Entries, Featured, Like a Ton of Bricks: Entries
I’ll stay on the bus, forget about us
Nov
and I’ll just let it be, if I don’t see cliche on the old oak tree!
Ah! Literati! The pump is being primed!
I’m beginning to feel my old self again! (though could use a little help with that! Interns are on break)
Salvatore Buttaci has paid his fare and just got off the bus! Our contest Like a Ton of Bricks continues. You know, run your cliches up a flagpole and see who salutes. But the story must be a conversation on a bus.
He is Sal Buttaci’s take on the contest:
TILL HELL FREEZES OVER
by Sal Buttaci
Rosie takes three brisk steps up onto the 32 Nutley bus. The door whooshes shut behind her.
“A blast from the past!” This from Phil Smalls, nodding towards the seat across from him, the only empty one left.
Rosie sits down, then cuts to the chase. “The shoe’s on the other foot now. I’m free as a bird.”
“Come on, Rosie. Who wrote the Book of Love?”
“You made your bed, Phil.”
Let’s lie in it, Sweetie Pie.”
“Don’t hold your breath.”
“Rosie, I’m still carrying a torch.”
“Cry me a river.”
All eyes rivet on the two. Phil high-fives the crowd.
“Pipe down!” Rosie says, but Phil’s lips won’t zip.
“It’s all cool,” he says. “We’re two peas in a pod.”
“More like ‘three sheets to the wind.’”
“For crying out loud, I don’t booze anymore!”
Rosie bites her lip.
“We’re beating a dead horse, Phil.”
Central Avenue.
Her 32nd Street is two stops away.
“We tried twice,” she said.
“Third time’s a charm.”
Summit Street.
“You lie through your teeth.
“Phil, you really love me? Set me free!”
“Listen, Rosie.”
32nd Street.
Rosie yanks the stop cord and doesn’t look back.
Home is where the heart is.
Salvatore Buttaci has been writing and seeing his work in print since 1957. He currently has two collections of short-short stories published by All Things That Matter Press. Flashing My Shorts and 200 Shorts are available in book and Kindle editions at http://www.kindlegraph.com/authors/sambpoet
Sal lives in West Virginia with his wife Sharon.
Bumping into your ex on the bus…oh, that’s not awkward at all! That guy certainly was on a roll, but was it whole wheat or kaiser? LOL
Very buttered, Stars! They say a roll is a roll, but I was never one to fall for that. I once played a role in Darkness at Noon and got so wrapped up in my roll (a Russian wry) as Rubishov I broke a table with my fist. (I was 24 then when my fists worked well. Now at triple that age, bending my fingers is a monumental exercise. The guy on the bus would’ve been better off eating a roll and have a hot cup of Starbucks and keeping his cliche mouth shut!
She really had him between a rock and a hard place. Poor guy. Nice creative twist.
Kyle, love is like that. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And sometimes you’re smart enough to see a loss as a huge gain. Thanks for your comments.
Hey Sal! Keep tilling those fields and get in from the rain. Loved it!
T, thanks! Writing for all of us is a pleasure hard to explain. Sharing the fruits of that pleasure makes it all the more fun.
Wonderful job, Sal. I really appreciate how you were able to string the cliche’s together in a way that they all made sense and fit together.
Great work, as always.
I love Thorn’s challenges as I am sure we all do. And I appreciate your kind remarks.
Love it!
Thanks, Ken. Right now I am working (in my head) a plot for the Christmas story to read on IT MATTERS next month. Once I have all the scenes in order, I’ll be pecking away at the keys to flashdom.
Well, Sal, I’m glad she didn’t tell him to BEAT IT. He might have taken that wrong! Another great one from the great one. Keep ’em comin’.
Beat it? This flasher is not a flasher, Gl!
Thorn, I’m glad you’re about done with your new monia. What was wrong with the old one? Or is it new mania?