No one will ever forget today. On the table, a newspaper with the headline...

*insert famous celebrity here* has committed suicide after both cell phone and laptop were stolen! The EXCLUSIVE contents on our page 10 spread!

I nearly choke on my coffee as I throw today's edition of the Warrant County News back down on the table. I didn't recognize the name of the person.

"Is this what things have come to?" I ask with leveled frustration to the women across the counter.

"That paper costs money." She replies while anxiously clicking away at her laptop.

I sigh, heavily, and throw some money down on the counter.

"Keep the change."



I walk out of the deli onto Main Street and start heading south towards the river.  I'm not sure which bothers me more, the headline or how rude the women was as I supported what was an obviously failing business for her. Is everyone like this? I think about her life.

Mid-forties, single-mom. Her kids have grown up. She has turned to alcohol, as many in this city have, to deal with the loneliness she feels as her kids are graduating college and getting married. Her hands shake every morning as she runs water through the same coffee grounds for the third time this week. In the beginning she adopted an abandoned dog so she would have something to care for again. It wasn't long until her neighbors called the shelter and got the poor thing picked up. She didn't even notice it was gone. She tried to gather the courage to phone her children but they never answered anymore. It wasn't the first time people had come and taken what she neglected. She woke up and put another round of water through the grounds and hopped on the bus. When she got to work she checked the till but was full aware it was empty. She reaches under the counter and pulls out her old laptop and begins checking her bank accounts, emails, network sites and family blogs. She vaguely notices a man throw a paper on the table across the counter as he mutters something. She mumbles a reply.

I stand onto the railing of the bridge, look down the nearly 400 feet to the river, and throw my plastic coffee cup.

"I bet we don't make the morning edition."

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Hmmm, well that was interesting. I haven't written in months and I kinda like what this turned into from a random writing prompt. I'm not gonna bother editing or proofing anything at all. I'm not sure I even have the skill to. I'm losing my ability to be creative. I might actually be getting dumber.

I find it funny how quickly an idea in your head can totally change over the course of 15 mins and a single paragraph worth of typing. I can't remember at all what I was thinking when I started this but I can guarantee it was nothing like that. 

I really need to do this more. If I did one of these every day I might feel like I was accomplishing something.

Oh well.

Thoughts?