Morning all. I hope your week has started off right. Personally, my to do list seems to have grown in the night. I think evil elves might be sneaking in and adding to the list when I am no looking. Maybe it is Santa’s elves on vacation and they are playing pranks before getting back to work. Either way I am certain there are at least five more items on the list than there were when I went to bed last night. I will have to check on that. But for now I am more than willing to check off the first task of the day, the morning writing prompt. Timers at the ready? And go!
Hmm, not my favorite. Possibly it can be used later, but not really my favorite writing this morning. Perhaps my mind was still filled with elves. Regardless, into the file this will go and perhaps at some point it will prove useful.
Tuesday, May 11th: It felt oddly familiar.
It felt oddly familiar, this place. Yet I knew I had never been here.
At least I would have sworn I had never been here before earlier that morning. Once we arrived though, I knew the place. I stood on the winding path leading from the street to the house and knew that if I stepped off the main path and walked around the side of the building I would find a pair of large rosemary plants, a small pebbled bath between them veering away from the house. It led to a wooden child’s play house.
Somehow I knew this was true. I shook the feeling off and followed my colleagues up the pathway to the main house. I ordered my feet to stick firmly to the path and not go off in search of rosemary and playhouses.
As we reached the door Chip looked back at me. I could see the annoyance in his face and flashed him my sunniest smile. He wasn’t pleased I was here. In fact if he had hi way, I wouldn’t be. This was his story. However lately I’d been getting a lot more mail and the few pieces that I produced went over extremely well with the audiences. The upper echelons wanted to try me on something bigger, to see how I’d play in a heavier role. They weren’t ready to invest in me as a primary reporter but they were willing to pair me with Chip to see how well I could work with others.
As the owners of the Bed and Breakfast that centered on the story made a comment about liking my friendly face, the boss decided that this might be a good opportunity to try me out.
Realizing that his face looked anything but friendly, Chip smiled back at me, smoothing his frown away and burying his annoyance. I could still see it shining in his eyes, but I ignored it. This was a great opportunity for me and I wasn’t going to waste it because of Chip. I would play nice. I had no desire to be cutthroat, but I didn’t want to be stuck with fluff work forever.
The fluff work was never a good place to be. It wasn’t that I thought the fluffy good hearted pieces were beneath me, they weren’t. I actually enjoyed many of them and met many wonderful people in the community because of them. But the position required the reporter doing them to be young and pretty and it was always a limited time position. There was always someone younger and perkier waiting in the wings. But if I could get a solid position, then my job would be less dependent on the fading commodity of youth.
Looking at Chip I knew that he was worried that age was finally catching up with him as well and that I was the newer, younger replacement. But his position was still olre stable than my own, after all he had held onto it for over forty years.
Ten til Midnight 