Monday, December 13, 2010

From the Red-Shoe Diaries

Time once again for Saturday Centus. I am a bit late in posting, and as usual a bit over my 100 word limit. I am doomed to fail this class! Nonetheless, I forge ahead, seeking forgiveness for my academic shortcomings. The prompt for this week is in bold italics. The remainder is from the caverns of my mind.

It had been a little over a year since I'd last visited Auntie Nell. My work in San Francisco was far too consuming, leaving me little time for the true pleasures of life. Nell and I shared many pleasures;our unique shared fondness for shoes was front and center. While she was affectionately known as the "Imelda Marcos of Manhattan", I was less affectionately known as the chick with too many shoes. Deep down I knew they were just jealous.

Nell's passing had come as a bit of a shock. I would now be left with only the sweet sadness of memories, and countless pairs of shoes we had picked out together...save one pair that never made it back to San Francisco...an exquisite pair of bright red snakeskin, pointed-toe, Jimmy Choo pumps. Where they had gone remained a mystery.

I entered the Greenwich Village Funeral Home and went directly to Nell's viewing room. I requested to see her sweet, loving face one last time. In keeping with her often outrageous approach to life...and death, she had requested to be interred in a custom built, Bergdorf Goodman shoebox-shaped casket. An involuntary gasp of shock escaped my lips when I opened the 'shoebox' and saw the pointy-toed shoes...those bright red Jimmy Choos that would forever be in my memories...but not on my feet.

Jenny Matlock

11 comments:

  1. Hahaha! That's a great story! No way would I let those shoes be buried with her! They would bring a fortune on Ebay!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. wonderful story, so well crafted!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a great use of the prompt! It's probably the pointy toes and heels that killed her.

    Teresa

    ReplyDelete
  4. LOL, great take on the prompt Jeff. Wonderful job. Too funny.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is wonderful! Nell really went out in style! And your writing is so visual and descriptive.

    Namaste..........cj

    ReplyDelete
  6. Shoebox-shaped casket! Nell was quite a girl!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Going out in style! Sort of like wearing make-up to bed so when you wake up dead you look good! :)~Ames

    ReplyDelete
  8. Jeff! I love this. I really enjoyed your writing style here. Such a great story and, hey, 100, 120, 149...who's really counting? ha!

    Love the shoebox casket imagery.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Shoe-box casket? Totally awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh dear, never to see the light of day again! But I guess she wanted to go out in style, eh?

    Good Centus!

    =)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sunday, January 9th, 2011
    Dear Jeff,
    I am very late with some of my comments on others' posts.

    I really like your story!

    You haven't followed the rules, Jeff, but you are forgiven because your story is so well written, so full of warmth, and has such clear images and ends in a bang.

    It's a great text, even if it does not qualify as a centus.(I haven't counted the words, but my guess is that it is longer that 100 words.)
    Best wishes,
    Anna

    Anna's SC wk 32

    ReplyDelete