WHEW! I had several story ideas based on articles (which I may continue to develop) but I ran with this one that came from a homework session at my local MIDTOWN DELI. Each section of the day's paper was at a different table and being read by a vast array of characters. Yet we were all under one roof, reading about what was happening in our little town...
Initially I had 700 some odd words. I let it cool and fought dismay as my word count initially went up, not down.
Two painful character cuts later, I made the 300 mark.
I am submitting that version and then returning to my drafts to invite those two characters back into my diner while I shine the tables up a bit.
::ASSIGNMENT POSTED BELOW::
THE MILLCREEK MALLARD: SATURDAY EDITION
Sports & Weather lay abandoned on the table nearest the window. Grant had placed the paper over his laptop like some kind of theft deterrent when he left to reckon with the coffee he’d been drinking all morning. Not that anyone here would steal. He knew that, and somewhere deep-down, he knew it was himself he hoped to hide under that paper-thin shield. What would folks in Millcreek think when they read how much he’d stolen from them?
~
Sitting upright, Jen resisted the chair’s embrace where she perched. Flipping swiftly through Lifestyles, she paused to wring the last drops of Earl Grey into her cup. Clipping one of the hundreds of announcements due to be printed this weekend wouldn’t change anything, but clipping this one may slow the avalanche. Jim, who understood half the town got their news from his one, coffee-splashed paper, had graciously agreed to her maiming of the diner’s copy. He brought scissors with her tea, and she noticed, a pastry she hadn’t ordered. Jen smiled to herself, “Consolation croissant”.
~
Ed and Mary split the Comics and sipped their coffee, his half milk and full of sugar, hers slick black. At 65, Mary still went straight to SlyLock Fox. She solved the mystery before Ed was ready to trade. He preferred to read from first square to last; no skipping the boring strips, either. Mary sipped her coffee and smiled at Jim as she waited for Ed to finish .
~
Jim wiped the tables and shuffled the scattered paper back into one packet. With a satisfied nod, he cut the lights and locked the door.
He loved his little corner of Millcreek and the people who shared their lives with him. As he walked home, Jim whistled up towards the clouds…
“The sun will come out tomorrow…”