Workshop #3 Results

from July 30, 2015 (Sorry for the delay!) 

How many times have you opened a book and found yourself unable to get past the first chapter, page or sentence? Our July challenge was to write up to 250 words as an introduction to as story themed  "Boy Meets Girl". We then read our pieces to each other and commented on whether we would want to continue reading the story that would ensue from those beginning sentences. Here are some of the introductions we came up with - If the writer kept writing, would you be inclined to keep reading?

(1)

     Was it her long brown mane, carelessly bound by a glittery clip, that got his attention?  Or was it her scuffed red cowgirl boots with their worn-down heels?  Maybe it was the way she playfully bumped shoulders with her companion as they meandered through the Austin mall, or their animated chatter punctuated by giggles. It could have been her finely drawn profile, her jaunty gait, her diminutive stature, but really, it wasn't any of those things, enticing as they were. No, it was the fringe.

     The fringe on her suede vest was long and restless like a mare's tail, destined to be sat on when it wasn't swishing across her firm young waggling keyster. That wildly prancing fringe played hide and seek with the little rip in the skin-tight Levi's, under which lay a patch of pale cheek.

      He matched his steps to the fringe's rhythm, watched it sway this way and that. When she bent over to retrieve something from the floor, the fringe parted down the middle, as if commanded by Moses at the Red Sea. No panty lines marred those buns, none that he could see anyway. When she stood up, he sped up. A low wolf whistle escaped his lips. He slammed his nose into her fist when she abruptly spun around to glare at him.  "Back off, bucko! "

(2)

Tim Spotted the girl walking ahead of him in the same direction on the railroad tracks. She was wearing a white mini-skirt. She had long blond hair and was carrying a shoulder bag.

“Hello, how's it going?” Before she had a chance to say anything he continued to rattle off.

“My name is Tim and I think you are  a gorgeous chick. I saw you walking ahead of me in that sexy mini-skirt. I told myself I just couldn't pass you up." She didn't answer him and just kept on walking.

“Let me buy you a few drinks over at Hals bar and grill and we can loosen up,” he said as he continued to follow her.

She turned around and said,“I don't hang out with your type and I don't drink.” She continued on walking down the tracks.

He wasn't going to give up on her.

(3)

The woman in the mirror was wearing a hospital johnnie.  The bruised cheek, seamed brow, and haunted eyes belonged to someone else.  She looked old.  Elizabeth placed the palms of her hands on either side of her face, pulling her skin taut, and leaned into the mirror for a closer look.  Perhaps she could gain some insight into the situation if she could only disappear into the stranger’s gaze.

It had started out innocently enough.  Shared interests, meals, and simple kisses. 

There was nothing exceptional about dinner.  The food was plain and the conversation lackluster.  The trouble began with an insistent pounding on the front door.

“What the hell?  Who’s pounding on your door?” Michael asked.

“How am I supposed to know the answer to that?  I’m sitting here with you.”

“Well, answer the damn door and tell whoever’s out there to go away.”

Elizabeth moved to the door and as she opened it the intruder barreled through the doorway and into the apartment.  It was Gabriel.

“I told you I’d be back.  Well, here I am.  Is this the asshole?”

She blocked his path into the dining room.  “Get out.  NOW.  GO AWAY.”

Elizabeth’s vision winked out as her head hit the floor after Gabriel’s surprise blow.

She woke to find herself gazing into a stranger’s eyes in a hospital mirror.

(4)

The gazebo was the only place they could talk, alone.  New to each other, they spoke in tumbling,

overlapping words.  Laughing in mutual shyness, this, dissolving by the minute.  Minds syncing

with the mutual flow of thoughts, they held each others gaze and, after a short time, hands. 

The missing part to each others puzzle ...finally found.  Hearth to each others embers.  Boy and girl in

each others hearts.  Happiness with a partner ...comforting.   Too soon returned in their wheelchairs to

the nursing home.