Moments - Part One

 I wrote and posted every day in March, and now I'm joining in the weekly Slice of Life, hosted by Two Writing Teachers.

This Slice is a beginning - the start of a fiction story. I haven't dabbled much in fiction in the past ten years or so. I have a wonderful Twitter friend - Michelle-  who inspires me with her own writing, though. She sets herself frequent "writing challenges" and then posts her stories on her blog. This week her challenge was to write a story about a random selection of objects (given to her by another of our tweeps). I decided to jump on board... but it took the entire weekend to even get my brain to give up the start of a story. I think I have the basic outline living in my head now, but I ran out of time to get it complete for today's Slice. Here is the beginning... 

Every life is filled with moments.

Mostly, these moments are ordinary. Fill the dishwasher. Discover that you drank the last of the milk before noticing that the recipe that needs to go in the oven right now requires a third of a cup. Scrambling to find someone to bring to the holiday party for work so that no one gives you those pitying, “she’s always alone”, looks yet again. Empty the dishwasher. Grab a bowl of dry cereal to eat in front of the television, rather than venture out to the Indian take out place.

Some moments start out as just part of the daily grind, but change your life forever.  I remember the exact moment with crystal clarity. The moment it all began – again.

*******

Slamming the door behind me as I entered the dark hall of my townhouse, I juggled an armload of mail and a backpack filled with files from the lab I needed to review tonight.

“Hi, honey, I’m home!” I shouted into the dimly lit kitchen, and chuckled. My only response came in the form of the glint from a pair of eyes on top of a bookshelf and a miffed little, “mrrrow”. Slipping my backpack off my shoulder and tossing my keys into the bowl by the door, I used my elbow to flip on the lights.  



Hopefully I'll be able to get more of the story down for next week... and then I'll share what the items were.