“Leave me alone! ” Allie shrank from Mike’s touch.
Mike put his hands more firmly on Allie’s shoulders this time and pulled her back to him. “No, Allie, you owe me an explanation.”
“The hell I do! ” Allie hollered, pulling away again from Mike. She gave him a look that said loud and clear, “Touch me again and I’m calling 9-1-1.”
Mike got it. He just stood there, looking hurt. He backed a respectable distance away and asked, “You would forfeit our love for something that’s nothing but a memory in your head?”
“Love? ” Allie asked, screwing up her face in disbelief. She shook her head, like to clear cobwebs. “That’s not how it is, Mike.”
“How is it?” Mike countered, “Please. Tell me how it is!”
Allie’s voice softened, and she said wistfully, sweetly, “It’s about being true to myself. Mike, you’re a great guy and I could marry you and stay with you until you started shopping for a twenty-year-old trophy wife when I hit fifty. But it wouldn’t be real. I understand now that I want real or nothing.”
Mike was incensed. He yelled at Allie, “But this guy! This guy…this Tony person that you say you do have real feelings for! You had a one-night stand with him and then he never returned your phone calls or your e-mails! Don’t you get it? All he wanted was a one-time piece of ass!”
Allie smiled. She thought, “Piece of ass, my ass! That was my blaring example of how it should be.” In her mind, she began to go over every detail of her night with Tony…
She was in New York City on business, having drinks and dinner with clients, talking about VoIP, IP PBX, and IP trunking services solutions, and there he was by himself at a table finishing dinner, getting up, and oh my god, all five foot eleven of his gorgeous self… She could feel the pull of him from across the room.
Allie had hurried to excuse herself from her clients, from the table, to go to the powder room. She was too shy to speak to Tony, so she just passed by him and allowed her arm to whisper, “I want you”, as it brushed the sleeve of his jacket. She put a little extra into her walk and finished her uneventful, disappointing trip into the restroom.
He hadn’t said a word! She thought to herself, “He wasn’t attracted to me! He probably just left the place and didn’t even notice me!” She’d just stood there in the restroom at the vanity and stared at herself in the mirror until her face became a blur. Until something in her told her to go back out there, just go! And when she did, there he was standing in the waiting area looking at a magazine. He looked up at her. She didn’t plan on walking toward him. It just happened.
“Hello,” he’d said tenderly with interest in his voice.
“Hi,” she’d said. And that’s all she could have said.
Voices weren’t necessary anyway. Their eyes said the important things. The rest was arranging a tryst later that evening. The rest was to entwine themselves in lovemaking so high, so dreamlike, so unforgettable…
Mike grew impatient. “Allie? ”
“Oh… Ahhh… I think that Tony must never have gotten my messages…”
Mike looked at her, incredulous. Then he yelled, “Jesus! What is it going to take to wake you up from dreamland?”
Allie smiled at Mike, then looked off away and said, “Not you…”
PHOTO CREDIT
“Frozen in Time” http://flickr.com/photos/moopinator/2429584237/in/set-72157604618981645/, is from Mystic Ink’s Flickr photostream at http://flickr.com/photos/moopinator/. This guy is incredible! His photos are incredible! Go, if you’re a photo buff! Check them out : )
Missalister’s “3WW—Dreamland,” copyright © 2008, was spun off the 3WW prompts, “entwine, forfeit, tryst.” Click here to find other participants’ work in this week’s 3WW.
The Essence of a Thing 
Sadly beautiful. The descriptions in this work very well. Lots of dialogue, which can get tough. I had a Sunday Scribblings that I tossed (into a file) that was heavy on dialogue. You’ve pulled it off.
Very different narrative voice here, Ms A: to my ear, much more direct, straightforward, without the usual sass and pyrotechnics. I’m wondering if you consciously set out to do something different, or if the story itself just called it forth. Earlier Alister stories of this ilk would have all kinds of lava and froth around the edges, multiple layerings around the narrative thread. Do I prefer the sass and froth? Of course. But, that’s beside the point: the question is: what were you after, and did you get what you wanted? Did you want to peel things down to a sparer sound? Does it work for you?
Beautifully shows both the appeal and danger of dreamland. Makes me feel unsettled
and sad.
PASCHAL
You know me like wine and can smell swill from a mile off ;-)
This was a spur of the moment thing. I’ve been wondering about 3WW for awhile: should I add another straw to my back or not? I should not, but reading ThomG’s 3WW offering compelled me and I immediately began just writing dialog, filled it out, and stuck it on the ‘net.
I absolutely adore sass and froth, you know, but what I liked about this exercise was that it was like a speed drill. I don’t do many things fast. I’m a plodder, a piddler. And this was a huge triumph merely as proof that it’s possible for me to whip a story byte together in something like an hour.
You’re doing a bang-up job at keeping an eye on me, keeping me straight, my good, great friend! I appreciate it and the enlightening interaction that sasses and froths around the smooth rocks of it : )
____________________
ANNO
Thank you, anno! Yeah, I like it for showing that, too, and I like that it affected you : ) You may not believe this is coming from the likes of my dark self, but I like to think that Allie’s vow to accept real or nothing, alive or nothing, is a strength that will carry her with conviction through a life filled with the joy that’s a byproduct of living true.
it’s all abt the power and pull.. no second bests relating to security… what is security without the power and pull… single moments lasting a lifetime… or a short eternity with one who stays and speaks words…
PIECEOFPIE
Thank you for visiting again with your delicious icon : )
Where is timelessness in awareness when it’s needed??? Oh forget that. I’ll try to stick with the matter at hand…
Yes, yes you nutshelled Dreamland poetically expertly.
I’m a little behind on my reading, but happy to be catching up. I really enjoyed the back and forth banter. Very realistic.
It doesn’t appear to your readers that you have a problem coming up with ideas. You come up with lots of interesting ideas. Where do mine come from? I haven’t a clue. They just show up when I start writing. I always feel like someone is dictating, that I’m not really the author. I feel guilty taking credit.
I did think of something I do. I look at a prompt, be it word or photo, listen to my first thought for a story, discard that idea and try to go in the opposite direction.
BJ ROAN
Good to see you! I’m behind with my reading as well. Most of my computer time has been devoted to a work project I’m also behind on. The Life of Behind, I think is what it’s called that I live. LOL! I’ve been by your place twice to look at your last two pieces but Mr. Futility, manager of The Life of Behind, interrupted and I never finished… Now there’s a potential idea. But really I lock up when I look at a prompt most times. Consequently, my problem with SS prompts has been the mundanity of them, looking dead on at them and getting stuck in mundanity, in the high school essay. If there was a way to maybe cast a sideways glance at these prompts, to let my eyes glance off them and not be fully tainted so that I take away a hint of an idea of an idea…
People around me sometimes help me out of the mundanofunk but that’s why I asked you : ) And I really like the idea of chucking the first idea and going 180 degrees from it! Thanks, BJ’s guide ;-)