Morning everyone. Running a few minutes late today. I hit the snooze button one too many times this morning. I was attacked by plot bunnies in the middle of the night. They are like dust bunnies, but they have teeth that sink deep into your imagination and cause you to slip out of bed at two in the morning with a notebook. They refuse to let go until you have purged them from your mind and onto the page.I have a great new story idea, but am running a bit short on sleep. Hence the snooze button. I’m sure it will balance in the end. So lets wake up with the morning writing prompt. Ready? Excellent. Set timers to stun, or fifteen minutes if thats how yours work. And lets go.
I have to say, I may not know where this character is, what story he belongs to or even what his name is, but at some point, I am going to find out. I like this character.
Wednesday, November 11th: Returning wasn’t the issue.
Returning wasn’t the issue. He could leave whenever he liked. He knew this. Everyone knew this. That was, he realized on his third day, the problem.
He could leave any time he wanted, but no one else could.
For them this was life or death. They gave up everything to be here and had nothing to return to if this venture failed. They stopped their lives, ended whatever they had outside of this place and then cast themselves fully into the new. If they failed, nothing remained.
If he failed, he could return. There would be some taunting and teasing from his friends. Hi failure would mean ridicule, but given his family, the ridicule would be light and temporary. He would be welcomed back and after a brief period of discomfort this ‘incident’ would be forgotten, swept up and regarded as a youthful blunder. He would have a place, money prestige. A life of ease awaited him should he decide to return.
The fact that it was not a life he wanted, that it was a life completely governed by someone else’s dictates, whereas here he had some measure of control over his fate, was not one that really touched any of his competitors. They saw only that he had a safety net whereas they didn’t. They saw he left a life none of them would turn their backs on waiting.
None of them looked beyond that surface.
Envy, puzzlement and disbelief were his constant companions.
They kept waiting for him to call in that card. To opt out and run back to his life of privilege. Some tried to encourage it. When the assignments were passed around, he was assigned the most brutal, the most physically taxing and often the most disgusting. No one stood against the decisions of the few, making it the consensus of the group.
So he said nothing. He took the assignments calmly when they expected protest and he gave them he entire effort. In the past three days he felt he had worked harder than he had ever worked in his entire life. He did things he was certain no member of his family would even contemplate doing. He surprised them all. He even surprised himself.
Each day he felt himself growing stronger, more competent. There were those whose distrust was beginning to fade. He made a mental note of who those were, but said nothing. Those were the people that he knew would eventually judge him on his own merits. He knew those were the ones who even now might suspect that if he was willing to work this hard to stay here, then maybe that privileged place they expected him to run back to, wasn’t all it appeared on the surface. Those were the people he knew he could eventually reason with once he proved himself.
There were others who viewed his growing competency with increased hostility, suspicion and even alarm. These were the people he knew would never look past his background. They would never see him as one of them and always expect him of duplicity. He paused in his task, stretched, and felt the muscles in his back shift with the movement. Before arriving her he hadn’t realized that there were muscles in his back. He knew there was a spine. How often had he been called upon on use that?
Daily, at least in the months before he left. His spine received a good work out. He wondered if anyone was taking his place back home or if the others, the ones with the same sharp eyes mean look as some of his less forgiving competitors now favored him, were now free to run things as they wanted. He smiled. Somehow despite the complete change in circumstances, he was still faced with dealing with the same people. He chuckled softly to himself and bent his now sore back to the task he had yet to complete. Somehow he suspected no one would like the comparison he found so much humor in.
Ten til Midnight 