January 2012 theme and competition entries

[Ron Blanco]

January 2012 theme & competition: Resolution

Set by Ron Blanco and Tallyman

 

At the start of each new year, many of us will make a resolution to achieve a new goal. These resolutions are usually quite modest undertakings such as ‘to lose a few pounds’ or ‘to stop nagging at the son-in-law’. Perhaps, instead, your story might involve a resolution that is more extraordinary (or even sinister)? Alternatively, of course, your interpretation of the word 'resolution' doesn’t have to relate to new year promises at all; it may refer to completion, the final answer to something that needed to be resolved.

 

TO ENTER: Competition entries of 500 words or less should be posted on this thread. If you prefer to write a longer story, outside of the competition, then please post it in a new thread with both the title and 'January 2012' in the heading.

 

JUDGING: Ron Blanco and Tallyman will judge the entries, and will announce the winner in early February.

 

THE PRIZE: The prestige of becoming the SFWG Competition Winner AND the opportunity to choose the writing theme for March 2012.

 

COMPETITION PROTOCOL: All writers enjoy receiving feedback, be it high praise or constructive criticism, but in the interests of competition decorum, please could we ask you not to post your comments on individual entries until after the winner has been announced. After that, please feel free to let rip with as much feedback as you like!

 

Any problems posting/uploading your piece, please consult the guidance 'stickies' at the top of the Forum page. If you still have problems, please contact either Tallyman or Ron Blanco.

 

Have fun!

 

Ron

[mikomi]

Sooner or later I knew I was going to stop, so I’m making it my New years resolution.

I’ve tried on numerous occasions but somehow the overwhelming urge to carry on always got the better of me and I ca’nt really say what set me out on this path, now I find that while I’m in the act the euphoria I feel is unbelievable and it usually lasts while I’m doing it but when I’m done I just feel empty inside even a sense of remorse .

I had a good childhood, loving parents and popular to a point with my friends ,perhaps I was just bored and needed something exciting to do, extreme sports were never my thing though .

I remember the first time I did it , I was so sick even disgusted at myself but then it got better after doing it a few more times, since then I couldn’t wait for my next fix.

Only once did I nearly get caught by the police when they pulled me over for speeding, if they had took the time to check out the boot of my car they would have found enough to get a clear conviction on me and my sordid addiction would have been be out ,it was only down to luck they got a office down call over their radio, they just told me to slow down and couldn’t get away quick enough it was on the local news the next day so to whoever it was that slotted the officer you have my undying gratitude not only for my narrow escape but for also making me realise it was time to quit.

To me killing came easy, I’m a hunter,I watch my victims over a period of time, I come to know every move they make and when they are at their most vulnerable I strike I make it quick, leave no clues that way there are no mistakes on my part.

I have been on every tabloid in the country my notoriety secure in the annals of most wanted just like jack the Ripper and like him they’ll never get me. “No” I’ll quit while I’m ahead but there again perhaps just one more for the road. Happy New Year

[De Batz]

Resolution

 

The heat of battle is a good place to make a resolution, I suppose. Looking back on it now, from the distant reaches of my old age, it might seem that my recollections ought to be fuzzy, somehow, lacking the distinct detail of recent memories. It is not so, however. I wonder whether there is an element in what I remember of the extra flavour, the after-the-fact additions that enhance the story in the retelling, gradually accumulating until what is told is unrecognisable as what actually happened.

It happened at night, but in the flickering light of fire glinting from all manner of metal I could pick out the warped faces of friend and foe, indistinguishable because of their being alike in expressions of exultation. I fought my way through the press, trying to find sanctuary, desperate to be released from the press of bodies, sweating, heaving, limbs flailing, flinging salt liquid that stings the eyes.

As I looked round, I saw one man fall, lost beneath the moving throng, trampled into the murky, muddy grime. His face is still clear to me now, young enough for me to think even at the time that he was too young. Now I look back and my mind's eye sees him as a child of thirteen or fourteen, but that cannot have been true. Age has changed something, but whether it is my perception or the content of the memory itself I cannot tell.

I spoke of resolution. I did not intend when I began to recount this memory to make some great play of this moment, but it seems that the change it brought was of such significance that I can't help but do so. I saw him, and the effect was like the proverbial bolt of lightning. When I remember I do not see through my own eyes, but as though from the perspective of a bystander, looking at me and at him from some impossible angle. Impossible, because there cannot have been a place to stand from which you could see me and him without there being a mass of humanity in between.

I seem to stand proud of that melee, elevated perhaps. He likewise is alone, unsurrounded. The noise, the heat, the density of the atmosphere all disappear, a distant and dim background to the two figures who approach each other untouched by the hands of those around them. In that moment I decided, I made my vow. He comes close, such that I can see his long fingers, his easy, supple strength, his life. For a moment, hesitation takes me. But I am first.

 

“Would you like to dance?”

[greg2]

THE AUBURN HILLS RESOLUTION

 

There was a business owner in Auburn Hills who discovered on New Year’s Eve that his wife, a local beauty, had eloped with the Front of House Manager of the Plaza Hotel. The business owner spent a long but not celebratory evening in Ford’s Bar, eventually announcing, before being assisted from the premises, that his New Year’s Resolution was:

“I will get even with that pondlife.”

 

Rumours damaging to the Front of House Manager’s reputation began to circulate in the local community. The business owner was known to have hired the Pinkerton detective agency, at some cost. Coverage of the local hospitality industry in the Auburn Hills Chronicle seemed always negative in relation to the Plaza. The Front of House Manager was blackballed from the local Chamber of Commerce, depriving him of the networking opportunities afforded by the Annual Fundraising Turkey Dinner. A Wal Mart trolley full of rotting fish appeared on his front lawn. Meanwhile to enhance his chances of enticing the lady back, the business owner purchased a huge black Duesenberg Model J with dual windshields and whitewall tyres, which was said to be the largest car anywhere between Detroit and Canada. He purchased a matching new wardrobe of Italian suits both formal and casual, and memberships of several exclusive Country and Golfing Clubs in the area.

 

It emerged that the business owner, nearing destitution, had been back to Ford’s Bar trying to hire a local hoodlum to give the Front of House Manager a few bruises. The bruises never happened because the Front of House Manager left the area at short notice, to take up an appointment as General Manager of the Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids. The lady in question left with him. I hear they now have an old dog which they rescued after it had been abandoned in a wardrobe at the National Home Furnishing Convention that year.

[Ron Blanco]

Thank you to those who took part this month. I will consult with Tallyman and we will announce the winner in due course.

[Tallyman]

Thanks to January's contributors for three interesting takes on the theme. Ron Blanco and I have deliberated like Masterchef judges, and have reached a decision.

 

Mikomi, we liked the sinister angle you took, and the coldness with which you dealt with the subject, as if it was just another 'bad habit'. We didn't really get a clue as to where you were going until talk of the car boot, and then the awful truth emerged. Once it had emerged, perhaps we were hoping for some extra little angle to add a twist to the 'killer' theme. What if the writer had been a police officer, say?

 

DeBatz, we were well and truly misdirected for most of your piece. Talk of battle, fire and other suggestions of combat led us to imagine an entirely different scenario. Only at the end do we realise how easily all that can be applied to a social situation, and the final line rounds it off very neatly, sending us back up the page to read it all again in a new light.

 

Greg2, this was a very engaging tale. You gave us so much colour with so few words; mentions of the biggest car between Detroit and Canada, the turkey dinner, Ford's Bar - they all helped to place the story so well. The one thing that left us scratching our heads a little was the ending. We realised the business owner was thwarted, despite his grand gestures, but we didn't understand the relevance of the dog or the furnishing convention. Was that the businessman's business? Are we very, very dense?!

 

It was a close run thing, and thanks again for entering the competition.

 

January's winner is... DeBatz, who now gets to choose the theme for March.