likely story

“What happened in here?”

The twins exchanged a frantic glance and then pointed as one to the cat.  She lounged in a ray of sun make its way across the floor, licking one paw, and paying no attention to the proceedings around her.

“You really expect me to believe that sweet little Belle created all this wreckage?”

They nodded in unison and pointed to their cat again.  Belle, for her part, remained impassive to the whole affair.  She had moved on to a different paw though: lick, lick, lick.

“You know you aren’t supposed to ever lie to Mommy, right?”

Eyes wide, their nods gained enthusiasm.  They were very aware of that truth and would never dream of doing any such thing.   Earnestly they turned their faces back and forth between her and the cat, imploring her to believe them.

Incredulous, she shook her head and steered them away from the bulk of the mess, “Okay, but you are going to have to help me clean this up.  Which of you wants to go grab the broom?”

Two hands shot up, and smiling, she dismissed them both to retrieve the sweeper.  Hands on her hips she surveyed the damage.  Every dish on the table, set out ahead of dinner, had crashed to the floor when the tablecloth had been pulled from one side.  Luckily, it hadn’t been anything too expensive and some of the pieces had survived the fall anyway.  Kneeling she began to collect the larger shards in the fabric which she would use to transport them to the trash bin outside.

As the mom worked, Belle stretched lazily, rose to her haunches, gave her right paw one last lick for good measure, and then sauntered out of the room.  Hours later, after the mess had been cleaned up, dinner had been served and cleared away, and the family had gone to their beds, Belle returned to the scene of the crime.  She spryly jumped onto the table and sprawled to her full length.  She glared in the direction of the twins’ room.

They shouldn’t have tattled on her, and she would have to teach them a lesson.

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Word Count: 359

I just never know where these Inspiration Monday posts are going to go:

The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

CHILDHOOD HERO
WRECKAGE
BACKGROUND PEOPLE
FORK
FAKE NEWS

Revis prompts me to ramble about movies

Revis asked: If you could make a sequel to any movie that doesn’t already have one, what would it be, and what would it be about?

I spent a whole lot more time pondering these questions than I thought I would.  With the vast catalog of movies constantly rumbling around in my brain I thought it would be super easy to pick one where the ending had begged for a sequel that had never been delivered.

Unfortunately, as is often the case with the mind of a jester, I went straight to joke answers.  For example:  There should definitely be a sequel to Spiderman 2 (there was, of course, but the third movie was so terrible that I refuse to recognize it.)  Or, there should definitely be a sequel to The Return of the Jedi (while these haven’t been made yet, the rights have been purchased and it is only a matter of time before the next trilogy gets rolled out).  Or, they should definitely make Dragons of Winter Night into a movie…  That one probably means a lot less to most of you, but those who watched the terrible Dragons of Autumn Twilight Movie understand that it really wouldn’t have been good for them to make the sequel – they would need to just start the whole thing over – either with better animators, or with a live action cast.  The story deserves better.

So…  you see, my mind tumbled from one joke answer to the next, which did nothing to help me come up with how to actually respond to Revis’ prompt.

Currently my mind is spinning around all the movies where the ending felt unfinished, hanging, and where I was furious that they had ended the way they did.  Often this happens in most of the anime series I watch – I never like the endings, because they don’t “end” but then they also don’t have any new episodes to continue the story line, leaving me feeling incomplete.  “What happens next?!”  I felt the same way at the end of the Harry Potter series (more the books than the movies), okay great (spoiler alert) the good guys win, but then what?  What adventures does he have after the fact?  I want more!

Still, I think I can do better than that.  I’m going to cut myself off from superhero movies altogether, and movies based on books, and anything that is part of a series already.  Where does that leave me?  What genre should I pick?  Would we want a sequel to So I Married An Axe Murderer?  Would we want a sequel to Contact?  Or Signs?  Or Sixth Sense for that matter?  How about learning what happens after The Day After Tomorrow?  Would we want to know if the love stories worked out in the end with sequels for Notting Hill or Love Actually?  What would the next chapters in Lost in Translation or The Royal Tenenbaums look like?  So many movies, so many unanswered questions, so many story lines that could be.

And now this is getting a bit long so I need to wrap it up… make a choice… get it down and explain it away…  I better reread the prompt:

If you could make a sequel to any movie that doesn’t already have one, what would it be, and what would it be about?

If I could make a sequel to any movie that doesn’t already have one, I would write the next scenes after the final credits rolled on Wall-E.  The movie would tell a tale of Wall-E and EVA helping the humans figure out how to survive on Earth.  The first half would consist of trying to wean people off the ships automated food services as they waited for plants to grow, relinquishing their chairs and getting healthy working in the soil under the sun, and relearning how to communicate face to face, resolve issues, fall in love, etc…  The second half of the movie the characters would face the major problem of having to protect their crops from the raging dust storms, and ward off an attempted mutiny by some of the passengers who didn’t trust that they could survive on Earth and tried to figure out how to get the ship up and fully operational again (including turning AUTO back on).  There would be laughs, and drama, and tears, and a cockroach that never gets squished.

What sequel would you make?  (Make sure you link back to Revis’ post when you answer.)