Mom's Cousin Lenna #13 - Day 620 - Freewrite Prompt: Metal Butterfly
It's been two weeks since I last visited Rory and DeLorean! My latest idea was to just write random scenes, in no particular order, rather than try to follow a prompt while continuing where I left off in the previous scene.
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"So you came here looking
to trade me your burgundy van for something else," Rory said.
"I came here first of all to see my mom's cousin Lenna, now that Mom is dead. I've just gotten out of a hospital myself, and a pesky nurse named Sandy has caused me to reexamine my life. I've been road-tripping and thought I might find a moment's rest here, but your idea of hospitality is aiming a gun at visitors, so I will just get out of here now."
"In that god-awful burgundy van?"
DeLorean shrugged. "I was thinking vintage motor home, but you're no help, so I'll be on my way."
"I can get you swapped out."
He was maddening, that lean, hard, sun-bronzed little man with the piercing Arizona-sky eyes.
"You haven't given me a clue where your mama might be."
His turn to shrug. "She walked into the desert for another one of her 72-hour fasts, and she hasn't come back yet."
He was looking at her torso again, as if fasting were something she were direly in need of. As if on cue, her stomach rumbled. "Maybe I'll pitch a tent in some canyon nearby, or some arroyo, or whatever you got, and come back when I'm twenty pounds lighter."
She had been fasting, more or less, for days. Just not intentionally, or with "intentionality." She must have lost ten pounds by now, but she had ten more to go. At least.
Outside the trailer, goats were bleating. Reminding her to take up yoga too, and clear her head, and liberate her torso of excess baggage, as well as her mind.
Another one of Lenna's trinkets caught her eye. A metal butterfly. It looked hand-welded from scrap automotive metal, like something Rory might have made. The ironic metal creature clung to the side of a pole lamp.
"You make that?" she said with a nod toward the sculpture. Rory grunted an affirmative. "I like it. If you had extras and they could be mounted sturdy enough, I'd buy one as a hood ornament."
"You don't have a hood." Of course, he didn't bother to thank her for the compliment.
"Maybe I should ditch the van, drive to the Rio Grande, and get a houseboat. I could live anywhere."
Ol' blue-eyes just blinked at her.
"Maybe you could sell me a mini-goat to accompany me. Me and a goat on a boat. Ha!"
"You sound just like Maw," he said. No smile, no sign that he realized she was trying to make light of things and maybe even get a smile out of him. Fat chance of that; she couldn't get anything out of him but cryptic comments.
"How long ago did you last see your mom, anyway?
His Adam's apple bobbed. "Longer than I care to tell."
Five Minutes Flew By
Day 620 - Freewrite Prompt: Metal Butterfly
Rory was a distant cousin...not someone she would visit if not for the invisible DNA they had in common. The fact of being alone in a trailer in the middle of nowhere with weird cousin Rory suddenly made her feel short of breath. DeLorean had never fainted in all her life, nor suffered a panic attack, but she just might, if she thought of how far she had come from Dwayne and how near she put herself to a certifiable lunatic.
No landline. No internet. No way anyone would find her here, nor even think to look for her here.
Day 620 - Freewrite Prompt: Metal Butterfly
Thank you for reading!
Part One: She Came in through the Kitchen Window - Day 577: 5 Minute Freewrite: Monday - Prompt: window
Part Two: "You Little Tart" - Day 585: 5 Minute Freewrite: Tuesday - Prompt: tart
Part Three: Day 588: 5 Minute Freewrite: Friday - Prompt: rodeo
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-588-5-minute-freewrite-friday-prompt-rodeo
Part Four: Mom's Cousin Lenna the Tart - Part 3 or 4 -Day 591: 5 Minute Freewrite: Monday - Prompt: Rule
Part Five: Mom's Cousin Lenna the Lunatic
Part Six: Mom's Cousin Lenna, Part Six-ish - Day 595: 5 Minute Freewrite: Friday - Prompt: trot
Part Seven: Batter My Heart - Mom's Cousin Lenna, Part 7 - Day 598 :5 Minute Freewrite: Monday - Prompt: Batter
Part Eight: Mom's cousin Lenna + Rory, Part 8, Day 599: 5 Minute Freewrite: Tuesday - Prompt: yoga
Part Nine: Mom's Cousin Lenna, Part 9 - Day 602: 5 Minute Freewrite: Prompt: show me the way home
Part Ten: Mom's Cousin Lenna - Day 605: 5 Minute Freewrite: Prompt: moving to the city
Part Eleven: Mom's Cousin Lenna - Day 606: 5 Minute Freewrite Prompt: nap
Part Twelve: Mom's Cousin Lenna - Day 607: Prompt: Hippo
Check Out The @FreeWriteHouse Prompt Of The Day By @MarianneWest
Deranged pipsqueak Rory is certainly a mine of information
It’s the Wednesday prompt delivery duo here with the thorny prompt for today:
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-621-5-minute-freewrite-wednesday-prompt-stone-rose
I think I need a metal butterfly hood ornament now! This was another fabulous installment in the great saga of whatever happened to Lenna! I really like Rory; he's a bit of a jerk, but just the right amount of jerk. Very nicely done!
You're so sweet!!!! I love your reactions to these characters. :)
Sorry I've been off the freewrite train for a while. I hit a low ebb. I'll get back to it. Hopefully the big family weekend will provide creative fodder!
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I always love whatever you write - whether it's nonfiction about your goats, or the crazy characters that flow in your freewrites! Happy Independence Day weekend!
You too! Have a great weekend!
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🏆 Hi @carolkean! You have received 0.1 STEEM reward for this post from the following subscribers: @wandrnrose7 @redheadpei
Subscribe and increase the reward for @carolkean :) | For investors.
Nice chapter. If I can find the time I would love to read the rest.
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Thanks @dkkarolien and @wakeupkitty!
Good to read you again 💕
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I wonder what is the color of the sky in Arizona
To me it's a vivid blue 360 days out of 365 - but I've never lived there :)
That's what established cultural stereotype do to people. :)
Yeah, that and "Arizona Highways" magazine, and every time I've ever been in Arizona, no matter how many days, the sky was that forever blue, cloudless, vivid, vast. Here in the Midwest, we have as many shades of blue as Eskimos (Aleutians?) have words for snow.
I loved this, it really sucked me in and you do such a good job painting a perfect picture of the scene. Now to go back and read about who they all are!
I feel bad for everyone who vows to go back to Part One and read more... and that tells me I need to work harder to pull this together into a whole, complete story with a plot that builds inexorably to finding Lenna. Thank you for reading and commenting!
Don't feel bad! This was fantastic as a standalone piece too, I just want more (and haven't been keeping up with reading freewrites).
No matter how I try, I can't keep up with all the Freewriters, either - not even the list of favorites once a week! The serialized stories are the hardest for me - the back and forth, the toggling to get from one chapter to the next. It's just not user friendly. If I can read it one big document on my Kindle, it'll get read.
*Thank you for reading and for your kind words!!
This makes me wonder how hard it would be to make a site people can easily cross-publish their completed serialized stories to so that they'd work with the Calibre FanFicFare plug-in. It allows users to generate an epub or mobi file from a url. I use it for stuff that's too long to read online, where applicable. I guess authors could just find a suitable fanfic adjacent site on the current list and add it there manually.
I get lost in your descriptions! I love how you put us in the scene so smoothly. I adored Arizona-blue eyes!
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Thank you so much!!
It appears I must have burned through the @tipu funds - no longer do I see that disclaimer in every post about me subscribing. Hmmm. Just add more funds....?
Yes, I will have to add some more funds soon, too @Carolkean!
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