Five Word Contest

[Livz2Write]

Fat
Purple
Barn
Lawyer
Token


This is what is called a five word contest. The rules are very simple. Contestants must write a one shot - a story between 501 and 1,000 words in length - that contains each of the five words above at least once. There is no set theme for your story, as long as you use each word. This can not be a fan fiction. It must be an original fiction. Be sure to BOLD or change the color of the above words in your entry so that they can easily be spotted. Word count and use of words will be checked to ensure rules have been followed. You may enter more than once if you wish. Post your entries to this thread with the following heading for each:

Title:
Rating (nothing over a PG-13!):
Warnings:
Genre:
Word Count:

Entries must be posted before midnight CST on August 7, 2010.

[leahsm2]

Title: A Perfect Summer’s Day
Rating (nothing over a PG-13!): G
Warnings: None
Genre: Original Fiction
Word Count: 779

Amanda stood on the small dock, which teemed with people, anxiously waiting for the ferry to appear. Every other year, she had savored these moments, sitting on a small bench slightly apart, sipping her coffee and smoking her cigarette and watching the crowd. She liked to look at her fellow vacationers and wonder what sort of summer they were planning, nodding from time to time to those she knew. But, today, they felt annoying.

She stood in the midst of the young people, who had obviously managed to divvy up the cost of one of the cottages located on the livelier edge of the island. She watched as the smart young men sipped warily from their flasks, while the attractive young women sized each other up, fitfully wondering if the layers of fat which had begun settling on their thighs through the dormancy of a winter spent at desk jobs had succumbed to a regimen of step classes and tasteless meals adopted much too late into the spring. It made Amanda’s eyes mist up painfully, looking at the doubt that lay behind their obvious beauty. She wished she could offer them a word of encouragement, but she knew that, to them, she was about as relevant as the seagulls scavenging for popcorn on the ground below.

Finally, the ferry appeared and Amanda took her place in the loosely forming line behind a family of three young children being corralled by a harried young mother. She watched, bemused, as the woman attempted to usher them along, amid the scuffles and pinches that each inflicted upon the other, until the smallest one came to a dead stop, refusing to be moved.

“But, mummy,” she whimpered, “I’ve lost a flip flop.”

Amanda stifled the irritation she felt rising within her, and joined the embarrassed younger woman in searching for the errant piece of rubberized foam. She reached down and retrieved the sparkly purple footwear and gave it to the sniveling child, who looked at Amanda in deep mistrust, as the mother nodded her thanks and handed her tickets to the man at the edge of the boat.

~*~

Amanda awoke with a start. The raised voices of the middle-aged couple that had seemed so tranquil when she had carefully chosen a seat in a shaded portion of the ferry located in the bottom section next to the parked cars, had broken the spell of the calming rocking of the water mixed with the sweltering heat of the early summer morning. She attempted to act as if she didn’t notice the obvious hostility by searching the horizon for her favorite landmark of the island, a barn that sat perilously close to the sea. Unfortunately, the ferry was still too far from land for any buildings to be visible, but she wondered, as she always did on this journey, why the farmer of a few centuries past had found this to be a viable place to raise livestock. She stared, willing herself to mute out the distraction of the angry discussion beside her, until finally she saw the familiar red building jutting inexplicably near to the sea.

~*~

The lawyer, whom Jack had hired early on in their marriage and had been a part of all of the births, deaths, and significant purchases in Amanda’s life ever since, stood stoically on the edge of the debarkation gate. He ushered her into the small coffee shop beside the wharf, and helped her into a vacant booth, ordered their coffee and opened an overstuffed manila folder. He pointed to paragraphs and gave her a pen to sign her name at the various spots neatly highlighted. Amanda pretended to pay attention, but couldn’t as they were only feet from the barn.

In all of the years her family had spent summering on the island, she had never stopped this near to it before. It seemed odd to her that on this, what would likely be her last time here, she was sitting so close. The lawyer put the paperwork back into its folder and began explaining the intricacies of the auction of her family’s summerhouse, but Amanda couldn’t hear him. All she heard was the distraught mewing coming from inside the barn. Amanda stood up and hurried towards the sound, ignoring the protests of the bewildered lawyer. She scooped up the kitten, which had a coat strangely blotted with both stripes and spots, and held it gently as its protests turned to purrs. He was the perfect token for her to remember the most important parts of her life, which had slowly unfolded on this small island, as long and as fleeting as any perfect summer’s day.