A Bit About Me

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Along with my daily duties as founder and head writer of HumorMeOnline.com, in 2003, I took the Grand Prize in the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (also known as the "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" competition). I've also been a contributor to "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" and the web's "The Late Show with David Letterman". I also occupy my time writing three blogs, "Blogged Down at the Moment", "Brit Word of the Day" and "Production Numbers"...and my off-time is spent contemplating in an "on again/off again" fashion...my feable attempts at writing any one of a dozen books. I would love to write professionally one day...and by that I mean "actually get a paycheck".

08 February 2013

Esmerelda and the Area Known as 51



It was just about dusk as Esmerelda sat behind the counter filing her nails at the only gas station in Goldfield, Nevada.

She had sat behind that counter every day, or near about every day, since her daddy got taken ill with a raging fever that ended up taking his breath away. Momma prayed hard that day and asked Esmerelda, "Sing with your angel voice, child, sing so the angels can hear and come straight to your daddy to 'take him home'."

Esmerelda obliged.

She was just a girl of about seven...but her voice could make grown men weep - and when the town, once a boom town for gold, started to get deserted, grown men wept for other reasons. Esmerelda didn't really understand where "home" was. She just knew when people got bit real bad by snakes or had the consumption, they always went "home" and then no one ever saw them again. They parceled you up real good, too. Put you in a big wooden box to send you there. She figured a special postman with a big wagon and two horses came to take you back "home" and your family would walk as far as they could and then came back again...crying.

But no one came back once they went home. And for a very long time Esmerelda was afraid to ever go home, but as she never lived anywhere else, she figured she was already there. Then, as all things go, time passed and she understood about "home" and then was worried her momma would go there one day. Sometimes she'd find herself doing chores 'round the house and her sweet voice would pour out like liquid sunshine and kiss the ears of everyone within earshot. Then she'd clam up and run outside as far and as fast as she could. She didn't want those angels to find her momma.

But now she was filing her nails and Curtis was in the garage of the gas station shouting obscenities each time he'd smash a finger. Curtis worked at the little grocery store and service station that was smack on the edge of town. Smack on the edge of town to nowhere really. Wasn't anything much before or after the town and certainly wasn't much there. The only thing within miles was Las Vegas and the only time people came through Goldfield anymore was because they heard it once had gold...but that was a considerable time ago, but that never stopped the passers-by who lost everything but gas money out of Vegas. Goldfield was a tank of gas away...and if they got lucky and found the stray nugget, it was a tank of gas back. And the only place to get that gas was at Esmerelda's daddy's store, "Old Bob Perkins' Place" it was called by the locals and that's what it will always be called if Esmerelda and her momma had anything to do with it.

It didn't cost much to run and Curtis got paid only when he fixed something, which wasn't very often, but then again, Curtis was never going to amount to much anyway...but that never stopped him from trying to hit on Esmerelda.

He had it all worked out in his simple head. He'd marry Esmerelda when the time was right and that time would be any day now seeing as she was starting to fill out her dresses too much and started wearing her momma's. Then he and Esmerelda would move in with his momma as she had the biggest house for miles around. Curtis never knew why she did, he only knew they didn't want for anything...but he never much wanted for anything anyway...anything but Esmerelda, that is. And that "wanting" wasn't exactly like wanting a new tire or wanting a new pair of shoes -- it was more like wanting some dinner...only sometimes this hunger seemed a lot deeper. Curtis, again, never really knew why.

But Esmerelda's hunger and desire didn't lie with Curtis...she wanted to go to Hollywood...or at least Vegas. She liked the distinct smell of ozone once when daddy took the family on a trip up there shortly before he died. Once in a while, on a warm still night, Esmerelda swore she could still catch a whiff of it if the breeze was blowing just right and if she turned her head just so.

Esmerelda knew she didn't have much time, either. The desert sun can blanch the bones of a dead thing white in a couple days...and the supple, taut skin of a young girl of 15 turns into something hard and leathery like the cowboys and Mexicans wore in those "shoot 'em up" movies she wanted to star in. Star in them right up there on the silver screen with Gary Cooper or John Wayne. Even though Esmerelda only went to a movie once, she knew that's what she wanted to do...she also knew, aside from "going home", that was her only ticket out of Goldfield.

And the best way to get there was on a tank of gas after someone found a big enough nugget.

So, each day she came to work dressed in her momma's best clothes, her hair styled as closely as she could get it to resemble the latest "starlet of the month" on the magazine cover and smelling of something called "L'amore de Parisienne". It cost a whole fifty cents...the finest her daddy's store carried. And there she would wait, filing her nails, anticipating that one day, and one day soon, a big Hollywood director would need a fill-up on his way scouting around for a new place to shoot a film...discover her in all her momma's Sunday finest...and sweep her away to the place where dreams can be made real...or at least as close to the reality she always dreamt about.

Each day, she'd walk home more disappointed than the last...and the days she spent waiting turned into weeks, then months, and finally years. Curtis had filled out enough to become interesting to her...and as he was the only boy close her age for miles, his dream was beginning to look like it would be her dream as well.

(End of Part 1)

(Originally posted 24 Mar 11)



(What does this have to do with the "We Work for Cheese" prompt "French" today?  The perfume, silly, the perfume...it's French.  Now go on over to the site and read all the other contributors for the "30 Minus 2 Days of Writing" competition/non-competition.)





22 comments:

  1. I got it. There's a Part 2? Sacre bleu!

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  2. Hmm? They are in Area 51, anything could happen...

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  3. First, congrats on being first. You deserve all of the rewards that will come your way due to this accomplishment.
    Second, this is a great piece - I love it and your phrasing is tres magnifique!

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    1. I know - you don't know how much I wanted to be in that coveted spot. Yes, I am a childlike dork. :)

      Thank you. :)

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  4. Quite the story there... will part 2 be showing up, or do we need to dig in the archives?? :)

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    1. I've never done part 2. I need to do part 2. I thought, perhaps, it could be an actual book...if I tried hard enough and if the words would come in the right order. It would be nice to write a book - a book that sells. Always have wanted to. But I have to really sit down and try and not give up each time.

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  5. Oh, I really enjoyed this. There is a reason I post before I read everyone else's. Can't wait for Part 2.

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    1. I post and then read as well. I don't want to read first. All my ideas are mine and when I see similarities - it's fun to think what you thought no one else would say...has been said already.

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  6. This is a sad, beautiful, and haunting piece of writing, Mariann. I liked it the first time I read it, and I like even better now. Nice work, and it's very appropriate for today's prompt.

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    1. Thanks, Mike. I know you read it before and you always say nice things. :)

      I wish I could sit down with my Ambien (that is how it happened with this Part I) and just let the words slide out of my head and onto the keyboard. I wish it would - but the Ambien doesn't work for me like it used to and I get a bit afraid that it wasn't me writing...but some inner me that only comes out after taking mind-messing drugs.

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  7. Congrats on the first spot, Mariann. ;) I hope you'll be posting part 2 soon, I can't wait to see what happens. :)

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    1. I was a happy little clam seeing that spot empty!

      I thought of an ending for the whole story - now, all I have to do is the middle. :)

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  8. Hey Mariann, I liked this character study; I'm drawn to characters. I look forward to the next installment. Indigo

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    1. Hey, Indigo...thanks. I usually write about things that go on with me - but sometimes I do other types of writing. I had never written like this - and one nite it just happened. I thought it was pretty interesting myself. It's like I was there, watching these people.

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  9. 50 cent perfume? I don't want to burst your bubble - or Esmerelda's - but it ain't French! :-) Nicely done Mariann. And congratulations on being first. You win first place!

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    1. Now, don't you dare burst the bubble for poor little Esmerelda...that's the finest perfume her daddy's store sells...has fancy words on it...and smells stronger than the others. It just HAS to be from France. Nothing on the shelves there cost THAT much. (Hey, this was a little ago, too. Not just last week.)

      Let the poor girl dream. :)

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  10. Wonderful writing. The kind that makes you picture it all... feel the heat, the dust, hear the song...!

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  12. Mariann, this is a beautiful piece of writing. It's filled with so much melancholy and gentle empathy. We all repost blog entries now and then in order to put the best of our work on display. I can definitely see why you chose this one. Strong work.

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  13. KZ - For some reason, people really liked Esmerelda and wanted to know more about her. I'm always telling my kids I want to write a book - and I have a couple started...if you can call a couple pages and no ending and no middle "started".

    I wrote this one a year or so ago - and about a month ago, I woke up with the ending. Maybe, just maybe, all I have to do is come up with the middle bits...and I have a book?

    I haven't a clue how it's done - I never wrote a book, so who's to say that's not how Shakespeare did it, right? :)

    Thank you for your kind words, btw. Words like that I never tire of hearing.

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