Tags
Automatic, Blue Lines, Brooklyn, Chicago, Free write, Key Yemaya Walker, Lake Lucerne, LES, Lower East Side, Mi Alma, N Lake Shore Drive, New York, The Smith, Timothy O'Tooles Pub, W Lakeshore Hotel Chicago, Words, Yo Luz Ro-De
Today, like other days, I made a normal request for a word to challenge me to write a new piece of something. I’ve taken a slight break, due to the growing workload, so upon a request, 3 friends provided 4 words for me to create new material from. Usually, I’d get 2 max and produce 2 days worth of work. With these words, I have tasked myself in creating a story using different mediums over a four day period to tell this tale.
My hope is to create something that you will like and enjoy.
The first word used provided by NY friend Yo Ro-De visit her blog here.
“Automatic”
Walking through the threshold, he vaguely remembered the house. Something had led him to board the flight and fly to his hometown, and aimlessly return to his childhood home. The woman allowed him into her home, though slightly wary of this stranger. Gone were the trees hiding the house from the street. The kitchen had been renovated, and the wall that separated it from the dining room that ran the expanse on the entry floor, was removed to allow for a modern update with stainless steel appliances and tile walls. Wood floors replaced the linoleum that greeted at the entrance, during his childhood.
“You used to live here son,” she asked trying to look into his weary eyes. A slight pain was evident in his eyes, yet she noticed a calm that settled him.
“Yes,” he answered. “The kitchen was half this size,” he admitted as he waved off her offer of a drink. He did not know what brought him back to this house that he had not visited in over the 20 years since they had moved away. Glancing toward the den, he recognized the floor to ceiling windows as they still looked out to familiar trees and Lake Lucerne. He grimaced remembering the adventure he and his friends would have running through the woods surrounding his home. He remembered the cold winter day that they took old wood planks that they had found and wrapping them with grocery bags thought they could create a floating raft. Within seconds the sinking at the crest of the lake proved them wrong. Continue reading
