Write on Wednesday: Alex Miller Inspiration: Something of Great Importance

Source: a moon, worn as if it had been shell

Alex Miller Inspiration:

‘Something of great importance to me happened two nights ago.’

I lay, spent on the cold concrete floor of the laundry.  There was nothing left to me.  It was as though I had been hooked up to machines that had sucked the living daylights out of me.  Nothing to even cry with, nothing to move with.  My mouth was wretchedly dry, parched, but my tongue would not move to help itself.  The files in my brain had become de-fragmented and nobody had set the program to clean it up.  They were no longer linking to each other, nothing made sense any more.

I slowly blinked.  I could feel the crepe paper lids unfolding, the steely gaze that I had fixed on the fur ball under the washing machine slowly closing.  I let the heavy eyelids that didn't even seem to belong to me any more to stay shut. There was nothing more to see other than fur balls and dust particles.

In the darkness I began to see the light.  The clarity of the last two days slowly dawned on me.  It was going to take an eternity to live with.  There was nothing left for me here.  In one small moment, everything in my life had changed forever.

Two words, "He's gone."

I hadn't understood at first, I was in the middle of a phone call, cooking dinner, signing papers.  Everything was busy, important.  Nothing was busy or important now.  Everything was gone.

Justin had looked at me with a sneer, realising that I hadn't understood, ready to lay blame on me, angry, or was he upset, I don't know, "He's topped himself, you idiot!  You!  Too freakin' busy again! Not looking again!  You didn't care anyway!  Always doin' you're own thing."

The ice moved through me rapidly, starting at my heart where he had stabbed me until I was standing stone cold, as ice, nothing, lost everything.

"I'm gone. We, we are nothing. He was what held us, but now...", I can now see that Justin was broken.  Then I just thought he was trying to kill me too.  My tongue was frozen.  The blood had stopped moving in my body.  I had not imagined a life beyond ours.  Our life of screaming at each other and pretending that we hadn't, ignoring each other, but existing together, insulting each other with a compliment in disguise: the charade.  I thought that it was working.  Pass the salt, dear - why the hell did you do have to pass it that way to me!  The man I had known for more than half of my lifetime, the man who was more than half of me, turned and walked away.  I still could not move or speak.  I was still frozen.


Could I have another go?

Couldn't I try again to hug him one more time each day?

Could I try to say that I love him?   I know I do, did, but I didn't say it.

Why couldn't I turn back time?


I don't know how I came to be on the cold laundry floor.  I don't know how long I was there.  Day came and finished.  Darkness fell.  Light came and was sucked away again into the depth of darkness again.  The stillness became my comfort, silence my friend. Now as it was light again, and clarity, reality had dawned, my body slowly began to move.  I needed to move to a new world, a new life, a new beginning.

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If, you’ve stumbled by here and have no idea what Write on Wednesday is, WOW is an online writing group open from Monday to Friday. A weekly creativity fix that allows writers to share their words and receive support, encouragement and feedback from other writers. Some writers have ongoing pieces and characters they’ve been working on, others use the weekly prompts to flex and exercise their creative muscle.







This week's prompt for Write on Wednesday is this sentence from Alex Miller provided by Jennifer at A Sampler. The instructions are: "..it’s a great opener, but if you want to incorporate into  your piece, that’s fine too.  Set your timer for 5 minutes or write about 500 words. If you’re looking for specific feedback, please let us know. Otherwise – enjoy the writing"

Alex Miller Inspiration

‘Something of great importance to me happened two nights ago.’

Join in if you would like by visiting Jennifer's Blog




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xx Meg