This morning, I wrote a little over 1,000 words of gibberish before heading to my sister’s house for Thanksgiving dinner (lunch rather). I know my inner critic was supposed to be turned off this month but I had to correct some of the stuff that I wrote, when I got back home.
By the time I reached another 299, I was starting to get sleepy. My greedy-itis was catching up with me. Apparently the food had affected D as well because he climbed into my lap and fell asleep. I forced myself to stay awake until I had gotten to 2,693. I have 13,026 left to go which is about 3,258 a day over the next four days. It’s going to be tough but I’ve got to make it.
Excerpt
I did not sleep well that first night out of jail. Maybe it was because my mind had gotten used to my surroundings, which was definitely not a good thing. But they say humans can adapt to anything and that is what I had done subconsciously.
My already fitful sleep was interrupted by Michael Jackson singing “Never can say goodbye, no no no no I…” That was one of Jerry’s favorite songs and it was very fitting since I missed him so much. The crooning stopped and started several times before I realized that it was my cell phone singing. I forgot that I had changed my ring tone the day before.
By the time I got to the phone it had stopped ringing. Shannon number showed up at the top of my missed calls list, so I called her right back.
“What’s going on Shannon? Your boy doesn’t have you occupied at 3 in the morning?”
“Pearce isn’t here, that’s why I’m calling you. I’m so scared.”
“What happened?”
“I looked out the window to check on my car, like I always do, to make sure it was still there or to see if all of my wheels are still on. There’s been a lot of car theft in my neighborhood lately. Plus, I was making sure there were no more dead bodies in front of my house.”
“Okay, so was the car still there?”
“No, it’s gone. I saw someone in a black SUV pulling my car down the street on a trailer.”
“You’ve been off work for a while; could it have been the repo man?”
“No, Pearce makes my car payments. It was someone stealing my car.”
“Did you call the police? There’s not really much I can do. I don’t even know the first place to look.” The truth was that I really didn’t want to get involved in anymore of Shannon’s drama.
“I did call the police and they are taking too long. I was whispering when I called because I was trying to make sure no one had broken into the house and waiting to pounce on me. Maybe the police thought it was a prank call.”
I thought about the last 911 call I had made. “They usually send someone out to check on things anyway, just in case.”
“There’s something else Sassy.”
“What else?” I asked impatiently.
“My laptop was in the car. The book I was writing, my blog posts I was working on, my poems, everything. What if they tap into my Twitter and Facebook accounts and post all kinds of crazy things to make me look bad. Then I’ll lose all of my friends and followers. What am I going to do, Sassy?”
I didn’t think any of that stuff was as important as her car being stolen but what did I know? “Did you have your writing saved someplace else? And maybe you can just change the passwords on all of your accounts; Mrs. Alma’s granddaughter would probably let you use her computer until you can get another one.”
“I think I did put some of my chapters on a jump drive that I keep on my key ring. But that’s only part of it. I’m sorry to be bugging you will all of this Sassy, but Mallory has practically fallen off the face of the earth so I don’t have anyone else to talk to.”
Now that bit of information woke me all the way up. “When was the last time you talked to her?”
“A couple weeks ago, we were making plans to attend a Christmas party held by some of my former co-workers. We were supposed to go shopping for outfits but Mallory never showed up. She didn’t even call me and that is so unlike her.”
Word Count
36,974/50,000
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