The "ing-less" chat - constrained writing contest #22!

“It says ‘Write a story in which you never use the "-ing" form”, remarked Suzi. “That’s not go…” She was stopped in her tracks as she thought about the next word.
“A-h!” interjected Andy. “Well done. You should start from now and I know what you would’ve said just then. You need to say, “That will not be easy”. Also, it’s ‘suffix’, not ‘form’. Try and type it up first then correct it. That will be easiest”
“I just copied @svashta ‘s remit, hehe.” Suzi replied, and made sure that she reworded the sentence to avoid the ‘ing’ as she typed.

They laughed. Well not real laughs. Smiley face emoticons on WeChat.

This was the form of communication that they shared on a regular basis nowadays. Andy lived in China, Shanghai to be exact. Suzi lived in the U.K.

“I love these contests, but they can be very challen… er… can challenge me somewhat.” Suzi replied. “I came first last time and now I want more.” She sent a winkface in the next message.
“oooo….Well done. Send me the link” Came the short reply, then silence. No more messages.

Andy had obviously got busy again. Suzi sent the link to her last short story. The one that got her a first place. The one that made her feel like FINALLY someone read her work and appreciated it…apart from Andy of course. He always did both, and offered good criticisms too.
Andy was so clever and intellectual, and Suzi was very proud of him. He had grown into a fine young man, made his way across the world, by himself, and began a whole new life which was, to her (and him at first), completely alien. He had done his fair share of jobs where he taught English as a second language. He moved to better subjects, taught some more, wrote music (his first love at first) and thrived. He hiked the Annapurna Peaks for the adventure. He had lived in South Korea, Vietnam and now China for the past few years and Suzi missed him terribly. Conversely though, she encouraged him to stay away from the U.K. He would never have such a life as he had now. Opportunities are more restrictive, oddly enough. One would think that Communist China would hold back anyone who wanted to better themselves, but it wasn’t always the way and he found success in the strangest of ways.

Currently, Andy was a writer and curator on the Steemit platform and achieved enough to get by. Suzi did it for the challenge not the income but often deferred to his judgement.

“Oh” Moon got her bear.” Came a random comment some time later.
Suzi heard the familiar alert tone, looked and smiled.
The bear was a birthday gift from Suzi to Andy’s girlfriend. She was a lovely lass and very pretty. Suzi mused about the fact that Andy may one day marry or have a child (or both) and this woman would be his accomplice in that life choice. It was a pleasant thought.

“She called it Jelly” came the next message. “After the company that produced it ‘JellyCat’.”
“Different.” Replied Suzi. Her eyes glanced back at the PC screen in front of her.
“I must get on.” She replied, a thud in her heart as she wrote it. Suzi hated the end of conversations even though she knew he would be there again, on his phone or PC, on WeChat, just for the contact. All the same, 5000 miles distance seemed a lot worse than a couple of hundred and it nagged at her a lot, even after 8 years.
She put the thought back in its box and typed again.

“I have and ‘ing-less story to write. Plus housework etc. I can’t stop and chat ALL day”

They both sent happy faces via the chat and got on with their respective days.

‘I love my son.’ She mused as she began to type her story…..

SuzanRS

No INGS, son or mother were injured in the writing of this tale...