Prompt a Week

Prompt: And then an odd thing happened.

I was sure that everything in my life was on the path I'd cobbled together back in high school. I had the journalism job I'd focused on from 9th grade. I had an apartment in the city with friends I met for drinks every Friday night. I was jogging through my list, checking things off as I passed the meticulously planned milestones: publish the high school newspaper; attend Ivy League college; Master's Degree at age 23, first by-line at age 25. Of course friends and family laughed at me, tried to convince me that life was unpredictable, even random at times. But didn’t the sun rise at the same time in the same place every morning? The universe after all was an orderly place, was it not? There was no way that the creator of such symmetry could be fickle or arbitrary. Anyone with the same urgent need for consistency could, with focus and determination, ensure that events occur in the proper order, based on a plan. And then an odd thing happened. Was it that gravity moved? Or suddenly the center had or shifted, the rules changed somehow? All I remember now is that when I saw her face in the elevator, in that instant, nothing else mattered.
--Michele Setton, Olney, MD

* * *

Times are troubled, changes made without consent, and options look dim. Life can kick you in the butt especially when you least expect it......never fails. Friends and family seem too busy to care when you need them most. The 'extra' bills show up when the checkbook is thin. And the washer goes on the fritz when the laundry has taken over the floor. Don't ask..."what else can happen?"....’cause you just might find out.

I have no answers, no gifts of wisdom to share. Just a history of knowing that through all the dark times of stress, loss, disappointment, and shame, I have felt lost and alone. And then an odd thing happened.... "hope" would bubble up from the depths of my despair.....and save me....every time!

And so I take another step forward....
--Nancy Janssen, RBWG member

* * *

And then an odd thing happened. The last paragraph of her letter disappeared from the screen. She sat perfectly still and letters started to appear in her note to Tom. "You know, we've had a lot of fun, but I think it's time for me to move on. I've loved going to the movies with you and to the nightclub to dance, too, but those really aren't my things." She reached forward and started to type. As she typed, the letters become scrambled as if she and someone else in the ether were both writing at the same time on the same screen.
--Sharon Hoover, RBWG member

* * *

I remember one day sitting in the cafeteria musing about the fact that a childhood friend had simply stopped responding to my letters, wondering what I had done to offend him. My eyes were resting on a geometrical painting of two circles, one brown and one yellow, overlapping just slightly, creating an oval bearing the mixture of both colors. I think they were called Euler circles. As I looked at them, an odd thing happened. I could see that the circles were a representation of my life and that of my friend and it occurred to me at last that I may have done nothing to offend him; that he'd simply slipped away so that our circles no longer overlapped. He had changed and on this matter, I had not. It stopped bothering me and, in fact, I never thought about him again until I saw this prompt.
--Tom Hoyer, RBWG member

* * *

I felt a surge of energy, as though we were connected across the miles. My confidence in us soared. In a letter, I tried to tell you what I was feeling, how I needed you. Then an odd thing happened. Your silence invaded my mind, turning the sunshine thoughts there to stormy gloom. Had I gone too far? Did you think I was taking advantage? Asked things of you that you could not give? Shocked you? Offended you? Frightened you away? This is what happens when we are out of touch, an illustration of your hold on me, whatever it is.
--Jim Van Loozen, RBWG Member

* * *




April 18, 2010 Prompt: And then an odd thing happened. I was sure that everything in my life was on the path I'd cobbled together back in high school. I had the journalism job I'd focused on from 9th grade. I had an apartment in the city with friends I met for drinks every Friday night. I was jogging through my list, checking things off as I passed the meticulously planned milestones: publish the high school newspaper; attend Ivy League college; Master's Degree at age 23, first by-line at age 25. Of course friends and family laughed at me, tried to convince me that life was unpredictable, even random at times. But didn’t the sun rise at the same time in the same place every morning? The universe after all was an orderly place, was it not? There was no way that the creator of such symmetry could be fickle or arbitrary. Anyone with the same urgent need for consistency could, with focus and determination, ensure that events occur in the proper order, based on a plan. And then an odd thing happened. Was it that gravity moved? Or suddenly the center had or shifted, the rules changed somehow? All I remember now is that when I saw her face in the elevator, in that instant, nothing else mattered. --Michele Setton, Olney, MD * * * Times are troubled, changes made without consent, and options look dim. Life can kick you in the butt especially when you least expect it......never fails. Friends and family seem too busy to care when you need them most. The 'extra' bills show up when the checkbook is thin. And the washer goes on the fritz when the laundry has taken over the floor. Don't ask..."what else can happen?"....’cause you just might find out. I have no answers, no gifts of wisdom to share. Just a history of knowing that through all the dark times of stress, loss, disappointment, and shame, I have felt lost and alone. And then an odd thing happened.... "hope" would bubble up from the depths of my despair.....and save me....every time! And so I take another step forward.... --Nancy Janssen, RBWG member * * * And then an odd thing happened. The last paragraph of her letter disappeared from the screen. She sat perfectly still and letters started to appear in her note to Tom. "You know, we've had a lot of fun, but I think it's time for me to move on. I've loved going to the movies with you and to the nightclub to dance, too, but those really aren't my things." She reached forward and started to type. As she typed, the letters become scrambled as if she and someone else in the ether were both writing at the same time on the same screen. --Sharon Hoover, RBWG member * * * I remember one day sitting in the cafeteria musing about the fact that a childhood friend had simply stopped responding to my letters, wondering what I had done to offend him. My eyes were resting on a geometrical painting of two circles, one brown and one yellow, overlapping just slightly, creating an oval bearing the mixture of both colors. I think they were called Euler circles. As I looked at them, an odd thing happened. I could see that the circles were a representation of my life and that of my friend and it occurred to me at last that I may have done nothing to offend him; that he'd simply slipped away so that our circles no longer overlapped. He had changed and on this matter, I had not. It stopped bothering me and, in fact, I never thought about him again until I saw this prompt. --Tom Hoyer, RBWG member * * * I felt a surge of energy, as though we were connected across the miles. My confidence in us soared. In a letter, I tried to tell you what I was feeling, how I needed you. Then an odd thing happened. Your silence invaded my mind, turning the sunshine thoughts there to stormy gloom. Had I gone too far? Did you think I was taking advantage? Asked things of you that you could not give? Shocked you? Offended you? Frightened you away? This is what happens when we are out of touch, an illustration of your hold on me, whatever it is. --Jim Van Loozen, RBWG Member * * * Back to the Prompt Page
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April 18, 2010