I have been nominated for another TELL THE STORY Challenge by Rory, aka A Guy Called Bloke and K9 Doodlepip! as you can see from his post below:
https://aguycalledbloke.blog/2019/02/12/tell-the-story-the-hidden/
I am going to admit, the photo prompt that Rory gave me frightened the living daylights out of me! You can click onto Rory’s post to see the photo if you like, but it scared me too much to use the whole thing. So I have cropped it and am just using a less scary part of the photo! The photo prompt is directly under the title and I have thrown in a few extras just to brighten up my story.
He Said He Loves My Femininity
I was so self-conscious as I sat opposite him. I kept looking down at the table and then sipping the cocktail slowly. I was too embarrassed to make eye contact with him. He looked as if he wanted to gobble me up. I could not bare the way he had looked me up and down when I walked into the bar earlier in the evening.
He told me he likes that I am “all woman”. What on earth is that supposed to mean? I thanked him before I started pondering what he meant. He asked me what bra size I take! I was mortified with embarrassment. Could he possibly have made himself seem any more like a creep??? I said I am not really sure right now as I have not had a proper fitting for three years so I am probably wearing the wrong size underwear. I think my Dad would have told me to leave at that point.
When it came to ordering food, I chose a very light starter and told him I was not hungry. I had completely lost my appetite once he started making such embarrassing personal comments. He commented that it must take a lot of discipline to keep myself in such great shape. That’s when I started to feel sick. I started fidgeting with every item on the table, and straightening the place settings and napkin.
He started telling me that his mother was in and out of hospital when he was a very young child, so he has always felt he missed out on the natural closeness most children have with their mothers. He said that he had always looked for a woman who had a motherly character. I sat there hearing what he had to say in horror, wondering why he was telling me at this point that he has “mummy issues”, and praying silently “oh ground, please open up and swallow me whole”!
He reached his arm across the table and took my hand in his and said to me: “I love your femininity.” With that I had to excuse myself from the table and I rushed towards the ladies. I was so sick!
I am blaming Goldfinch!
I have spent a year in love and I know I am glowing. I know it and it is annoying. I know I am womanly and feminine, gentle, soft-spoken, graceful, mild, just like my mother. After I was attacked, I was prickly, hostile, stern and cold. But Goldfinch made all of that melt away and with him I started to glow again.
It’s a scary place to be. I don’t want to be told I am feminine and womanly by other men. I want to be safely wrapped up in Goldfinch’s arms away from anyone else.
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Alright I will admit, I find it hard to write flash-fiction when I have so many stories from my life that I can write about. For those who were inquisitive about the two dates I have been on since Goldfinch left, this post may help you to envision why it was I ended up being sick on my first date. The second date was not much better.
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So this is the photo I am giving to my nominees for the TELL THE STORY Challenge:
Now I know there are lot of these TELL THE STORY Challenges floating around and I do not know who is participating in them, and who has had too many nominations already. So I don’t want anyone to feel any obligation especially if the do not feel inspired by the photo. The three bloggers I am going to nominate are:
I have a few favourites, but whether I will start reading them depends on my mood very much. If I have a lot on my mind and need something light-hearted and cheery, I would probably choose Jane Austen, because I know her stories will divert me and cheer me up.
But even more often, I have read my personal favourite Jane Austen novel “Persuasion”. I love it. I adore Anne Elliot! She stands out amidst so many pompous or frivolous characters. It must be so difficult to feel the man she loves views her with bitter resentment, and that he cannot forgive her for letting him down. From the very start I want her to have a happy ending. However, Jane Austen leaves me in agony right to the very end!
However, there are times, when I am hungry for a book that is more epic, more of a feast. I indulge in page after page of vivid description and detailed scene setting! I save these for times when I have a lot less on my mind, because when I read one of these books I have to immerse myself into them for the longer period of time it takes to read them.
“Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo. I had started this novel for the first time believing it to be a romance. I was so wrong! It is hard for me to convey how much the book contains, because I feel I cannot do it justice. It is an incredibly epic story of the lives of people effected by injustice and suffering, touched by acts of unselfish kindness and benevolence, the battle between bitterness and hope, despair and faith, and the yearning for true peace of mind and security.
It is one of my favourite books because I find myself diving into a world of people, and although they are fictional characters, they are believable, because we know how much injustice and suffering there has been for centuries. Stories of individuals facing the frustrations of injustices, whose paths all cross during the scenes that develop around the barricade. The setting for this book being the very real upheaval in French history, the injustices and hardship experienced by the poorest. It is all so provoking and makes you feel so much for these fictional characters who were facing unfairness and frustrations which have been very real for millions if not billions of humans.
“The Three Muskateers” by Alexandre Dumas – I enjoyed the whole series culminating in “The Man In The Iron Mask”. The reason I loved these books is the jam-packed action. So very different from Jane Austen! I was reading these books and found myself literally “on the edge of my seat” with the excitement of what was going to happen next.
There is one chapter in “The Man In The Iron Mask” that sums up the drama and action so well. The chapter is called “The White Horse and The Black”. D’Artagnan is chasing Fouquet. I was in agony reading this horse chase.
Which brings me to another favourite also written by Alexandre Dumas. I loved the book “The Count Of Monte Cristo”. What a story!
The book has so much that most dramatisations cannot possibly pack into their versions. I think I saw one version with Gérard Depardieu which had a lot more of the book than any other effort I have seen. However, I will say this, I like that some versions have captured the spirit of the book, even if they do completely change the ending! Some years ago Jim Caviezel played the role of Edmond Dantès in a movie version which I did enjoy. Different ending and they did not have a large enough canvas to include so many characters from the book. But still very exciting!
Caramel 