fiction

Waiting

Sally

Waiting.

How many word games can I play while waiting?

Got Wordle in 4. Typical.

Connections: yellow, purple, blue, green. No mistakes.

Crossword Mini: 56 seconds. Under a minute, but, dang, not much under a minute.

Dordle. Quordle. Septordle.

Sheesh. My back hurts from hunching over this phone.

I’m tired of these games — in more ways than one.

I walk over and check the monitors. Again. Nothing is arriving at 10:45 AM. Why did he give me that time?

It’s 11:15 now. The next arrival is noon. A few folks have trickled in to wait.

Stupid games. Stupid waste of time.

I should just leave. I should go for a walk. I should call him.

No. Way.

I am NOT going to call.

“Be there at 10:45,” he had said. It’s 11:22 now.

Scroll. Scroll. Scroll.

I’ve looked at everything on my phone 27 times.

The ball is in his court. I did my part. I’m here. He needs to show up.

Or call.

Good golly — why doesn’t he call?

It’s 11:28.

I look. A few more people have trickled in.

A guy gets out a guitar and starts strumming.

Another guy pulls bongo drums from his bag. I kid you not. Bongo drums. He starts playing.

A girl pulls out a whistle and starts playing.

Wait — I know that song.

A fiddle starts.

In he walks. Singing to me, “Will you marry me, lassie, at the Kirk o’ Birnie Bouzle?”

I start to cry.

“Sorry, I’m late,” he said.

Okay, okay — I know it wouldn’t be a guitar, but a bouzouki. And it wouldn’t be bongos but a bodhrán. A tin whistle — yes.

Honestly, I didn’t know where I was going with the story. Those really are word games that I play on my phone. I started writing about them — and the boredom of waiting.

Then about 223 words in, that song popped into my head. I kid you not.

Edit. Edit. Edit. Here’s what you get: 250 words of a marriage proposal that almost didn’t happen.

My response to the Unicorn Challenge — no more than 250 words based on the photo.

Here’s The Corries’ version of the song:

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Published by Sally

20 thoughts on “Waiting”

    1. You’re my biggest cheerleader! I would never consider myself a fiction writer, but it is fun to just start writing not knowing where the story is headed and allowing it to arrive somewhere. 🙂

      Reply

    1. I just started playing Strands. My favorites are Wordle and Connections. I play them first thing in the morning to wake up my brain!

      Reply

      1. I used to play Spelling Bee but it took too much time. Now I do Connections and Strande. Like you, first thing in the morning.

      2. My brother spent HOURS playing Spelling Bee. He HAD to make it to Queen Bee every day. Then he learned that words that may be recognized one day may not be recognized the next. That just made him mad. I think he still plays but limits his time on it.

    1. There’s this secret hope I have that I will someday actually witness one of these not-really-impromptu surprise public performances.

      Reply

  4. ain’t that the fun of this kind of writing? i.e. words…words… separate with grammar…words…is that a paragraph…. words

    …wait a minute!! what did she/they just do!??!

    there it is!! the story!

    Reply

    1. You understand!! I think that’s why I keep coming back to this week after week. It’s so fun to see where a story will go!

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  8. I thought for a moment you’d had a camera in my house – I use the same puzzles!
    What a fun – and romantic – story it turned out to be, but you had me frustrated and annoyed along with your MC, and thinking some pretty harsh thoughts about ‘him’!
    That was clever and fun and perfectly crafted.

    Reply

  9. This is great. I love it. You mention that you weren’t sure where your story was going, but it ended up in a good place. Love the song too.

    Reply

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