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Wallet - a short short story

Peder

Well-Known Member
Wallet
by "Peder"
585 words

I woke up one morning feeling deliciously completely at one with the Universe. It was a grand feeling, even before I opened my eyes. I was completely relaxed, almost as if all of me had melted into a soft gooey fudge. As I prolonged the moment I imagined that the bed and all the world were made of the same wonderfully relaxing stuff. The mattress and covers were so perfectly warm and soft that I could not tell where I ended and they began. I felt like I had become a blob that had merged completely with the bed.

And then the alarm rang. Time for work.

So I climbed out of bed, trudged into the bathroom, and washed my hair to begin the day. When I looked in the mirror, there was my wife looking back at me! A little confused, but bleary eyed as I was, I put on my white blouse, charcoal power pant suit and snappy high heels and went off to my job as front-office receptionist at a Fortune 500 firm. It felt a little strange having a totally new set of friends -- not to mention, office -- but everyone said hello or good morning, and I noticed that the men were especially nice to me.

But something was not right and I thought it must be the mattress. So, later in the day, I went mattress shopping. Ours was a Beautiful Dreamer and I wanted something less ethereal, more down to earth. But before I even got to mattress selection, I was astounded to run into my husband there -- also looking for a new mattress. We exchanged startled looks, but finally found a Restfully Yourself that we agreed upon.

"See you tonight!" he said, as we hugged.

"OK" I responded, as we went our separate ways back to our offices.

That was strange. But when I got home, there he was, feet up reading the paper. I made supper and we went to bed.

The next morning, I was dragged out of a sound sleep by the alarm and made my way again to the bathroom to start the day. I washed, shaved, brushed my teeth, combed my hair and looked at myself in the mirror. Not bad for 35! As I stepped back into the bedroom, I heard a loud shriek and a strange woman went running from the bedroom. I could have sworn it was my neighbor's wife. I quickly got dressed and raced to get out of there before my wife wondered what was going on. But she was already gone.

Mornings never were my good time. So I just put one foot in front of the other and headed out to work. As I climbed into my car, my neighbor was just coming out of his front door. We waved, but I thought he gave me a slightly quizzical look that I didn't understand. We backed out of our driveways and went our ways.

The day at the office went well. I was back at my drafting table and all my friends stopped by to ask where I was yesterday. I simply said that I had a one-day flu. And I noticed that the women were especially friendly.

Nothing strange happened. I went home, picked up the paper, got comfortable and read until my wife came home. We had supper, watched some TV and went to bed.

The only thing I can't figure out is why I have my neighbor's wallet in my pocket.
 
Interesting ... in a surrealistic way. Only note that jars off key is the moment with the neighbour's wife. Why is that transition imperfect when the others were? Otherwisegreat concept well realised.
 
Interesting ... in a surrealistic way. Only note that jars off key is the moment with the neighbour's wife. Why is that transition imperfect when the others were? Otherwisegreat concept well realised.
Thanks for the close reading and your questions. I'm going to have to think a bit about why it is imperfect. Don't have a clear answer yet.
 
it was a short but fun read, worth expanding on the idea too.

Well, yes, I thought as I wrote it that it sounded somewhat like a synopsis for a story, but that is not (yet, if ever) a talent of mine, to make an interesting story from such slender beginnings. Maybe someday, but for the moment I am thinking of a pair, or maybe a trio, of other linked stories with slightly more flesh. So far this is my best efort, so thank you for your kind remarks.
 
get writing! (*sound of whip cracking :D ) look forward to reading!
The reply of a true writer! Which I am not.
Most thought and effort here is going toward a private memoir I have been working on. Occasional poems here have been offshoots of that effort, however, if you are curious.
 
I am I am ... write d-mn it WRITE!
I forgot to mention that I am stubborn and am proceeding at my own pace, without aspiration to becoming a professional writer or being published. Too bad that you seem to have arrived too late to enjoy the blog section we once had, where you might have enjoyed writing, and where a considerable amount of my writing did once appear. But slow and steady makes the grade and I'll get there with my immediate goals.
 
lol that's the only way to write

(mumbles something about taking years to finish a project under my breath)
 
lol that's the only way to write

(mumbles something about taking years to finish a project under my breath)

LOL. You may be right, there!

My first, rough rough draft memoir (if one could call it that) was done, at about 50k words plus, during Nanowrimo a couple of years ago. This past year, after mulling the content, I restarted and got part way, to about 15k much cleaner and more focused words. Since then I have rethought the approach (again) and am proceeding along a much more clearly defined course. "My River" was a poem that came out of that.
(Incidentally, I find Scrivener to be enormously useful, even though I usually do inital drafts of sections using Wordpad).
 
I've been using it for quite a while now. I found it when I was looking for software to facilitate scriptwriting a few years back. And being opensource suited the pocketbook quite nicely thankyou.

They have quite a few standard templates on it as well so I find it great. I have everything I need and more. A few folks moan about this feature or that, but you can't please all the peeps even some of the time ;) and I'm happy with it.
 
For the moment, straight narrative is challenge enough to me, so Scrivener is easily enough.
 
Loved it, I didn't know whether I was coming or going, absolutely loved it and like Meadow 337 I wanted more, just like Oliver Twist "Please Sir, I want some more." :)
 
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