As promised -- Dear Aunt Bobby! Here it is! I wanted to write a Christmas story using the words from this word challenge but found it too loose. I needed the comfort of a more confining construct. I remembered my Uncle Bill telling me about a writing form called a Drabble – a short work of fiction no more and no less than 100 words in length see: The Drabble Project. I got the brainstorm of combining this challenge into a “Scrabble Drabble” and so the following story is the result. Of course I feel compelled to say that in order to truly comprehend the "layers" of meaning crammed into the short story below (I'm a bit defensive now) one would need to study ALL of the possible definitions to the words in your scrabble word list, just as I did before beginning to write my story...
I got stuck with the word TILE so I ended up googling the words “tile” and “Shakespeare” and came up with a Minton tile, which are antique glazed tiles made primarily between 1835 and 1918, some featuring scenes from Shakespeare’s plays. Another historical factoid for this story: A Shakespeare folio represents one of the highest points of collecting in the English language. The first folio, published in 1623 (now virtually unobtainable), is the first complete collection of Shakespeare's plays; without it, the English-speaking world would have little or no record of many of the greatest and most influential works in the Western world. Now, without any other further distractions, (gulp), here is my story:
The Christmas Gift
By Lori Minick 12/23/07
“Why so upset, lover? Except for a dig on the back cover, the old book’s in excellent condition.”
“My wife’s been dosing me. First, she introduced me as a walking contraceptive coil. Poised among players with my viol betwixt my legs, I heard whispered ‘She knows’, at the Christmas concert. Later her attorney presented a Minton tile and rare Shakespearean folio to me quoting, ‘Pouf! Irony is wasted on the stupid!’ This will quash our plans. I signed a prenuptial!”
“I still don’t understand why you’re upset, Charles. You’re not stupid.”
“Apparently you are, William!”
NOW..... I HEREBY INVITE ONE AND ALL TO TRY THIS! Come on...
P.S. You know I'll be back come the New Year with Scrabble Drabble for everyone, so would you like to collaborate on this idea Aunt Bobby?
Lori
"Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and the heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace." ~Frederick Buechner