{"id":4059,"date":"2024-04-26T00:05:15","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T04:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=4059"},"modified":"2024-04-23T11:39:42","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T15:39:42","slug":"w-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=4059","title":{"rendered":"W &#8211; &#8220;A&#8221; Word"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>The writing assignment for this piece was to pick four words from a 21-word list of words that began with the letter A. With the chosen 4, I was to write a story. I chose all 21 of the words. I had 20 minutes to write. The 28 words are in italics. <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>This copy of my writing has been edited from the original draft.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/W.jpeg\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4060\" src=\"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/W-150x150.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"103\" height=\"103\" srcset=\"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/W-150x150.jpeg 150w, http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/W-300x300.jpeg 300w, http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/W.jpeg 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 103px) 100vw, 103px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><b>W &#8211; &#8220;A&#8221; Word (An <\/b><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><b><i>All-encompassing <\/i><\/b><\/span><b>Story)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alan<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> lived <\/span><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">alone<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in a one-room apartment on the top floor of an 11-story building in the heart of the city. I would like to say that his life was that of an ordinary city dweller, but I\u2019d be lying to you if I did.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alan was <\/span><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">adventurous<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to a fault. He rarely paid attention to rules. There was a time when the elevator in his building was shut down for repairs. He could have walked up the stairs like everyone else, but that was too easy. <\/span><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Actually<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, he loved challenges. So when the elevator on the first floor of his apartment building was open, even though they had tape crisscrossed across it, Alan decided to scale the elevator shaft. It would be just like when he scaled the ice mountains in <\/span><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Antarctica<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Luckily no one caught him doing that, so there was no need to <\/span><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">apologize<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or suffer any consequences of his actions. Considering the state of the elevator <\/span><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the shaft, he was lucky that he was still <\/span><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">alive<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, one other person in the building knew Alan well and was privy to his quirks. That was <\/span><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">April<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anyone who met April would find her rather <\/span><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">aloof<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. She was an <\/span><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">artist<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. She enjoyed taking real pictures and then <\/span><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">air<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">brushing them so that no one would recognize the original picture, and she could take credit for painting them. April loved taunting Alan and all his escapades, which was <\/span><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">annoying<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anyhow<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the two of them lived across the hall from each other. This gave April a clear view through the door viewer when Alan came and went\u2014more food for the gristmill, as she would say.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Man-Woman-arguing2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-4061 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Man-Woman-arguing2-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Whenever they met in the hall, they started a conversation that inevitably ended in <span style=\"color: #993300;\">arguing<\/span>. Neither was willing to <\/span><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">accept<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the other.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That continued until the <\/span><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">accident<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> one day just outside their apartment. They had spotted each other from across the street. April had that little smirk on her face, you know, that look of, I just found something out about you that I\u2019m going to share on Facebook with everyone. Alan couldn\u2019t put up with that look and decided it was time to be <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\">aggressive<\/span>. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0ran across the street to confront April.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">April saw the truck before Alan did and tried to shout out a warning, but she was too late. The truck driver didn\u2019t even stop after hitting Alan, but the rest of the traffic did.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">April ran across the street to help Alan, tears streaking down her face. <\/span><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alright<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, maybe she did have some feelings for him. He stood up when she approached his side and said, \u201cGotcha!\u201d As I said, Alan was adventurous and an <\/span><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All-Star<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at faking accidents that\u2019s how he made most of his money, scamming insurance companies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That was it for Alice. From that day on, she was silent whenever she passed Alan in the halls. She let him do whatever he wanted; she didn\u2019t care what happened to him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She did, but not in the way she once had. Someone did whistle-blow on all his illegal activities, and he got caught. I\u2019m not telling who.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The writing assignment for this piece was to pick four words from a 21-word list of words that began with the letter A. With the chosen 4, I was to write a story. I chose all 21 of the words. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=4059\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[445,4,7],"tags":[70,446,454],"class_list":["post-4059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-to-z-blog-challenge-2024","category-original-stories","category-story-writing","tag-a-to-z-blog-challenge","tag-a-to-z-blog-challenge-2024","tag-a-words"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4059"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4066,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4059\/revisions\/4066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}