Thursday, March 8, 2012

The First Line

I just discovered thefirstline.com, and I've found some inspiration for a short story. They provide the first line of a short story and hold contests every quarter. It would be cool if I could get a short story published while working on my novels. Here's what I have so far, more to come:

 
Rachel's first trip to England didn't go as planned. She and her fiancĂ©, Eric, had been planning this week-long London getaway for months. It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation to unwind from months of wedding planning; their lavish wedding was to take place next year for various reasons, and they didn’t feel like waiting until their honeymoon to take a vacation together.

The flight arrived at Heathrow International Airport a few minutes ahead of schedule. Their luggage was among the first off the plane, and they took a taxi to their hotel. Once they arrived at their hotel, they decided to take a nap before dinner. After a restful nap, they had dinner at a fancy restaurant. After dinner, they went back to their hotel and made love.

In the morning, Eric offered to go out and bring breakfast back to the room. Rachel enjoyed sleeping in, especially when it meant she got the whole bed to herself, so she thanked him, kissed him, and buried her head in the down pillows.

A couple hours later, Rachel awoke with a start. Eric should have returned with the English muffins and fruit by now; where could he possibly be? She looked around the room to see if he had dropped off breakfast and let her sleep while he went for a run. She couldn’t find any sign of breakfast, not even a crumb.

Rachel became worried. It wasn’t like Eric to just disappear without telling her where he was going. They had noticed a market a block away from their hotel, and Eric had said he was going to run down there and bring breakfast back. That shouldn’t take two hours, Rachel thought to herself.

Glad they had decided to bring their cell phones rather than leaving them back home in Denver, she dialed his number quickly. She was startled to hear his phone ringing in the pants he had worn to dinner last night, which were draped over the armchair haphazardly – they had come off rather quickly last night.

Why hadn’t he taken his phone with him? She wondered. He must have decided he didn’t need it for such a quick trip.


Feel free to add your input, this is just a rough draft cranked out in 20 minutes.

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