Introducing a tetrad of Creative Copy Challenge goodies. Check out #389 and #390.

Trying to stump us by upping the game. Bring it!

CCC is a word prompt site. The challenge words are in bold.

Enjoy!

(By the way – tetrad is a group or set of four).

Creative Copy Challenge #387

The sun slapped the bald landscape with cruel intent. A lone cactus braced against an assault its farsighted life had not imagined. Pursuing a destiny that no one would notice.

The touch of rain was a distant memory as dust turned into a baked patchwork of suffering. A spiral of deepening cracks created a band of despair, oblivious to passing time. The desert held no pretense. Relief was not in the plan.

Creative Copy Challenge #388

Gazing out the cottage window, Gladys Jones smiled at the neighbor’s cat as it tucked its head to silence the collar’s bell. Despite its clever approach, the robin took flight moments before the cat could pounce.

As a dedicated ailurophile, Gladys found her allergy to cats to be a cruel twist of fate. Oh well, she sighed. At least it kept her from becoming the silly old neighbor with the market on kitty litter.

She spent her days gazing out that window. Her past began to conflate in jumbled memories, the denouement of a happy life. Charles had passed nearly twenty-five years ago and she wondered where the time had gone. Her effervescent youth trapped in a body that betrayed the child inside with a forbearance she did not understand.

Oh how she missed Charles. The mere thought sent her heart in a gambol beat. Twenty-two years they shared. His death was a harbinger to a different life, one that would imbue her soul with grief. She would always miss him but sweet memories lifted her back to life.

It was as if she heard his whispered encouragement that day she applied at the Blue Lagoon Bar & Grill. She and Charles had not been blessed with children, which left them free to travel the world. Charles had planned it all. The idea of applying for a job scared the bejeesus out of her.

She worked there twenty-three years. One more year than her life with Charles. He would have been so proud.

“I’ll see you soon, my love.”

Creative Copy Challenge #389

If you cannot conquer the challenge, you are only a moiety of the writer I thought you were. What is the worst that could happen? You create a mondegreen moment for the listeners of your words? Your keyboard explodes in onomatopoeia clacking?

Relax. The challenge is a panacea for a ho-hum world. It offers the quintessential joy of the written word. Yes, meaning may ravel in sempiternal confusion, a talisman to a sound we struggle to pronounce.

While some will find this an untoward response, others will smile with a vestigial twinkling of understanding.

Creative Copy Challenge #390

His face held the woebegone look of someone who lost his best friend. And indeed he had. Jonathan just wished he had the wherewithal to do something about it.

Max was a shelter rescue dog. Jonathan connected with Max the moment their eyes met, the wafture of Max’s tail sending a cheery hello. They were inseparable, Max often resting his head within the umbrella embrace of Jonathan’s arms, dreaming of great adventures.

Dreams were all Jonathan had left. He saw them racing across green pastures, the tintinnabulation of Max’s dog tags heralding their arrival. The ripple from a tossed pebble dancing along the river’s shore. Here there were no threats. Here was just a boy and his dog.

Theirs was a powerful propinquity. Max protected Jonathan against his nemesis neighbor who loved to bully, except when Max was around. Who would guard him now?

Who would run down to the river’s shore or comfort him in his time of need? Who would lounge with him under the large maple tree as the mellifluous sound of a winter wren lulled them both to sleep?

Inside the lithe body of a boy with silent tears was a heart aching for all he lost.

=================

Live…Laugh…Love