Friday Flash: Parts of Speech – The Untold Story
Parts of Speech – The Untold Story
Housework could be a dangerous thing, especially in this house. That thought crossed her mind more than once as she performed her daily duties. She picked up another carelessly thrown interjection, cutting herself sharply on the word. It wasn’t unusual. Perhaps she should wear protective gloves.
Cleaning her husband’s office was especially dangerous. He’d often, in fits of rage, hurl expletives at the computer. The screen hadn’t broken yet – most of the obscenities bounced harmlessly off to lay in wait for Sally on cleaning day. More than once she’d felt them lodge in her bare feet.
She made the best of it, extracting the sharp edges from her flesh to keep for later. She wrapped an especially descriptive epitaph in some tissue paper before placing it in her pocket along with other colorful phrases. She knew just what to do with them.
Her chores completed, she sat at the table and carefully spread her treasures before her. She enjoyed the feel of the sun on her neck as she worked, pulling her hair aside to catch more the warmth that seeped through the window. The light spilled over her shoulders, shining on a rainbow of words.
She sighed. Way too many obscenities in the last batch. Not that she was a prude, but when overused they lost their punch. She sorted her harvest into the correct boxes – organized by catagory, sharpness, or turn of phrase. The commas and dashes were kept in a drawer with her paperclips.
She didn’t know why her hands were shaking.
Recalling her friend, Michelle, Sally reflected on the similarity of their hobbies. Michelle scrapbooked with her friends, laying out their collected photos and decorations to assemble stunning family chronicles. Sally created a collage of words.
She picked up the glue, grabbed a conjunction, and started on a page.
*
March 18th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
I love it! Sally’s my kind of woman. She’s got all the makings of a writer. Isn’t that just what we do? Pick up parts of speech along the way and twist them to fit our own untold stories?
The only problem I have is that the font did something funky in one of the paragraphs, but I doubt that’s your fault.
I do agree with Sally. When overused, obscenities definitely lose their punch. Haha. But she seems content in her lot. I’d suggest doing a continuation of this. Another flash piece about how Sally uses the words she finds littered around the house to create a story, feeling disappointed that she has little other material to work with. Just a thought.
And I’ll eventually get back to your other posts. I’ve been a bit overwhelmed with caregiving this week…
March 18th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
What kind of ritualistic, masochistic woman is Sally? She knows these hurtful things, all aimed (I hope?) not at her originally, are on the floor all around and steps on them anyway and has to “extract them from her flesh” only to (daily and dutifully mind you!) collect, sort and of all things memorialize them?
If her cuts were only metaphor, I’d think stigmata and would look for other religious hooks, but seeing no such overt references and the physical imagery of the collected words being so literal (pun intended), and her burden little resembling the typical religious iconography, I take it there is no such intention on your part?
Her own stunning family chronicle seems the story of a lonesome suffering woman compared to her friend (she has a friend!) Michelle who hobbies with others. Where is Michelle? What will she tell Sally to do with that “scrapbook” of pain? I think she’d tell her to douse it with something flammable and burn it. I feel the need for at least a foreshadowing of the coming catharsis! What does Michelle do with her scrapbooks? Maybe you could allow the reader to extrapolate what Sally will do with her own when complete?
March 19th, 2010 at 4:15 am
What a beautiful idea!
March 19th, 2010 at 4:31 am
Love the idea! In my household, I’m the sweary one though
Heh, I was thinking she was going to flush the obscenities down the toilet! I’m glad she kept them though, they do sometimes come in handy!
March 19th, 2010 at 5:00 am
I read this as representing the woman’s plight of having to find scraps of time in order to write. The man’s writing comes first, and she must then make due with the bits that are left, but only after she does her barefooted duties. I may be off-base, or projecting, but I really like this very much. And I hope she finds a way to find her own words, for her own page.
March 19th, 2010 at 10:25 am
This was a very imaginative idea. She becomes a writer by picking up the words and punctuation lying about on the ground throughout the house. Good story!
March 20th, 2010 at 6:57 am
Ha! What a clever idea. This was very imaginative. That is what we do in some ways, listening to what is said around us and then writing our own stories. I really enjoyed this story!
March 20th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
I like Lou’s interpretation – That’s my plight – writing unfortunately comes waaaaay down on the priority list. I’m lucky i get any done at all
Very nice story!
March 21st, 2010 at 5:14 am
I really enjoyed this! So creative, you are.
Terrific!
March 21st, 2010 at 5:31 am
Loved the idea of this, words that actually cut and wound when gathered.
March 21st, 2010 at 10:42 am
Brilliantly creative! Fantastic #fridayflash.
March 21st, 2010 at 6:48 pm
Excellent. A unique and original tale, and a very enjoyable read. I don’t like the two “grabbeds” in the last line, but that’s just a tiny nitpick.
Beautifully done.
March 21st, 2010 at 8:35 pm
netta,
Thanks for calling my attention to the two “grabbed”s at the end. I don’t know how I missed that!
Thank you everyone for your comments and suggestions. They are greatly appreciated.
March 22nd, 2010 at 7:35 am
What a funny idea! I’m glad they don’t really collect like that though or my car would need nightly. I loved this story!
March 22nd, 2010 at 7:36 am
Opps, I meant cleaned nightly.
March 23rd, 2010 at 2:33 am
Very clever. I love the idea of words as tangible things.
March 23rd, 2010 at 8:41 am
I thought only sticks and stones could cause injury -
well, we writers know that’s not true. Sally’s finding a room of her own. I read a poet-blogger’s profile recently (a woman) that said: “I cut and paste.” Sometimes it’s like that, we snatch the words out of the world wherever we happen to find them.
March 23rd, 2010 at 6:45 pm
I thought it was clever and terrific, and then I started to overthink it. Saving and cleaning all those cutting words, then organizing them, gluing them to keep as memories… she will become a bitter epilogue.
March 24th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
I love it when writers make the figurative literal! Hopefully the words will get her out of her situation someday.
Very clever!
Cecilia