TINY TUESDAY...(m)

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Registered: 12-31-1969
TINY TUESDAY...(m)
47
Mon, 02-04-2002 - 11:38pm

TINY TUESDAY...(m)


For this week's Tiny Tuesday, try this: Write a short-short, 500 words or less, with these three words, in the order I give them.

aim

babble

cabana (like a small cabin/bathhouse)

Have fun, Sammi

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-24-2003
In reply to:
Tue, 02-05-2002 - 3:00pm

I sincerely hope...


that you are writing Romance Novels for a living, cuz girlfriend you'd be making a pretty penny!

Fun read, Maria!

kat

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Registered: 09-24-2003
In reply to:
Tue, 02-05-2002 - 3:05pm

That was me on that bed!


Great job, eyewrite! Now that I've got the heebeees, I'm gonna be walking around all day on the look out!

TOO funny! Kat

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-24-2003
In reply to:
Tue, 02-05-2002 - 3:08pm

AMEN! Man, do I dislike Barry! Fun read, Mac! kat (n/t)


iVillage Member
Registered: 09-24-2003
In reply to:
Tue, 02-05-2002 - 3:12pm

Good piece here, Wendy! Allot of emotional buy in! kat (n/t)


iVillage Member
Registered: 09-24-2003
In reply to:
Tue, 02-05-2002 - 3:28pm

Sweet story for the month of February! kat (n/t)


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anonymous user
In reply to:
Tue, 02-05-2002 - 5:31pm

TT: Firefighter Photo Shoot (m)


Nicole adjusted her tripod in the sand and aimed her lens at the man posing in tropical-print swim trunks and a firefighter’s jacket at the edge of the water. Waves lapped around his feet. She clicked the shutter. My last shot, she realized with relief. One more and I’d be a drooling fool.

“That’s it!” she called to Thomas. She smelled his coconut sun block as he trudged by, shrugging off his heavy coat.

This wasn’t her first uncomfortable shoot. There was the feuding family at the portrait studio who’d insisted on three separate proofs melded into one photo. There were the two sweaty weeks with National Geographic; spent tracking her senior photographer and an elephant through vast amounts of mud and worrying that each hot flash was the onset of malaria.

After that her job with a Florida newspaper had seemed uneventful at first, until that unfortunate interview with a drunken political candidate who’d decided that her backside was public property.

But even then she’d managed to keep her cool and hadn’t started babbling incoherently like she’d been doing all day at this shoot. Normally a woman who spoke a few well-placed words only when necessary, today Nicole just couldn’t seem to keep her mouth shut, and nothing that came out made any sense. Pam’s joking about the “hunk quotient” of the men on the other side of Nicole’s camera only made it worse. All firefighters by trade, if they were embarrassed or nervous, they didn’t show it. Nicole wished she had their self-control.

She packed her bag, collapsed the tripod and started slowly across the beach to join the men and calendar committee for a casual dinner. Her sandals flapped and she swallowed big breaths of the salty air in an attempt to relax. She passed the cabana where Thomas had gone to change and heard his deep voice.

“Hey, wait a sec!”

She stopped.

“I’ll walk with you,” he said through the cabana flap.

Nicole stood watching sailboats floating in the bay like leaves drifting down a lazy river. Then Thomas came out in a pair of khaki shorts and a green t-shirt. Glancing up at him she realized his eyes were the same shade of green.

“Nicole, right?” he asked. She nodded, fearing if she said anything her words would come out tangled and twisted.

“Going to be a great calender,” he continued, “Should make a lot of money for the kids’ charity.” Nicole nodded again.

“Lucky Pam found you at the last minute too. We thought we’d have to scrap the whole thing after Jack had to cancel.”

“Glad I could help,” Nicole finally managed, hoping she didn’t sound stupid.

“Me too,” said Thomas, “Come on, I’ll introduce you to the chief.” He took her tripod and they strolled toward an outdoor café, where servers in white aprons were lighting paper lanterns on strings of colored lights. Maybe, she thought, this will be one of my happier memories after all.

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Registered: 09-24-2003
In reply to:
Tue, 02-05-2002 - 5:52pm

A Short Hop to Egypt


Miguel struggled to keep the Cessna Skyhawk aloft, but the high winds and lightening strikes tossed the small aircraft about like a mosquito that flew in front of an oscillating house fan. Miguel knew he had one chance to land the plane, and that would be at the northwestern point of Crete on the island of Gramvousa. He only hoped that in this storm he would be able to aim the plane for the sandy beach. Josephine, normally a calm, rational individual babbled on about her intense fear of flying, her flaming red hair whipping about as she reviewed her bravery.

“I’ve hacked my way through the jungles of South America, I’ve swam in the Amazon, I’ve snow shoed in the Andes, but this, THIS I’m not prepared for! I hate to fly, and flying in this tin can is more than I can tolerate. I will have Dr. Magnus’s hide when I get to Egypt, so help me God! He promised he’d fly me there in a jet, a LEAR Jet he’d said.”

Miguel, commissioned by Dr. Magnus to fly Josephine to her archeological dig in Aburkir, Egypt from Naples, tried to assure her that he had the situation under control.

“Please, Ms. Josephine, you must remain calm.”

Looking out the window as another bolt of light lit the sky, Josephine could see the white caps of the Mediterranean Sea as it boiled. Oh God, please don’t let us go down in that, she prayed.

“Ms. Josephine I need you to be on the look out for land. Crete should be coming into view any moment.” No sooner had the dark, handsome Greek asked for her help when the Cessna began to sputter and cough, and drop like a roller coaster down toward the sea.

“AHHH!” screamed Josephine as she clutched at the wooden dashboard of the plane. “There, THERE, Miguel can you see it?” Josephine pointed toward the right wing of the plane. I think that’s land?”

Miguel tried to pull the Cessna out of the nose dive but the wind shear had them in its grip. Then Miguel jolted the steering to the right leaning into it with all his weight. “Dead ahead, Miguel, I’m sure of it,” yelled Josephine over the scream of the engine and the pelting of the rain against the body of the plane.

“YES, Yes, I see it. That’s the island! I have to pull the nose up a bit, and then I will cut the engine at the last minute. Secure your seat belt and hang on.”

“Cut the engine? Are you nuts! Don’t cut the engine, we’ll need it if you can’t set this metal heap down.”

“Ms. Josephine, it is all in the timing.”

The violent heaving of the sea, the jarring toss of the plane, and the blasting of the rain against the windshield were driving her mad. She couldn’t breath. “We need one more lightening strike before I attempt to land,” shouted Miguel.

In that split second of bright light, a long stretch of beige sand appeared horseshoeing away from them in an arc to the left. And then the engine went dead.

“Miguel, you idiot!” Their heads snapped forward as the plane slammed into the beach skidding along like a freight train that jumped the tracks until it crashed into a cabana.

Her eyes fluttered open, but then cinched shut. The glare of the light hurt her head. She needed a drink of water, badly. She tried to shield her eyes but her arms felt pinned so she turned her head away from the light and opened her eyes to see Dr. Magnus sitting in a chair next to her bed. “Hello, Josephine,” he said. “Glad to see you awake.”

“Where am I?”

“You are on the island of Crete. We found you last night and brought you here to the hospital.”

“And Miguel?”

“He’s in the next room, he’ll be fine. A broken collar bone, a bad bang to his head, but he’s doing well.”

“You, Dr. Magnus, look like hell.”

“You put us into a bit of a scare.”

“Serves you right. Next time, I fly in the Lear, got that!”

Circling his felt hat in his hands, the bald, heavyset Dr. Magnus smiled, and said, “I promise!”

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-24-2003
In reply to:
Tue, 02-05-2002 - 5:57pm

Heather...


This most certainly could be something more...short story, romance novel?

Well written, and great background for a short, short!

Good job! kat

Visitor (not verified)
anonymous user
In reply to:
Tue, 02-05-2002 - 6:01pm

Good job Jade, l liked the babbling radio! nt


Visitor (not verified)
anonymous user
In reply to:
Tue, 02-05-2002 - 6:04pm

Well done! I like a woman who knows how to shoot a gun. nt


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