This is my entry into Micro-fiction contest hosted by @Jayna.
Boundary Crosser
The phone rings.
Why respond to her message? Her worrying stresses me out.
The phone rings several times more before she picks up.
"Hello," she says as if waking from sleeping.
"Hello," I say in a flat, uninterested tone.
"Tristan!" She excitedly shouts. "I've been so worried about you."
"Hi."
I feel my rage, anger, and hostility bubbling up to the surface.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing." In the past, I've told you, but you don't want to hear what goes against your beliefs. "What's up? I got your message."
"Oh, okay. ... I want to ask you about Sherrie. Have you heard from your bro..."
"Really?!" I quickly respond with. "You know we don't talk about him. We've talked about this."
Are you kidding me!? You know he doesn't want you in his life and he doesn't want me telling you anything he's told me. Are you trying to mess up our relationship so that I'll never speak with you again? Is that it?
"Ya, but I just w..."
"I don't care." My demeanor is calm. "We don't talk about him or anything I've heard from him."
Hold your ground, Tristan, and keep your emotions in check. Blowing up at this person doesn't help me nor her.
A moment of silence passes. She's now crying on the other end.
Emotional manipulation tactics. Not today, mom. This must be a test to see how much I've learned from Taiji.
"I'm going to have to go," she says.
"Okay."
"I love you."
I hang up the phone, thinking will we ever be able to repair our relationship?
To Be Continued, maybe ...
[Photo is mine]
Some Vague Context
It was funny to me that the prompt this week was test because I literally just got off the phone with her and saw the prompt. In the past, I've completely lost my shit. Not cool, I know. I'm working on having a relationship with my brother and he doesn't want her in his life at all. I'm respecting that even though I don't agree with him on many points.
There are many problems when one doesn't resolve their own trauma before having children. One being that they most likely will pass on that trauma to their children and neglect to understand what that creates.
Please, get some help and work on yourself before bringing more people into this world if you are a trauma survivor.
The Body Keeps the Score is an excellent resource.
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Tools:
- The Most Dangerous Writing App - Continue typing or get a red screen.
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- List of 21 sites. Photos that you can use freely in your blog posts.
Ongoing Contests
twenty-four hour short story - You gotta be quick to get this one posted in time. He posts the contest on Sunday (usually) and ends it about 48 hours later. This contest has a 2000 word limit.
Finish the Story Contest - The contest begins on Wednesday (usually) and end 5 days later. This contest will test your write skills with something a little different each week. Pletty of time to write something around the 500 word mark.
Steem Monsters Common Card Fantasy Story Contest! - Coming out roughly every week. If you enjoy card games like Magic, Yugio, and others like it, you might like this game. Write a fictional tale about the card they present in the contest and your entry just might be the one they choose to showcase.
Tell A Story To Me, And Win 5 SBD! Writing Contest - Kind of random when it comes out but don't worry. You will have two weeks to complete your work of art from the given prompt. Have fun!
Haiku - These are coming out every couple days or so. If you stuggle with rhymes, no worries. Haikus don't have to rhyme. All you need to make a haiku is five syllable on the first, seven syllables in the second line, and again back to five syllable for the last line. So easy it makes me think I'm being super product. LOL
Mizu No Oto - Every Image Has Its Haiku Contest - By reading the title, you should be able to guess how this haiku contest works. You're given an image and you write. I've really enjoy this contest because there are people here who've actually gone to classes to learn how to write haiku's; so if you want, you also can learn how to write quality haikus from reading the comments and critiques they and others give.
Micro-Fiction Writing Contest - This is a fun challenge. You get two-hundred and fifty words to tell a story or a vignettes. Here is a great post that will explain the difference between the two concepts. Here is another post explanation of what a story is. Good luck, Brave Story Writer!
Vocab-Ability 1x1 - What happens is you are given a list of roots and the words they can be found in. You create sentence using those words and post in the comment section of the post. Your upvote for your creative work will come soon. One of the best way to increase your vocabulary is by doing these 10-15 minute exercises almost daily. What craziness will you create?