(FICTION)
She sits at her kitchen table, the clock tick-tick-ticking on the wall, and she stares at the blank sheet of paper before her. Her ballpoint pen poised but unaware of which words she needs to write—why can’t it decide for her, she wonders.
A letter. She knows this much. So begin with …
Dear Ava,
But what can come next?
She stares at the clock. 11:49. Ava will be home for lunch soon. And if the letter isn’t written? She can’t even contemplate that.
She gets up and pours herself the last cup of coffee from the pot and sits again. Picks up the pen. Tick-tick-tick.
She gazes out the window. There’s a cat in the back yard and it’s not her cat. It’s stalking something—probably a mouse. What would Ava say?
Probably, Oh look. A kitty. Let’s keep it!
No, Ava, she said in her imaginary conversation. We cannot keep that cat. And we cannot buy that car or that fancy house.
Dear Ava,
I gambled away all our money. I’m leaving you. It’s for the best.
I love you, though.
Always.
Ava.
The clock strikes 12:00. She prepares her lunch.
(Okay, yeah, that was weird. But what is true for me is that whether I write paranormal, comedy, horror, or anything else, it will almost always have something unexpected in it. Because that’s where my brain goes when I let it loose.)
Here are the JusJoJan Rules:
1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!
2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.
3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.
4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.
5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!
6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.
7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.
8. Have fun!
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January 16, 2021 at 4:43 pm
I like unexpected! Its awesome, great story! Xx
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January 11, 2021 at 9:26 pm
I never understood the urge to gamble, but I do understand writing a letter to oneself.
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January 15, 2021 at 7:41 am
Some of my best letters have been to me. 🙂
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January 15, 2021 at 9:00 pm
🙂 Mine, too.
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January 11, 2021 at 3:20 pm
I liked it. I bet more people than you realize have written a letter like that. 😉
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January 15, 2021 at 7:42 am
I’m sure they have. 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it!
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January 11, 2021 at 9:40 am
What’s wrong with keeping the reader guessing? Enjoyed it! 😀
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January 15, 2021 at 7:42 am
Thanks, Dora!
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January 11, 2021 at 9:00 am
Nope! I’m with you. That WAS weird but good!
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January 11, 2021 at 9:04 am
Thanks, Kim. 😀
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January 11, 2021 at 8:41 am
Personally Linda I love the way you write 💜
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January 11, 2021 at 9:04 am
Thanks, Willow. 🙂 ❤
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January 11, 2021 at 10:22 am
💜
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January 11, 2021 at 8:41 am
You can run, but you can’t hide. Very good little story, Linda. I like the way you’re handling this January.
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January 11, 2021 at 9:03 am
Thanks, Dan. Just doing the best I can with what I’ve got, time-wise and inspiration-wise.
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January 11, 2021 at 9:07 am
You make it work, and that’s pretty impressive.
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