Friday, August 20, 2010

Weekly Wordzzle Challenge Week 123


It's week 123 of the Weekly (formerly known as "Saturday") Wordzzle Challenge. Special thanks to Please Don't Feed the Pixies for supplying me with words for this week's challenge and to Argent for next week's words. Much appreciated indeed. I have enjoyed a break from making them up myself, thought this was a REALLY tough set of words to deal with. Whew! Glad to be done even if my efforts are not the best.



Words for this week's 10-word challenge were:
rocks, rip this joint, casino, tumbling dice, frayed, angel, cup, on the run, ventilator, face   
and for the mini: 
wine, plundered, signifying, river, survivor









My mega:



Marcus looks at the woman with the face of an angel entering the casino and everything blurs around him - the tumbling dice, the roulette wheel, the crowded room. His cup of coffee falls from his hands. His chest tightens, signifying the onset of an asthma attack and he wishes his ventilator wasn't up in his room, which seems miles away. But then the present seems far away too. That face has transported him back in time. He is on the run, his boat and body broken by the raging river and the rocks. His clothes are torn and frayed and he is exhausted, almost at the point of death. The plundered wine has been taken by the water. He hears death stalking him, surprised at the music - Rip This Joint - that will escort him to the other side. His eyes focus briefly he sees that death is a woman, stunningly beautiful - could it be he will go to heaven despite his sins.... Next thing he remembers is the smell of perfume and the sound of soft humming and he realizes that he is a survivor. Death has not taken him after all. He groans softly and the humming stops. The kind face is looking down at him, spooning soup into his mouth and then she is gone. It is all a haze of memory, but he has been looking for her ever since, not sure if she was real or truly some guardian spirit. Now - his breath ragged - he wonders if she is his angel or death or....



My 10-word:

Angel Ramirez gently put the cup of the ventilator mask over the face of the man lying on the floor of the Tumbling Dice Casino. He wrapped the slightly frayed blood pressure cuff around the man's arm and was glad to get a good reading and to find his pulse strong and his consciousness returning. Whiskey sour on the rocks, his patient mumbled, apparently unaware of his present condition. "No more for you tonight, sir," he said gently, "we're going to take you to the hospital and get you checked out. Do you remember collapsing?" Angel loved being an EMT, loved the excitement of a job that kept him on the run and allowed him - sometimes - to actually save a life. He felt so fortunate that when he made his big mistake the judge - instead of punishing him with jail - had set him on this path. He had saved his life... and 3 years later, Angel had had the good fortune to return the favor quite literally. Today was going to be another happy ending. Once he and his partner got their patient settled, he turned up the volume on the abulance's stereo (Rip this Joint was playing), turned on the siren and hit the road. Life was good.



and the mini:

Wilson Braveheart looked at the small sign that had been erected near the twisted old oak tree signifying the spot where the Wine River Massacre had taken place almost 100 years before. The white soldiers had attacked the sleeping village - which consisted of mostly women and children - raping, murdering, plundering in a blood-bath so violent and viscious that even the Indian fearing society of that day and time had been horrified. Wilson's grandmother had been one of three survivors. She wouldn't speak of it, but his mother had told him the story. He had looked for it in the history books, but mostly they were silent. That's why he had decided to come here to the spot. He would write the screen play and make it into a movie. Such events should not be allowed to be forgotten. Since he couldn't take away his grandmother's pain - it had been unmistakable to him even when he was a child - he could at least make sure that it was not forgotten.







***********





Thank you Argent for next week's words!









Words for next week's 10-word challenge are: corner, cold-stone, rolex, sole, effortless, raindrops, eyebrow, speaker, amusing, leapt



And for the mini: fluid, acreage, fasten, tripe, pages






Thank you for playing! Newcomers can check here for some guidelines (and they are only guidelines, not rules) to make the process more fun.







Enjoy! See you next week!



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your name to Mr. Linky!



5 comments:

The Bug said...

Oh I think they're great stories! I like all three of them - two stories of redemption & one of memory. Nice.

Argent said...

Hi Raven. My Wordzzle is up now, but it's late-late-late, so I'll be back after a sleep to sample yours and everyone else's.

Argent said...

I think you excelled yourself this week with these none-too-easy words. The first two linked stories were really atmospheric (I almost tried to work Tumbling dice Casino into my story, heh!). And your last one chimes in really well with the theme of a speech I shall be giving at Toastmasters soon.

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

I liked the first one the best - the use of present tense really made it stand out

Well done with the words

Mr Casinos said...

It’s wonderfull a addions on Mars Rover.Thanks for sharing it.Keep up