Thursday Tunes and Take a Chance Challenge!

Today I'm doing something a little bit different - challenge #8 in the Take a Chance Challenge involves music -

Lit Riff (inspired by the book Lit Riffs by Matthew Miele.) Choose a song and then write a brief story that is inspired by or further explains the lyrics of the song.


So I thought I'd combine Thursday Tunes with the Take a Chance Challenge, and come up with something fun. (Maybe.) Have I mentioned before that I was never very good at creative writing? So this story will likely be VERY brief. Also, because every once in a while I like to do something that my sister will enjoy, I've chosen a Bon Jovi song. (You're welcome, Carolynn.) (Please enjoy the hair in the following video. ) (And yes, I like this version - sorry, purists.) (What else can I think of to put in parenthesis??)

Here's the song I've chosen -



And now, the story -

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He was leaving her again.

He'd promised he would never leave her again. So why was standing in their tiny closet, taking shirts off hangers, counting pairs of socks and underwear? He had promised. Promised.

She knew it wasn't fair to hold him to that promise. Jobs in their backwater town were scarce - he had been working three all winter long, just to make ends meet. After Ellie was born, she had to quit hers. Three small kids were too much to juggle, and she could feel the resentment of the other girls at the diner when she'd taken yet another day off because Cara was sick. So she stayed home, and left the providing to him.

He was a hard worker. It was one of the things she'd noticed about him first - he was never still. His hands were always busy, fixing something, making something. He had a list of projects a mile long, dreams he couldn't wait to fulfill - a porch, a gazebo, a swingset. Those dreams had seemed so reachable when they first got married. They bought their first house with those dreams, had their first baby, planned out their lives. She felt safe.

And then one baby became two, and then three, and soon their house was too small, and their money didn't stretch far enough, and those idyllic first days, with their plans and dreams, seemed ages and ages away. It's not like they were the only ones - it seemed everyone she knew was in a similar situation. And yet, somehow, she felt continually surprised to find herself here.

Their neighbor told him last night there was work a few towns over - someone with lots of money, needing men who weren't afraid to get their hands dirty. Rumors like this flew around every so often, and the men would disappear, leaving women and children alone, worried, frightened. He'd gone off to follow one of these crazy leads before, leaving her with Cara, wondering if she'd ever see him again. When he got back, she broke down, begged him never to leave her again, swore she'd die if he did. He promised. He promised he'd never leave.

And yet here she was in their bedroom, folding pants into his suitcase, cursing the neighbor who opened his big mouth. How would she raise these kids by herself? What if the grocery store stopped letting her buy on credit? How would she live for months without seeing his smile?

She sensed him as he walked into the room, wrapped his arms around her. "You know you're still the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."

Maybe it would be alright.



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Not a literary masterwork, that's for sure! But I think it definitely follows the guidelines of the challenge, and it was an interesting experiment. It's fun to cross these challenges off my list!