#KimmayJWritesEveryDay #Day4 "Writing Prompt: Unpacking A Suitcase

#KimmayJWritesEveryDay #Day4 "Writing Prompt: Unpacking A Suitcase

Enjoy the first draft of the first short story that I have written in a very long time! Tonight, I broke through a major writers block. I actually found the writing prompt "unpacking a suitcase" on Pinterest, of all places, and ran with it. I first thought of a vacation, but what does that really entail? Cool, you maxed out your credit card to play pretend in Jamaica for 4 days, we still have no sense of who you are. I wanted to tell the story of a woman who is just starting to sniff independence. We don't know why she left her marriage for the solitude of a one room apartment, but we know that she is confident in her unknown.

     That drive was finally over. From the time the ugly house full of ugly memories began to shrink in the distance, Lily did not know how to feel. Relief. Freedom. Joy. Grief. A disrespectful end to the past. They were in love once, truly in love. But she was stagnant, mind full of forgotten dreams.

     But the drive was finally over, 30 miles northwest of her past.

     She pulled out her suitcase onto the lone kitchen table, full of all the things she needed her first night. First was her toothbrush, now perched singularly under the vanity mirror. She grabs warm pajamas, which she made sure to pack. Lily knew her bed would not arrive for 36 hours, and the floor gets cold at night. Clothes for the morning, a breakfast bar, cell phone charger. Next, her makeup. When Lily decided to try out life on her own, she began with the biggest change of them all, full face makeup. She stood over the counter, fixated on the bag full of independence. When your man loves you know matter how you look, the desire to take a wand of paint to your eye seems less than worth the while. But without the safety net of marriage, she felt the need to rejoin the girly masses.

     At the bottom of her suitcase were a tangled pair of earbuds. Lily's sole companion in her one bedroom apartment.

     Lily gets a paper cup full of water, crosses to the living room to the skinny air mattress in the middle of a drafty bedroom, plugs the earbuds into her phone, and lays back. As a familiar back-beat hits her ears, Lily exhales deeply. The drive was finally over.



KimmayJ is a chocolate, wine, and buffalo wing aficionado. She is happiest in an art museum or at a ballgame or hockey game. She loves to enjoy life but also can't help but wonder why things work the way they do. You can also follow her on facebook, twitter, instagram,  pinterest, and tumblr!