In The Holler

All six of her sisters had been forced to take Carl to their beds; he was their father, and it was his right, he told them.  They all knew that he was a foul, evil bastard, but out here in the middle of nowhere, what could they do?  Marjorie could not bear the thought of his sweaty hands touching her naked skin, his breath as rotten as his teeth as he loomed over her.  She would rather die.  This plan had to work.

"You ain't gonna charm gators by glaring at them, girl!" Carl hollered at her from the front porch, his huge belly quivering, his face hideous in the shadows. He had big plans for a gator wrestling arena, and Marjorie claimed to have a gift.  "Git to it!  Don't make me get off this porch!"

Marjorie warily eyed the alligator in front of her, her mind full of images of half-eaten severed limbs.  The twenty foot gator stared back, implacable.  His jaws could swallow her whole, if he had a mind to do so.  He hissed at her, and she realized that his teeth were longer than her fingers.  She pulled the sack dress over her head and flung it to the side, then performed a quick high kick that got Carl's undivided attention. Moving her hips in what she hoped was a sexy manner, she approached the alligator, swirling and pirouetting around him.  Occasionally she swung a hand down to sweep across the gator's rough skin, and the reptile seemed to hum with energy.  Her chest heaving in a quick rhythm, she finally fell, enticing Carl off the porch.  Marjorie waited for him to extend that arm toward a bared breast, and was rewarded with the heavy snap of an alligator's jaws.  Carl's screams ricocheted around the trees.   The gator let go of Carl's arm long enough to clamp down on his head until the screaming stopped. 

Problem solved, Marjorie thought, as the alligator dragged Carl into the swamp.  






The prompt is the third definition of the word CHARM.



And, lucky ducks you are, you now get to write-up to 500 words of fiction or creative non-fiction by 11:55 p.m. PST on Thursday night using one or both of the following images.

And this is my pal Spike who, by the way, was a fantastic listener. As I stroked his head and drank my wine, it did occur to me that he could bite my arm off.

So there you have it! This week’s prompts. Allons-y!

All Over The Place

The tag said that this was a crocodile, but I'm pretty sure that it's a alligator. My husband just mentioned that this particular fake reptile made him a little nervous, and I come downstairs and find this. I know that there's a perfectly reasonable explanation. Alligators don't like frosted animal crackers.

They do like marshmallows, however. I learned that from watching True Blood. You can actually learn useful things from the television, I don't care what all those psychologists say! I was about to go on a tour of the swamps of Louisiana with marshmallows for snacking, and now I know to take chocolate instead.

Why are they called marshmallows, anyway? And there isn't any ham in hamburgers, so why are they called that? Who decides this sort of thing? Is there a government office somewhere? If so, where do I apply?

I can't talk about politics around here because there are too many Republicans who have concealed handgun licenses. I refuse to own a gun, however, because the rule in our house is that if you kill it, you eat it. There isn't enough ketchup in the world.

Say what you will about Tom Cruise, I kind of like him in action movies. Of course, he doesn't do very much talking in those movies, which is a plus.

My cat Pounce is sitting on the printer next to me, like a vulture. Does she know something?

My thinking is pretty random today, isn't it?

This is my last "work-free" day. Technically, anyway. I've already been logging in from home, trying to figure out some computer glitches here and there. Serves me right for answering the dang phone. It has been wonderful not thinking about work.

Someone needs to give me a couple million dollars so I can stay home all day and just be a philanthropist-type who wears big hats and 'lunches'.

I could learn to love big hats, if I got free lunches out of the deal.