Writing Stories

I am an author of cozy mysteries: the Meg Sheppard Mystery Series, which can be found on Amazon at amazon.com/author/vickyearle but I also enjoy writing short stories. As a member of the Uxbridge Writers' Circle, I get the chance to participate in the "Word Challenge": we each select a word and then we write a short story using all of these words. We also write a very short story "on the spot", limited to ten minutes, using various prompts, such as photographs.
This is one of the Word Challenge stories I wrote. The words I had to use are in italics.
I hope you enjoy it!

Nuptial Bliss

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Newly-weds are supposed to continue in nuptial bliss at least until they return home from the honeymoon.

           

The wedding was held in a fantasy world created by Don, and Sybil had been enraptured from beginning to end. Her cheeks hurt from holding a smile for so many hours. Don had said that he was determined to make her smile, to show off the perfect, whitened teeth she hid so well most of the time. He said she took life too seriously, she needed to lighten up.

            The ceremony took place in a simulated ancient Greek temple, with its ionic columns wrapped in green vines and white cone-shaped flowers. The marble floor was covered in perfumed pink rose petals, and a harpist plucked her strings, surrounding the wedding party with heavenly music. Sybil half-expected to see angels float down from the bright blue ceiling.

            Yes, it was perfect. Sybil was certain that she’d done the right thing in agreeing to marry Don, having quashed the doubts stirred up by her father and brother. Both of them thought it was the wrong thing to do – for her to marry a subordinate. At the very least, Don should leave her father’s company. It just wouldn’t work. And her father was adamant that there was no room for Don at the top.

            Sybil stood, breathing in the soft scent of the petals, convinced that she and Don would live happily ever after, just like the romance novels (which she loved) promised with their happy endings.

            Don and Sybil had agreed to delay their honeymoon until after the company’s year-end, but each started planning the special vacation a couple of days after the wedding.

            Sybil wanted a simple honeymoon, to hike along the Amalfi Coast in Italy, perhaps, staying at various bed and breakfast places. Being outdoors, walking in nature, listening to birds, discovering silvery spider webs, acted like a tonic for Sybil. She had her most creative ideas while hiking in the woods - often solving problems, sometimes bringing issues into a more balanced perspective, and always feeling re-energized, ready to get back to work.

She knew Don loved the outdoors too, so she was certain it would be easy to plan this get-away, together.

But Don had jumped the gun, and had booked a week at a ranch in Wyoming. When he told her this news, his smile was broader than Sybil’s had been on their wedding day, if that was possible. Don knew she loved the outdoors. They would be helping in the round-up – gathering hundreds of cattle scattered across the summer range, which covered thousands of mountainous and forested acres.

When Sybil said she hadn’t ridden a horse since she was a little girl, Don’s eyes sparkled as he told her that they offered riding lessons, and taught riders the basic techniques used in cattle work. He said that the clincher was that the food was fantastic, and there would be lots of it.

Sybil’s stomach fluttered. Her cheeks flushed and burned. She wasn’t used to decisions being made for her. She was accustomed to her position of authority, of having her opinion respected, and of having the final say on just about everything that affected her life and work.

Don brought up the website on his laptop and, as he became more animated, gesturing, pointing and peering, Sybil retreated, sitting back, keeping quiet, fiddling with her wedding ring.

“Oh, aren’t you interested?” Don asked, as he turned to look at her.

“It’s not my idea of a honeymoon.”

“You don’t want to go to one of those shitty resorts, do you? Or one of those floating prisons?”

“No.”

“Well, then, this is the thing.” He turns back to the laptop, quiet now, rapt in the pictures and lengthy description.

Sybil stood up as a sigh escaped from between her dry lips.

“Okay, then,” Don said.

Sybil turned, anticipating that he would cancel the booking.

“I’ll take Pete with me. You don’t have to go.”

That’s the moment when Sybil decided to cancel the marriage.

And Don didn’t return to work after his vacation on the ranch.

Their nuptial bliss didn’t even make it to the honeymoon.

Vicky Earle Copyright 2019