The words for the challenge this time are:

knocked, tourists, ride, intrude, and doubled.

Here's how the challenge works:  If you are not already there, go to the group 5 word challenge.  Post a writing of any kind which includes, in bolded letters, the five words highlighted above.  This can be a story, poetry, memory, essay...whatever.  The only rule is that it must include these 5 words within the body.

Use this exercise to stretch your writing muscles.

In a week or so, a new challenge will be posted.

Good writing!

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Tommy had bad breath. He didn’t know it. The day he found out was one he would never forget.

He had been enjoying the day with a girl that was his friend. Lisa. Ah, Lisa. She had the most beautiful hair and Tommy swore her eyes sparkled like glitter. They were at the movies when Tommy felt that sensation in his stomach. He leaned in to give her a kiss. But not just any kiss. It was his first kiss ever.

“Um. Do you have gum or something?” Lisa asked.

Tommy was embarrassed. He started brushing his teeth after that.

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In a few hours-The city of Sydney Australia will turn off its lights for Earth Hour, beginning what will hopefully be a very large ripple effect around the planet of city after city doing the same. So today I am changing all my websites to black and grey in honor of Earth hour. The black web colors use less screen energy and symbolize the efforts at the same time. I encourage you to do the same. Have an awesome earth hour. Help save the planet.

On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund.

Earth Hour was created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and in one year has grown from an event in one city to a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America will participate, including the US flagships–Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco and Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

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This week’s 5 words are rabbit, craving, wicked, fortunate and amplifier.  Enjoy !

Pooty Madness

Hungry

Hungry

He realized he was hungry

Wicked craving for rabbit

Soft, fluffy, delectable white rabbit

T-shirts

Drove the madness that propelled him through the aisles of Wal-Mart

America’s favorite discount store

He’d just toppled the stacks of t-shirts in the seasonal aisle at the Walgreens down the block.  A regular pillage as he’d at first gently ruffled the carefully folded garments, all precisely placed by Polly, the white-haired, soft-skinned great grandmother who truly believed any job worth doing was a job worth doing right, but that gentle prodding had soon degraded to pulling the piles apart and slinging the cast offs aside in his mad search for the perfect reproduction of Pooty, the soft, white pet rabbit of his youth. 

Polly, after witnessing the best demonstration of insanity she’d seen in a good long while, stood slack-jawed in bewilderment and thought who was going to clean up this mess because she wasn’t about to miss her break.  She really had to pee.

“Welcome to Wal-Mart” boomed the amplifier overhead.  Welcome to chaos was more like it.  Why was he here?  Didn’t he hate this place?  Too much chaos, too-close aisles that made a body feel trapped like so much cattle flooded through a chute only to be delivered into the cotton candy aisle which only reminded him of his hunger and what he couldn’t have because sugar was the enemy.  It muddled his thinking and all.

Pooty, Pooty, Pooty!  That’s why he was here.  He was looking for Pooty!  So much so that he pursed his lips and started making the poot sound as he chugged through the aisles looking wildly right and left.  “Poot, poot, poot, poot.”  A four-year old dropped the bag of Reese’s Pieces he’d just ripped open and shrugged back toward his distracted, pig-tailed, tattooed mother as his 13-month old sister let loose a slurpy giggle accompanied by fistfuls of fingers covered by oodles of teething juice.  He didn’t even notice the crunch of Reece’s Pieces underfoot.

Left, right, left, right, “Welcome to Wal-Mart!”  God, he hated this place…a person’d have to be half crazy to even consider shopping at Wal-Mart…although it caught his eye just as he’d looked up to curse the booming voice overhead.  Suspended above “our price only 9.99” and corral full of hundreds exactly the same was Pooty.  Letting loose a long sigh of relief, he considered himself most fortunate.

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The wind was kind of bitey up there so she pulled her corduroy jacket closer, cinched the belt tighter, and resisted the urge to shiver while she dangled her legs over the edge and gazed into the alley below, littered like her memory with the refuse of life.

First one word, then another…she pulled a fistful out of her bag and untangled them from each other.  Some were woolly, some well worn, some stiff and wiry, and others dirty and downright wormy.  She dropped them one by one as she watched them flutter and grasp for handholds, then ultimately succumb to the gravity to which all things eventually surrender.

Doomed she thought, those words were.  Once so hopeful and lively, they had twittered and tumbled through the landscape of her booming and rustling imagination.

Then there was that noise.  It wasn’t coming from the words.  It wasn’t a word noise.  Too soft and clucking to be one of her word noises.  Then came the flutters out of the corner of her eye, white and lively.  It was too soon for angels.  She was still here hovering above a dirty alley, alone in the wind, alone in the world.

Pigeons? Pigeons!!  White-winged, grey-headed pigeons with curious, hopeful eyes, trust-me eyes, we-want-to-see-what-you’ve-got eyes.

Curious

Of course pigeons, wasn’t there pigeon poop all over the place?  They landed on the ledge and gazed curiously into her lap.  The words…they were after the words!  Despite the gloom that gripped her, she laughed and carelessly slung self-hatred into the wind. One pigeon hopped and swooped and snapped up self-hatred like a juicy June bug, while another leaped and flapped in eager anticipation of another word release.  Giggling with unexpected glee, she tossed regret, hopelessness, and heartache, and then flung fear as far as she could.  By then pigeons were diving and darting everywhere, so she tossed the whole lot into the wind as she watched the wormiest twist and tumble, ignored by her feathered cohorts.  It bounced once and barely bounced again when the fattest rat she’d ever seen seized despair and drug it off with decided determination.

By then the sun had come out and the wind wound up.  Squinting, she lifted her face toward the warmth and decided it was worth it after all.

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As you can see from this week's 5 Word Challenge, Inspiration fell off the back of the truck and was subsequently run over by a semi pulling a trailer full of cattle.

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During the move the inspiration fell off the back of the truck.  It bounced a few times and got obliterated by a semi pulling a trailer full of cattle.  Gone and busted to boot, Amanda thought she might as well kiss it goodbye and undress Hope.  After all, hadn't she already learned that pretty party dresses were never meant for girls like her?

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That's right !!  Your words have been put to use !!!  Hopefully you'll think they were put to good use !!  Thanks so much to everyone who participated in my creative experiment.  I linked your blogs to your suggestions to make them easier to find, and also so you can learn more about each other.  You've all made this so much fun for me.  So, without futher ado, here's the story I promised you !!

Prestidigitation

"Prestidigitation !!! I swear….that’s exactly what it was !!! I can’t stand that guy, but you’ve got to admit he’s got some awesome fine fingers.  Oooooooo, Honey !!  I’d like to get next to some of that !!  That man is all kinna FINE !!”

Oh – My – God!  The things people say to their cell phones while paying for their groceries.  You’d think they’d have some sense of privacy or even just a sliver of respect for the people around them… There was that guy having flagrant phone sex right there on the bus for God’s sake. But then again, he wasn’t really doing anything....just talking….and she had to admit he had a great voice.  Kind of hoarse and low and sultry smooth all at the same time…

Oh, Crap!!!  She dropped the prawns!! One fell out. One lonely prawn there on the floor.  What was she supposed to do with it?  She hadn't paid so she couldn't very well pick it up and shove it in her pocket.

It was hard.  It was cold.  And it was real.  “Bitch, I’m not shittin' you.  I’ll bust a cap in your head sure as you’re standin' here.  Now we’re gonna walk out together…you, me, this bank bag, and my buddy, Mr. Nine Mil.”

The gun against her neck hurt and she could feel his hot, excited breath puffing on her face just as she noticed the electronic bank sign across the street flash 6:25.  6…2…5...it was June 25th.  6:25 on 6/25.

Sweat rolled down the back of her leg.  Where was her life?  Wasn’t it supposed to be flashing in front of her? All she could think about was Millie Moo’s sweet face…..Who was gonna snorgle Miss Millie Moo Muffin?  How had this day gone so amok?

By now he had snaked his other hand across her body.  She looked down at his pale fingers as she willed her feet to start moving. His breath had that odd smell.  Where had she smelled that smell before?  Kind of like the clove and honey cough syrup from the alchemist shop in her grandmother’s village in Sardinia. 

There it was, tattooed on his right wrist; the number was beginning to mesmerise….625.  Serendipity…isn’t that what they called it, serendipity?  What was the deal with 625? 

She was beginning to shake.  More precisely, he was beginning to shake…hard.  The rush of blood roaring in her head was reaching a crescendo.  His grip started to loosen.  She thought she heard sniffing.  No!  She knew she heard sniffing.  He was crying!  And she thought she was having a bad day!   Slowly, she found his tattooed wrist, stroked the inch-high numbers, then slid her hand over his and gave it a reassuring squeeze. 

He whispered “I’m so sorry,” as he pulled away, stumbled, and ran out the door. The paperback at the checkout said “Learn 1,000 Words in Just 30 Seconds. On top of the list was defenestrate.  Defenestrate!  What the hell was defenestrate?!!

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My husband has an old fashioned name....

Annie Goat

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I just gots to have me some creative expressiveness.... I had so much fun writing my first story for 5 Word Challenge that I can't quit jonesing for another fix. No new words on 5 Word Challenge ....what's a blogger to do ??!!  I know !!  I've got it !!!  Hows about sharing a word with me ??  That's right, just a word.  It can even be a wee word.  It doesn't have to be a wonderful word....just a word.....maybe I can have a word with you ??  Or perhaps you'd like to have a word with me ?? 

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