life left her body.
“Why does anyone do anything?” he said smugly to himself. “Money.”
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Neat and creative idea to contrast two wholly different husband types as well as differing genres.
Both were very sensory making me feel as if I were experiencing the one Megan's discomfort and the other's pain and horror. Great writing for both stories, Kristen.
Wonderful writing, I could picture the fellow in the second story so vividly in my mind. However, (maybe this comes from being a Pastor and a prison guard) I couldn’t help but wonder if the couple in the second story wasn’t the same couple as in the first story, just several years later.
I could definitely relate to the first story! It always seemed to happen at the worst times...and my husband was also great at knowing how to be so romantic.
**THIS SPARKLES**
Kristen--AWESOME! These just blew me away (and I can relate to the first one, totally. NOT the second one, thank God!)
I teach in a high school, and the home ec teacher sometimes has the kids carry around these fake "babies". They're equipped with a computer chip to cry randomly, and they sound VERY realistic. My good friend was nursing a child and teaching part-time when one of the fake babies stared crying in her class. You can guess what happened, I'm sure. We still laugh about that.
