Blue marshmallow

Happy Halloween!!

Blue

Guess what I was? Yup that’s right, a blue marshmallow! I got my puffy jacket this week and am in LOVE with it. Is it weird to sleep in it? (Asking for a friend)

I’m slowly but surely finally collecting some gear. Every new item makes it all feel a little more real and a lot more exciting! I’ve also begun to tell pretty much anyone who will listen about my future adventure, including my peers in a creative writing class that i’m taking. I even wrote a fiction piece including the AT in one of our assignments! I thought it was a fun little piece so I wanted to share it with yall 🙂 (Note: it’s completely fiction and the assignment was to have one character have to choose between two things)


Miles to Go

I eye my forest green Salomon trail runners that are already broken in with my sweat and yesterday’s mud laying beside my turquoise Osprey pack that is carefully tucked into the corner of my room with its price tag still intact, holding the possibility for me to change my mind. “Fat chance,” I say to the price tag. I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. “Oh here we go” I say.

Cameron’s deep voice booms through the phone. “Beatrice?”

“Well I don’t know who else would be answering my phone,” I say.

“Starting with the sarcasm already? Good morning to you too then.”

“Hardly. What do you want, Cameron?”

“I got a call from the bank earlier, warning me of large transactions being made. Are you seriously going through with this, Bee?”

“I told you this is what I want. You got the chance to follow your dream, why shouldn’t I follow mine?”

“Hmm well I don’t know. Maybe because I got paid to follow mine while yours is already draining the accounts and you haven’t even started the hike!”

“Most of that money is mine, Cam. But unlink the account if you wish. I’ll sign whatever I need to. But you have to sign the divorce papers.”

Cam is silent. No doubt, conjuring up an argument to persuade me to stay in Fort Bragg so that we can “work on things”. I’ve been working on this marriage for three years now, following him wherever the Army sends him, quitting the jobs I love each time and forfeiting any social life I may have had. All I have now is a cruddy waitressing job and a nonexistent sex life. “Working late” my ass. Men think we are idots. I’ve seen the way the other wives swoon over him with his tattoo-laced biceps bulging through the sleeves of his tan work shirt. And I’m not oblivious to the fact that he takes a second look at a few of the wives with the big chests, something I’ve never been blessed with. Well at least I’ve saved enough from my dead end job to leave his cheating ass and start my 2,189 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail.

The buzzing in my pocket interrupts the rampage I’ve started in my head. I answer but before I can get a word out, Cam’s tear-strung apology streams through the speaker, “I’m so sorry for everything. I should have never done it. She wasn’t worth it. I love you.”

I knew it.

“Therapy, church, date nights!” He says. “I’ll do whatever it takes. Just don’t go.”

He can’t be serious, can he? I say nothing.

“We can still fix this, you don’t have to leave.” He continues his pleas.

The thought of staying floats across my mind, but as soon as it enters, it exits. “Actually, I do,” I say as I walk to the corner where my Osprey pack lay and rip off the price tag and hang up the phone.


p.s I am a brand new writer and know this is not the best short story you have ever read, but I enjoyed writing it so I hope you enjoyed reading it! Also, my professor has already revised it but please feel free to give me some suggestions to improve on my writing if you wish 🙂

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Comments 2

  • Kevin : Feb 18th

    Bethany,

    Awesome writing on your fictional short story!! It sucked me right in as I unfortunately, can relate much too closely to your character.
    I will be following your progress this spring while living my own hike vicariously through you. I pray the Lord will watch over you while guiding you on this journey.
    Wishing you all the best!!
    -Kevin

    Reply
  • Mike : Apr 15th

    Have enjoyed your blog and look forward to following your journey thanks to you sharing with us readers. Speaking of sharing with readers, more short stories would be much appreciated by at least one of them. As with your walk on the Trail, just keep going and you will succeed.

    Reply

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