Writing Prompt: This is something you will have to deal with.

Happy Veteran’s day to all of you out there. I hope you have a fantastic one. I am taking much of the day off so I am going to get started on my prompts and the fifteen minute novel so that i can get prepared for celebratory barbeque. And so…the morning prompt. Let’s go.

Okay I somehow feel like this is the start of a murder mystery. That could be fun.

Friday, November 11^th: This is something you will have to deal with.

“This is something you will have to deal with,” he said. 

I looked up squinting against the light.  He was standing between me and the light and seemed like a shadow outlined in a golden glow.  In my half-awake state I blinked up blearily wondering if this was my version of a heavenly visitation.  Then the newspaper thunked down on the bed beside me.  I looked at it.  The newsprint was solid and real.  Big black letters slapped the last of the sleep from me.

Jared Barolo arrested. 

Three words.  They fell like ice cubes into my brain.  I looked back up.  Ferris dropped the paper on me.  There was no angelic presence, just Ferris.  Information passed and confident that I was now awake, he turned and walked away.

I sat up.  I felt the warmth of the bed slither out as a cold wave of air entered.  It seemd to slide right under the covers and curl up around my toes.  I looked to the paper.  Somehow the ratty t-shirt I was sleeping in felt inadequate.  If I was going to have to deal with this I wanted more clothing on. 

I wanted body armor on.

I knew no matter how this turned out, what the details were, I would be taking some hits for it.

I left the bed easing my body around the newspaper as though not touching it made it less real.  I went to the bathroom and used the facilities.  I then dressed in a comfortable pair of jeans and a t-shirt.  As this didn’t seem enough I pulled on an oversized wool cardigan, fuzzy with age and having deep pockets in which to secure things.  I didn’t know what I might need to secure, but having two large pockets instead of the two dinky ones my blue jeans offered felt like a good precaution. My toes still felt cold and numb so I pulled on thick fuzzy socks.  Unfortunately their presence removed the illusion that the cold was due to outside temperatures instead of emanating from within. 

I scrapped my hair back into a ponytail but the length of it swinging fee felt to easy so I bundled it up into a tight knot at the back of my head.  I thought about sitting on the bed to read the details but lounging on the bed to read the no doubt sorted details of my ex-fiancé’s arrest didn’t seem to go with the messy bed.  I picked up the paper and sat down in the high backed wooden chair at my desk.  It was where I did my math homework when I was in high school and seemed somehow more appropriate.

That the details would be sorted was a given.  My parents sent Ferris.  ‘And its front page,’ I thought.  Wasn’t there a rule about not having anything tame on the front page.  Surely that spot was reserved for the salacious.

I turned my attention to the page.  Once I got past the shock of the headlines, the article was less painful.  Jared was arrested.  The night before he had been seen arguing with Harold Aston.  Then no one saw either of them until Aston ended up dead.  Jared was found passed out with blood on his clothes and the murder weapon close to hand.  The fact that he was my ex was mentioned three paragraphs in.  Questions about what my family thought were asked a paragraph later.