#39 – One-liners, or Sweet Indulgence

There’s no real reason for this one, more so than the 38 previous posts.  #39 is pure indulgence on my part.  I think one of the reasons may be that none of these stories will probably see the light of day, and probably rightly so.

I actually put these out despite myself and despite my better judgement.  I don’t think I really want to – it’s like I have to.  Literally.  But I’ve explored that previously, somewhere in this clutter of random words, how and why I write these, or why I write anything at all, and how exposition and digression are my enemies.  So for no other reason then for them to show up on someone else’s screen, at least once, I present the first line of all of the stories (and one novel) that I’ve written.  (Fake news.  I’ve written more than these.  These are the only ones that I’ve been able to stomach to look at more than once, and that may or may not be worth a damn.  There’s dozens more, somewhere.  God help me I can’t stop.  Who writes, seriously?)

1.  “…but you were suicidal.” –from Alien Abduction

2.   I put my mask on and my true identity is revealed. –from Avenger

3.   Laura peels back the curtain in the darkened room. –from Baby Vampire

4.  Corrie opened the unlocked door carefully. –from Basketball Jones

5.  Above, far above the tunnels and sewers of the city the tanks rumble down the streets lined with citizens. –from Day of the Shining Star

6.  Today was, finally, the last day. –from The Last Day

7.  She curls up against the wall, arms wrapped around her knees, slowly rocking her body back and forth. –from Panic

8.  The little girl lies on her stomach on her bedroom floor. –from Punch and Judy

9.  Smyth stood just outside of the overhang in front of the funeral parlor. –from Real, Virtually

10.  They stood back as far as they could, far back against the farthest wall. –from Salvation

11.  The bus sighed as it came to a stop, the air spilling out and the steps lowering to allow passengers to climb aboard.  –from Tender Boy

12.  Marci squirmed in her chair while her mother hovered around the hairdresser.  –from Trece (which you can read in it’s entirety right here:

http://www.drunkmonkeys.us/fiction/2015/2/25/trece-by-aaron-j-como?rq=trece

as I’ve mentioned more than once.  It’s my one and only.)

13.  I knew we were in trouble when the birds caught it.  –from Zombie

14.  The old man lived far away from the center of the village, all the way down the main road to where it broke off to the old dirt road  –from the Adjudicator (novel, perpetually unfinished, and I promise it’s a lot better than this first line)

15.  I can’t remember…  –from Anywhere but Here (novel, prequel or sequel or companion to The Adjudicator, and even less finished than #14.)

 

Maybe it’s because when I write I don’t really think about anything else.  Time stands still for a moment, or at least my time and my timeline and I inhabit something else, someone else, and for that time I’m with them.  And these people exist and don’t exist.  And it always has to end, when I’m finished writing something or just give up on it, and I don’t like that it has to end.  And maybe that’s why I keep doing coming back to it, indulging myself, making something out of nothing.

And it’s probably just because I’ve written them, but seeing those one-liners in the light of day, I think for some of them I’d be like, cool, I wonder what happens next.  I guess that’s something.  Or not whatever.

 

Ugh.  I’m glad that’s over with.  Next one will be better, I promise.