Why do I find it hard to write the next line?

[venta]

Every so often, walking about, I see things which catch my attention. I want to know how they came to be there. I want to know the story behind them.

By which, of course, I mean I want there to be a story behind them. Why was the guy in Reading station clutching a handful of tall red roses (bare stems, no wrapping paper or cellophane) and staring so anxiously at the escalators? Nervous first date? Waiting for a partner after an argument? Would the lady (or gentleman) he waited for be pleased to see him? And where did the roses come from?

This morning, on a garden wall on my walk to the station, there was a bottle of cava. It was Freixenet - not top end, but decent stuff. It was open, and only an inch or so from the top.

What set of circumstances, or curtailed celebration, causes someone to leave a barely-touched bottle of pricey cava in the street?

Fans of flash fiction-writing are invited to explain either circumstance in <100 words :)

Comments

I want the truth to be told

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

Spandau Ballet!

Re: I want the truth to be told

[venta.livejournal.com]

True :)

[beckyl.livejournal.com]

Spandau Ballet, Gold?

I'm not up to flash fiction at present I'm afraid, maybe later.

[beckyl.livejournal.com]

Also, I'm not fast enough or completely correct with identification it seems...

[venta.livejournal.com]

I think it's True, rather than Gold (and you were just pipped at the post, above) but I think that wins half a kudo.

[zotz]

The next line, of course, should be "I'm functionally illiterate." It even pretty much fits the metre.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I think I'm seeing why you never became the Mike Stock of your generation. Which is rather a shame, really.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

He could still become the Laughing Stock of his generation.


</gratuitously rude cheap laugh about person whom I've never actually met>

[zotz]

That rather assumes I haven't already.

[venta.livejournal.com]

person whom I've never actually met

You should. I think you'd get along splendidly.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Sounds good! Maybe you should invite us both to dinner, like a sort of blind date...

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well, if I have to enterain two grumpy old vegetarians, I might as well do them both at once :)

On which note... are you ever in London these days? I'd love to invite you to dinner if I thought it would be remotely convenient for you to show up.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Of course, if you aren't in London but would like to be, we do have a spare room which is large enough to hold you and UndyingQueen.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

We're scarcely ever in London just lately, unfortunately, mostly because of my current family situation. But it would be really nice to see you -- and that might actually give an excuse to have a day out too; we can book in cover here. Perhaps you could drop me an email with some thoughts about dates?

[venta.livejournal.com]

OK, will do!

[mejoff.livejournal.com]

Actually, it doesn't. I mean, any half decent vocalist could shoehorn it, but that's not quite the same thing.

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

It fits the metre as well as the chorus rhymes in Gold. (gold, soul, know, indestructiboooeeelll for anyone who didn't know and actually cares).

[mrlloyd.livejournal.com]

Having already consumed three bottles of Cava, it is perhaps not surprising that I can't remember exactly where I left the fourth.

[glamwhorebunni.livejournal.com]

"Let us drink this quite reasonable cava to celebrate the demise of that danged Gordon once and for... Wait! GORDON'S ALIVE!"

[rabbit1080.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFnmT82yGpk

ahem.

[glamwhorebunni.livejournal.com]

It's the only form of Flash fiction that I recognise. The series was rubbish.

[glamwhorebunni.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's not quite true. I suppose I could have written a Flash fiction that was along the lines of:

"Well, what else could I do? With Bismark intent on destroying my reputation, and smarting from loosing my bet with Prince Bertie, it was time to head back to Elspeth. Liberating a few roses from the vase in the centre of the table, I went to meet her..."

[rabbit1080.livejournal.com]

Never watched the series (not sure that I'd heard of it much before now).
The film was fun, and frivolous.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

I think it might have been a bottle of wee.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I did wonder about that :)

I don't think so - colour looked wrong to me. Mind you, I don't really spend that much time peering at 75cl bottles of wee.

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

That was my thought.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

And where did the roses come from?

All sorts of possibilities. South Africa might be a good bet at this time of year I suppose.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Possibly you're deliberately missing my point for comic effect :)

If not... buying roses at any time of the year is fairly simple (if costly). However, roses from a florist will be wrapped up, or at the very least tied together at the stems.

These weren't. He had them loose in his hand, as if they'd just been picked from his garden. Maybe they were, though if so he was a champion rose-grower (or, ahem, one of his neighbours was).

Maybe he bought them from a florist, but took the wrapping off. I don't know. It was just an unusual sight.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

missing my point for comic effect

People often seem to suspect me of that, for some reason...

I think picking them at home, or at someone else's home, would be pretty tricky in February; even for the championest of growers. Maybe he'd been running along carrying them and the wrapping had got snarled up and manky, so he figured it would look better just to discard it completely.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Just to set the record straight, I saw rose-guy some time ago. So it was probably October - still not prime UK rose-growing season, but mildly more probable than February.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Aha, yes, some of our roses here were still in good flower in Oct. He really stuck in your mind then!

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

Is Freixenet drinkable? Whenever I see bottles like that on the street my inital thought is "well, at least they tried it and left the rest for someone else to enjoy."

Or maybe their father drove by and took them home, because they were fourteen and drinking what they could find in the "bottles to take to other people's houses" pile.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I think it's drinkable. It has a £9.99-usually-reduced-to-£4.99 incarnation which is a bit ambivalent, but its upper echelons are decent.

I'm sure leathellin will be along shortly to put me right.

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's as drinkable as all that. I found a bottle of in the street once, too, and I must say it tasted like wee.

[condign.livejournal.com]

I wanted her to know: to know exactly how I loved her, but how she hurt me, and so I stood there at the bottom of the escalator that I knew she'd descend, waiting, clutching the stems of the stolen red roses in a hand white with tension, feeling them bite into my palms. [1]

I'd come up with the idea while Mike and I were drowning our sorrows next to Ms. McClintock's rose garden. He'd splurged on some upmarket fizz, and we'd only started into the bottle when he said, "That b---- is like these flowers. Pretty, but you can't touch 'em." I don't know whether he was talking about his dame or mine, but either way, it's no way to speak about a lady.

So I punched him out. Funny how the brain works: as the shock ran up to my elbow, I realized he was kind of right. And that she needed to know. So I grabbed a handful of stems, tipped my hat to Ms. McClintock as a gesture of respect, caught a cab to the station, and began a long night of waiting.

Pity I forgot the bottle.

Not great prose, but might as well give it a try for you.

[1] This sentence should be an entry in a Bulwer-Lytton competition.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Your ability to rise magnificently to any given occasion or challenge is why I miss you ;)

[condign.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I indulged in 200 words, since I was dealing with both parts of the story, so sorry for cheating.

I've been trying to weave together a book out of the crazy things I've seen on this trip. Not easy, but I'm working on it.

[glittertigger]

Excellent effort ;)