(25 minutes of writing, 5 minutes of editing. The first half of the first sentence was the prompt.)
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It was late on a Thursday evening, and Janice was just getting home from the gym. It had been a long and frustrating day. She was exhausted and very much looking forward to putting on her pj's, flopping down on the couch, and communing with a bowl of chocolate ice cream. As she fumbled with the key for the outer door, she noticed a slight movement out of the corner of her eye. Resisting her body's initial "fight or flight" reaction, she crouched down on the stoop and peered into the darkness. The dim light above the door was unable to pierce the gloom around the bushes. She couldn't see anything.
"Hello? Is there somebody down there?" Instinctively, she tightened her grip on the key-chain in her hand. If the noise turned out to be something dangerous, she could use a key as a weapon. After several moments of silence, the lure of her cozy apartment overcame her curiosity. She stood up.
There was another brief rustle from bushes, and a tiny orange kitten poked his nose out of the darkness.
"Mreow?" The kitten had clearly been on his own for some time. His ribs were evident along his sides, and the fur on his belly was matted with dirt. His starved body gave him the appearance of a bobble-head doll. "Mew!" Janice knelt down carefully to avoid startling the furry little visitor. She slowly reached her hand out toward him, but resisted actually touching him. The kitten took a quick step backward and huddled closer to the ground.
"Don't worry, little one. I'm not going to hurt you." Janice kept her voice low and calm. The kitten inched toward her, and gently touched one fingertip with his nose. He twitched backward slightly, but held his ground. "Aren't you a brave, little sweetheart?" Janice continued to croon to the kitten until he decided she was safe. Suddenly, he threw his entire body against her hand. He rubbed his bobbley head against her fingers. Looking up, he opened his tiny mouth. "Mew! Mreow! Mew!" She could see his pink tongue and sharp little baby teeth.
Janice swooped the kitten up in her hands and snuggled him to her face. His whiskers tickled her chin as he nuzzled her neck enthusiastically. "Poor baby! You must be starving! Let's go inside and get you some yummy milk. Then we can give you a nice bath and get you all cleaned up." The kitten began to purr loudly in agreement with this plan. Janice retrieved her keys and gym bag from the steps where she had dropped them and opened the door. "What are we going to call you? Such a handsome, orange kitty needs a good name! Hmm... maybe Rex or..." As she and the kitten disappeared into the golden light of the entryway, her voice faded away.
Suddenly Janice was feeling a lot better about her day.
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I made a conscious effort to write a positive, upbeat story today. I also made an attempt at having a clear beginning, middle, and end. I really enjoy these quick writes, but I think they allow me to get away with lots of build up (something that comes easy to me) while completely avoiding any kind of climax (something that is very difficult for me). These exercises are supposed to be helping me develop my writing, so I'm going to try to make myself stretch a little more in the future. Of course, Mikey says I should just take a page from Stephen King's book and have a giant spider come in and attack everyone. (Has anyone else noticed that a large percentage of his stories end that way?) :)
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