Category: Uncategorized

Joe started out with a regular workout, running on the treadmill to warm up, a few weights to improve muscle strength and then various gym machines. He didn’t mind it and his girlfriend encouraged him along the way. Joe wanted to impress her and was tired of her eyeing the other men on their dates in public.

As his intense sessions to get larger and more fit, he was not satisfied with the results. A fellow at the gym came up to him. “I see how hard you’ve been working but I don’t see a lot of improvement. I wonder if you’d like to try this secret formula I’ve designed to build muscle faster. Joe’s first thought, steroids and he was not into that! The man said, “I know what came to mind by the look on your face, steroids…right? This is my formula and contains no steroids, believe me!”

Joe did believe him and decided to try it. It was an ordinary looking tablet to be taken with juice in the morning before his workout. Every day he looked for changes but it was slow and discouraging. He started taking two pills in the morning.

Joe’s relationship with his girlfriend started to change as she noticed Joe’s body was becoming more hairy. At first it didn’t bother her and then she noticed changes in his face and jaw. She spoke to him about it but he ignored her. It seemed Joe couldn’t recognize the changes and worked harder than ever to improve his body.

This day Joe was turned away from the gym and the look on the manager’s face was weird. “I think you need to see a doctor, Joe, and don’t come back here till you do.”

Joe went home and looked at himself in the mirror not seeing anything different, but his girlfriend entered the bathroom and her face turned pale. He had been anxious to see her because she had been on a business trip for ten days. Suddenly she ran back to the bedroom, grabbed her bag and left.

Joe was mystified at her actions. What was wrong with these people? He grabbed a coke out of the fridge, went out of the house and sat on the stone edge of the pond. A large muscled man came up to him. “You took the formula too? I can see that you did, and I did too. Funny when we look in the mirror we can’t see it but everyone else can. He sat down beside Joe and they talked. “It will wear off in a few months if you stop taking the pills, I promise. It took me six months to get back to normal.”

***

No Theme Thursday (03/07/24)

The current week prompts writers to choose from 24 forms or explore St. Patrick’s Day symbolism, using kigo words.

***

Gogyohka usually contains five lines, but could have four or six lines. Gogyohka has no restraints on the number of words or syllables used. No title and no rhyming.

***

March winds drift light spring snow

the first tulips pop up in green grasses

buds of all colors wave in that wind

leprechauns dash and sit behind

four leaf clovers hidden in the garden

***

https://tankatuesday.com/

All you ever talk about is money, how I spend it, how there’s no savings, and I wish we could sit down and build a budget we could both live with. Every time I try to save by lessening the potted meals, you complain it’s pure rubbish. I think your dream sense is in a practical shape it needs to be. Either I get another job or you do and then maybe you will be able to sit down and enjoy the surf and turf meals you like.

MLMM Wordle #363

What do you see # 229

Share Your World 11th March

One of his poems that especially talks to me, is one called “After someone’s death”  Selecting a line I wanted to avoid the most obvious and well-known lines and went for this:

all of the names swallowed up by the cold

By Swedish Nobel Laureate Tomas Tranströmer. 

Which I believe will be a versatile line to use in your prosery. The challenge is:
Write a piece of prose of no more than 144 words (or if you want exactly 144 words)  that includes the given line. You may change it with line breaks, punctuation but you have to keep the order of the words.

***

Standing near newly mounted dark soil, I automatically reach for the hand of my husband, but he is not there. He is far away caring for our three children. By my father’s side I am remembering other relatives, and “all of the names swallowed up by the cold” come rushing to my mind. I console my father as much as I can while keeping myself tear free and strong. I hold him close during the funeral trying not to sob. I had let my voice explode in the hospital room but now I had to be in control, concentrating on my father. At night, alone in the bedroom is when I secretly grieve my mom.

***

Prosery – Tomas Tranströmer

Better Off

https://rugby843.blog

The Peter, Paul and Mary version was released as a single in 1969 and became their only No. 1 on the Billboard Top 100. It was also their last hit record and the only version of “Leaving on a Jet Plane” that ever charted. Songwriter: John Denver

https://rugby843.blog

https://rugby843.blog

Rules of the hop:
Write 6 Sentences. No more. No less.
Use the current week’s prompt word.
Link up at Wednesday’s post. Link goes live at 6:00 pm through Saturday late…
Spread the word and put in a good one to your fellow writers.

PROMPT WORD:  REMOTE

***

Sue sat lazily on her sunny patio listening to the loud traffic of the city and her mind wandered. She always wanted a hideaway cabin in a remote mountain area. It was part of a dream to first find a lover who wanted the same and the two of them would live happily after…(Sue’s mind started drifting, as usual)…well maybe not happily…living remotely meant no social life, no food delivery, no internet or phone service and no close medical help if needed.

Sue began to realize what living remotely entailed. Her vision disintegrated and she got up, walked into the elevator to the parking garage of her condo, slipped into her Mercedes and drove to the McDonalds drive through. The traffic continued to hum and Sue sighed.

***

Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt!