16/04/2024 – tnkerr-Writing Prompts and Practice

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Bernadette didn’t answer the doorbell; she came around from the side gate and smiled at me. Her hair laid plastered flat against her head, soaking wet and soggy. The lace undies, she wore, were sodden as well, but she held two highball glasses, one in each hand: Tequila Sunrise’s.

“Esther, I thought I told you not to wake me too early,” Bernadette said. She held out one of the drinks.

I took the proffered libation, “Uh huh, and it’s almost three-thirty.” I emphasized the time by pointing to the sun moving into the western sky. “Besides, it looks as though you have been swimming in your underwear. You’ve been up for a while.” I smiled.

Bernadette lit a cigarette, blew out the match and waved the smoke away from her face. “I suppose you’ve come to ask questions about the new project.”

“Yes, I have.”

“OK, then. Ask away.” We began moving back to the rear of the house, by the pool.

“Do you have a title?”

“We have a working title, “The Language of Love” I don’t think that will be the final title. Rory has suggested we go with “Bad Man from Bodie, but that’s not decided yet either.”

“What’s it about?” I asked as we sat at a round glass topped table with a large umbrella rising from the centre.

Bernadette flicked the ash from her smoke and reached into an ice chest on the deck by her feet. She pulled out a chilled bottle and held it up for inspection, “Del Maguey Iberico.” She clapped her hands. As if summoned, Bernadette’s house man appeared from nowhere. He took the bottle of Mezcal from his mistress. Then he poured generous dollops into globe-shaped glasses that he seemingly produced, from nowhere.

“Madame,” he said as he handed one to Bernadette. The other he proffered, without words, to me. I smiled as I took it.

Bernadette began, “It’s inspired by a minor silent western from 1925. It features a protagonist gambler named Oak Miller. Miller is out for revenge on the man who misused his sister, Rose. We’ve already signed Magda Selene Lottke to play Rose. The man he seeks has selfishly damaged Rose’s reputation, leaving her ill. And, under the care of the woman Oak loves, Barbara.

“The antagonist whom Oak seeks, Granger, is planning to rob a train with the collusion of a band of Indians under the command of the renegade warrior, Wren Thunderstrike. Later, when Barbara is suspected of killing her lascivious stepfather, Oak takes the blame and is arrested right before he is needed to save the threatened train.” Bernadette paused to reflect. “Esther,” she said, “I think you would be perfect for the part of Barbara. And, we are negotiating with Tucker Holden to play Oak Miller.” Bernadette smiled wantonly and winked, the two of us clicked glasses and smiled.

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This week’s prompts were: