Who's Rotten?

"What’s the matter with you? Why don’t you just stop it? Fuck! It doesn’t matter what I do; you just keep on with this bullshit. I can see now how it’s going to be. You’re nothing but trouble, rotten just like your mother, stupid whore. You have no future."

He gripped the wailing bundle of arms, legs and lolling head in his hands shaking her as he screamed, "Stop it! Stop, crying! Shut the fuck up!" He tossed the 3 week old across the room where she landed on the dingy sofa, the light gone from her baby blue eyes.

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I penned this for the 100 word challenge in answer to the prompt for the week, rotten.  Check out Velvet Verbosity to read how rotten inspired other writers.     

This is a tough, hard to read or write topic, but every year 1,200 to 1,400 cases of Shaken Baby Syndrome are reported in the US.  Recently, a man was arrested in this very rural area I live in after his infant son died of massive head trauma.  It breaks my heart to hear of such unnecessary tragedy and I think...if only that angry care giver would just call someone or walk out the door for a few minutes and take a deep breath. 

An Apple a Day

She turned the red cheeked orb, bit through the crisp skin and into the mushy flesh of the apple. Clear juice seeped out and down the side of her chin as she chewed and breathed through her open mouth. An old familiar tingling began to bother her nose. She wiggled it and sniffed. She placed the apple on the page she was reading from Thackeray's Vanity Fair and pinched her nose with two fingers trying to dislodge the tickle with no success. Her mouth formed an O while her eyes began to squint in an awkward facial expression. Just as she grabbed a tissue from the box next to her, she drew back, gasped a quick short breath, and released into the room a gale-force sneeze of epic proportions.


Falling back against pillows, she closed her eyes, trying to breathe comfortably through her open mouth, while enduring body aches that felt as if someone in a black SUV had run over her repeatedly. An unrestrained, raspy cough erupted and she moaned, "This really sucks," as she rubbed across her forehead with stiff fingers pressing aching sinuses.

With a sigh, she dabbed at her roughened, red nose flaking skin from too much tissue attention and squeaked out a blow into a fresh Kleenex. Her body lay in a listless heap on the sofa while reruns of Boston Legal droned on in the background. She reached for the apple again, glaring at it through tear-blurred eyes, "Phhht...an apple a day.  A lot of damn good you do," she said dropping it into the wastebasket where it lay contrasting red against mounds of white spent tissues.

I'd written another piece for Willow's Magpie Tales apple prompt, but this one just fits better.  Yes, September brought a cold/sinus infection and I'm feeling exactly what I described and yes... this sucks.  Now back to bed and Loving Frank a book by Nancy Horan.

100 Word Challenge: Magical Moment

They met on a little train. The warm morning had turned the boy’s cheeks pink, yet next to him sat an old man clad in a long, black wool coat. As the child intently studied the brown almond eyes and road-mapped face the ancient one smiled and with two fingers traced down the cheek of the two-year old. He spoke gentle words to my child, his language unknown to me.

I looked on in amazement. Two souls, one tired and worn and one fresh and new met and exchanged a magical moment that spanned cultures and generations. It was beautiful.

Want to read more?  Journey over to Velvet Verbosity's 100 Word Challenge and read what other wonderful writers have to say about the word prompt for the week, fingers.

This really happened to my child on the train at Disneyland when he was two.  It was one of the perfect moments that life presents to us every once in awhile.  My son doesn't remember it, but I do and I will always remember this magical moment.