Friday Fictioneers — Rewind

Genre: Mainstream fiction
Word count: 100

REWIND 

“Over & out” (your last text message).

No, I didn’t mean it. Come back…

My fingers type panicked nonsense.

Text not sent. The word “not” blanks me, as an opaque oblivion wedged between two possibilities.

This is the story of my life, its path strewn with the litter of my impetuosity.

#

“Love u xxxx” (your first text message).

No, you can’t mean it. Moi?

My fingers type lovey-dovey nonsense in ecstatic knots, rendered more rubbishy through my somersaulting heart.

Text sent. “Am counting the minutes” you reply. The possibilities are endless, but I know this relationship will end in disaster…   

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 Friday Fictioneers: 100 word stories
Photo Prompt: copyright © Ted Strutz

Author: Sarah Potter Writes

Sarah is a British eccentric who writes offbeat fiction, haiku and tanka poetry. When stuck for words, she sketches or paints instead. She's into nature conservation, sustainability, gardening, dogs, natural health, and reading. Her sociability is something that happens in short bursts with long breathing spaces in between.

44 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers — Rewind”

  3. Dear Sarah,

    Why is it that we (women it seems in particular) pursue relationships we know are wrong? I loved your story sandwiched between text messages. So true in this day and age. Well done.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

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    1. Dear Rochelle,

      I blame the pursuit of wrong relationships on hormones (or that’s the most comfortable and simple excuse anyway).
      Texting is such a cowardly way of ending things, but seems to be the method employed all too often these days. I would have been utterly mortified if someone had ever done that to me. The telephone was bad enough!

      All best wishes,
      Sarah

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  4. Love the twists and turns and the line “This is the story of my life, its path strewn with the litter of my impetuosity”

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  5. Having been “flushed” via text, I can say that, if my heart had been involved (it wasn’t) it would have been more painful. As I didn’t really care, it was fine not to have to do the face to face thing… 😉

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    1. Yes, it could have its uses. I guess I did once hide and pretend I wasn’t at home, when a guy sought me out after I stood him up for a first date that I regretted agreeing to. …I mean, to come and seek me out at the nurses’ hostel. It was so embarrassing and made me feel so, so guilty, but I was quite young. I guess that the text thing these days is on a par with this.

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  6. Here in the States we call that a chicken-sh*t way of ending a relationship. However, it seems to be growing in popularity which explains why American is the poultry capital of the world.

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  7. Yes, it probably did end in disaster. There’s a saying in Spanish — Love from far away is really stupid. I saw them as a long-distance thing.
    Pretty nice stuff, Sarah. 🙂

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    1. Thanks, Kent 🙂 Talking about love from far away, I have often had an amusing thought about people who start their romance on the internet, and then end up travelling to meet each other, only to discover that one of them has really bad B.O. …Actually, that would make a most amusing story. Must remember that idea!

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  10. That dreaded ‘sent’ button…this story brought back a few chills, but that’s all I’m saying 😉 Love your writing…have a wonderful weekend dearest Sarah, and be sure to celebrate your wonderful win, for that is what I am calling it because you are winner in both your writing and in the person I know you to be 🙂 ❤ xxxxxxxx

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    1. Thanks, Sherri for all your lovely comments and wonderful support. Ditto to you, re your writing and personality 🙂 xxxxxxxxx
      My weekend would be more wonderful if a technical support person had spent 5 hours of my Saturday, not fixing something D:

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      1. Always dearest Sarah…so lovely to know we support one another, you’ve always been an amazing encouragment to me and still are 🙂 Sorry about the time wasting ‘technical support’…hope it’s all sorted now… xxxxxxxxxxx

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Dearest Sherri, best that you don’t mention “technical support” lest I tear my hair out. They had another go fixing the issue today and wasted another hour and a half of my time. Now they say they’re telephoning me on Friday … doubtless to waste another few hours of my precious life D: Every day I wake up, determined to achieve something meaningful, and every day… well, need I say more? Anyway, enough of my rant. I hope that you’re achieving more than I am this week, my dear friend. Love and hugs xxxxxxxxxx

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Oh dear…sadly, I know just what that feels like, so awful to be at the beck and call of such awful time wasting, utterly frustrating. I’ve had so much of that lately I could scream. Just when we thought we were on the up with V and the major screw up with his benefits, as in they stopped them with his rent due because I had written and not called in his new address – nightmare – spendless time on the phone trying to get it sorted. In the end, it took the right person and it was done with a click of a computer in a couple of minutes. Every day is like that for me at the moment, the things I’ve had to cancel lately and all the plans I have for the day scuppered. I feel your pain…and can only hope that by today your tecnhincal woes are at last repaired so you can get on with all those tasks. I’m hoping for the same, although of course with the upcoming move once again I’m at the mercy of time constraints. We’re attacking the dreaded garage this weekend, can’t avoid it any longer. Oh joy…but it will be worth it in the end, right? See…now I’ve had a rant to your rant, ha! Here’s to a rant free weekend for us both my dearest Sarah… with much love and hugs back to you… xxxxxxxxxx

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Dearest Sherri, I still haven’t sent you that promised email, but my internet is continuing to fluctuate and that darned issue with Norton on my mobile is still not fixed. Such time-wasting as ever there was. And I never managed to get a very complicated submission off to a literary agent after a week of trying, because of that darned techno devil gobbling up my time.
        How irritating about V’s benefits. Everything is made so unnecessarily complex. Good luck with your garage. And do please rant to your heart’s content. We need to get things off our chest, or we’d go stark staring mad. Today, I’m too tired to rant, but I’m managing to smile a little, after cooking the most delicious gooseberry pie for lunch. Thank heaven for some of the simple delights in life. Love and hugs, my dear friend. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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      5. No worried dearest Sarah, I totally understand. Arrgh…what a darned nuisance, so sorry you didn’t get your submission off as planned. You are beginning to sound like me, the best laid plans of mice and men and all that….so many missed deadlines and opportunities as you know. Thank you for allowing me to rant! Things are falling into place on the one hand, and the garage got done, a very good job there, but on the other hand, we now are having threats from our buyer to pull out if we don’t exchange like now! We might end up living in our camper van if things don’t get sorted out and fast on our purchase, we don’t want to lose our sale and to be honest, the thought of putting everything into storage and living in our tiny home on wheels I find most liberating. Let’s see what happens. Ahh…glad your delicious pie made you smile. Simple delights as you say my dear friend…I am all for those 🙂 I’ll be in touch as I can…much love and hugs to you and I do hope you get your submission off if not by now then very soon and all your techinical woes are once and for all resolved… xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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      6. Dearest Sherri, I’m sorry to hear about threats from your buyer, although it’s quite common for people to do that, just to check the other side isn’t sleeping! That being said, there is something quite liberating to putting things into storage and living in a camper van for a while — a taste of the simple life. At one time, all of my possessions fitted into the back of my car. Occasionally, these days, I feel this huge urge to give a whole load of stuff away, as I’m still not into clutter.
        I sent off my submission on Tuesday in the end, and it was worth the wait as I received a lovely certificate from the Winchester Writers’ Festival on Monday, a copy of which I attached to my CV.
        After 6 hours of techies “not” fixing the issue on my mobile, I worked out what was wrong with it! By process of elimination, I realised that the problem started after I synced Kindle. When I deleted the Kindle app, the anti-virus started working again. It doesn’t bother me not having Kindle on my phone, as the screen is rather too small for concentrated reading.
        Generally, all is much better than last week, so far … including my jam making, the results of which will be shown on my blog soon. Love and hugs xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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      7. Dearest Sarah, I haven’t been on my blog or laptop or anywhere much lately with so much going on. The entire chain was threatened with a problem at the bottom just as we were about to exchange last Monday, completing and moving this Friday. I won’t go into it all here but last week was truly one of the most stressful and upsetting of the year, and this year generally has been horrible in too many ways. As of this morning it looks as if it will get resolved but we had to cancel everything, and threatened with losing our purchase. I’ve shed a lot of tears I can tell you and not feeling great because of it. I can only hope next time you hear from me, it will be with good news. Anyway, enough of that, I’m packing up the house still and it’s taking a long time with so much else to do on top of it, so I’ll be away from here for a while. So glad to hear you got your certificate and also your submission done, I wish you the very best and have every confidence in your success. Glad too for your problem with your phone. Also your jam making. Sounds as if you are returned to your productivity on all fronts. I’ll be in touch as soon as I’m able…until then, have a lovely summer my dear friend, with love and hugs xxxxxxx

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      8. Dearest Sherri, I’ve just sent you a text (or rather two, as I did a preemptive “send”, mid-sentence!). Wasn’t sure if you’d see a reply here or an email, as you’re not on your laptop much. I’m so sorry you’re going through such a nightmare at the moment. Sending you lots of love, hugs and kisses xxxxxxxx

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      9. Thank you so much dearest Sarah, and of course we’ve since been in touch…will contact you next week. Have a lovely weekend in the meantime, and sending you lots of love, hugs and kisses right back… xxxxxxxx

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