Consequences

 It's time for the short story for the WWBH

Here’s a quick run through of the rules.

1) You will have until the following Tuesday to submit your entry.

2) We ask that you keep your story to approximately 500 words (give or take). We aren’t counting but, please, no 1000+ entries.

3) *sorry, this is a bit long but important* In order to honor the community-purpose of the blog hop, please Do Not share photos and/or prompt words as your own. We ask that you please include the photo(s) and reference the blog hop in your post so your blog audience and the blog hop community may all be connected. (If you need assistance with inserting the photos, please let one of the hop ladies know via the comments). Photos are the property of the hostess for the week, unless otherwise mentioned. Thank you so much for understanding! Let us know if you have questions on this. :)

4) When 1 photo/5 words is the theme, the 5 words MUST be clearly referenced in your story. Variations on a word are allowed within reason (for example: adding s, ed, ing to the word to be grammatically correct); However creating a new, unrelated, word is not.

5) Link your story to linky/froggy found on the hosts’ sites (direct link to story, not your whole blog, please). If you are unable or need help, contact your hop hosts:

Tena Carr at Jottings and Writings

Leanne Sype at Writings and Ruminations

Heather Musk at Reading and Writing and Everything Heather




Debb Stanton at Stanton Sunshine



6) Most Important, Have Fun and let those creative juices flow… We look forward to reading what you write.

Here is this week’s photo:

 

And the 5 Random Words that must be included are:

• Gunnysack 
• Pathology
• Croquet (the game)
• Elate
• Human

  

HERE IS MY STORY:

Consequences

Tim parked the car in the lay-by, turned off the engine and sighed deeply.  He thought back to the night before when it was supposed to be a bright moonlit evening but the autumnal mist had come down quite quickly marring the wonderful day that had gone on before. 

He’d been invited to a croquet game, something he’d never played before, by the lovely looking girl he’d met in the bar last week.  Her face was so beautiful he wondered if she was actually human, she had an ethereal look about her, when she smiled she looked elated, her eyes were animated and twinkled with happiness.

Anna was a classy lady with a la-di-da voice living with her rich and affluent parents, in a faux English mansion on the outskirts of the town.  Tim didn't know what she saw in him; perhaps it was his Texan drawl that belied his own innate intelligence.  Tim had worked hard to get through college and university to gain his degree, worked his way through various hospital systems and now had ended up here, in this elite backwater under the shadows of a grey mountain range, where he decided to specialise in pathology.

The work was interesting but he found being hunched over a microscope in a white lab coat over a bench in a sterile room quite sedentary so to compensate he decided to keep fit.  Tim tried various forms but the one that took him out of himself the most was running.   It let his mind roam free while his feet pounded the hard ground for miles and miles.  After a while he made it more arduous and carried a gunnysack on his back with various items contained therein to make it heavier or lighter. 

He looked in the back of the car and saw it sprawled across the rear seats; the blood spatter on it mocked him as he swept back the guilt feelings.  Anna’s eyes were now dull and lifeless, her arms rested in her lap, the white dress, virginal like, creased and crumpled with splashes of red across it made his eyes water with emotion. 

He looked across the way and saw the emergency vehicles standing still, waiting for him and standing guard over him like sentinels waiting for him to make a mistake.  Well the only mistake he had made was thinking Anna could ever love him.   He might be clever in his field of work but he was obviously born on the wrong side of town, she had only wanted to play with his emotions, pretend she liked a bit of rough, talking to him with her smooth, plum in the mouth, English accent.  

He hadn’t meant to scare her or to hurt her but he doubted that anybody would believe him.  They had all laughed at him while watching him wield the mallet, hitting the wooden ball and missing the hoop.  Now he must face the consequences of his actions.  

Goodbye Anna, my lovely.

Word count: 498