Prompt 57

Not so much a summer vacation, but a vacation nonetheless. Me and my girlfriend’s thanksgiving trip down to Pennsylvania begins uneventfully despite the stormy weather but quickly takes a sharp turn. We stop at the Kennebunk for a bathroom break and some coffee. I head into the bathroom, and do my business. As I stand up and start to open the door, the automatic flush starts and the worst coincidence in the world starts to happen. Briana’s keys fall out of my sweatshirt pocket, and into the toilet, disappearing like a bullet. For a few seconds, I don’t even comprehend what happened, then the full impact sets in. The key ring had everything on it, including the electronically chipped key to her Ford, the only key to our apartment that wasn't locked in the apartment, and her new key to animal clinic she works at.

The combination of worry and panic builds as I walk out to bear the bad news. After a few minutes of convincing the group we’re travelling with that I’m not joking, we start tracking down a maintenance man. We find a stocky man in a blue uniform who looks like a character from the Simpsons and ask for help only to be gruffly told that nothing can be done. The search for a way to get back into our car continues, along with constant joking, and eventually a locksmith arrives at the scene. A new key quickly fashioned and the road trip is gratefully resumed, along with a few new jokes being told.

Prompt 56

Clouds of smoke billow around the room, and their effect seems to slow down everything me, the music, the conversations, the video games on the tv in the corner of the room. The dim light from a couple of candles and a single lamp in the room make the smoke look somewhat unreal, and the occasional flick of the lighter followed by the bubbling sound that too many people remember from high school interrupts everything else going on in the room.

A few hours later, the concert taking place in the tiny barn is quite the change of surroundings. The fast punk rock music performed by local bands is as loud as can be, especially when you’re right up front by the speakers. The music goes on for hours as the effects from earlier wear off, only to be brought back after the show on the ride home.

The next morning, it slow lifestyle starts right back up again as soon as I wake up, like it does most days. You can’t get much done this way, and the real effects from living life in a smoky room show themselves as time rolls, mostly in your bank account and grades. Still, it’s never a boring day, between the concerts and compromised mental states. What else could a teenager want, really?

Prompt 43

The tiny blade pokes into my arm painlessly and the doctor hits the start button on the timer. He periodically wipes the blood away from the small cut and hits the timer again when it stops bleeding. He reads the timer and declares that everything is normal.

The drive to Portland seems pretty long to an eleven year old, especially on the second day in a row to see the ear nose and throat specialist. It certainly beats being in school though, and I’m looking forward to the possibility of getting better.

The visit lasts about five minutes and the doctor tells me I’m gonna need surgery tomorrow. Me and my mother head home in a hurry to get some sleep before driving back to Portland again. I’m feeling a sense of panic all night worrying about the prospect of surgery, having never been through one.

The doctors wheel me into the operating room and quickly put the mask over my face, and it puts me to sleep almost instantly.

Prompt 53

The paved road my new place sits on doesn't get too much traffic so there’s always runners and bikers. I take off down the road on my mountain bike for the first time on a cold November morning, hoping that the road will as nice on the winding, hill covered back road that I lived at up until now. The tires grip the pavement way better than the dirt that I’m used too and every rotation of the pedals speeds the bike effortlessly. It’s relaxing at first but after a mile or so of biking the straight, smooth road gets a little tedious. There’s no bumps, no rough patches or any side trails to tackle. All there is around me is flat cement and no challenges, all making for a nice ride but leaving you wishing for something more.

Prompt 52

“I have a square chimney sweep brush. You can borrow it and bring it back when you are done so someone else can use it.  (207)975-7011 or (207)785-3671 Appleton”

Winter hits the little town of Appleton just like it hits the rest of Maine, always making life as rough as possible. Everyone knows how pricey it is to keep your house warm. Everyone tries to rely on wood heat as much as possible to keep that oil bill down. I've always shared this old chimney brush with my neighbors, always helping to get ready for winter. I figured this year I might as well see if anyone else needs to use it and post a little ad in Uncle Henry's, I figure everyone needs to prepare for winter and it might help a few people out.

Prompt 55

The worn out tools that I own scattered throughout my car and stuffed out of sight into random corners of my apartment. They mostly take up space and create disorganized mess, filling up cheap tool boxes and crowding up the already cramped rooms. They come in handy when needed though.

The wrench that lives in the center console of my car gets in the way most of the time, but it’s nice when barely working wiper arm on my car flies off the in middle of a snowstorm like it usually does. The vice grips and bag of zip ties in the back seat were nice too when a bolt snapped on my exhaust fell off in the middle of nowhere at three in the morning. Of course, nothing more handy in my car than the jack and wrench under the spare tire in the trunk.

Another useful one’s the multimeter in the living room of my apartment, especially when your desktop break the day that you’re supposed to be starting your first online class in college. The trusty hammer and screwdriver are pretty helpful in making all that cheap, compressed cardboard furniture from the Christmas tree shop last much, much longer than it was ever intended to. They may be cluttered bits of metal that get left all over the place, but iI don’t know where  anyone would be without them.