Author Archives: Etol Bagam

Phone

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Ring, ring! Ring, ring! Ring, ring!

“What’s that? Is it the alarm clock? In the middle of the afternoon? Why?”

“No, that’s not the alarm clock. That’s the phone.”

“The phone? But I thought phones vibrated and played some sort of music… What kind is it then? Not Android for sure… Oh I know! It must be Windows Phone! Windows Phones are so rare to find that maybe this is why I don’t recognize the ring…”

“No! It’s not a Windows Phone, nor an Android or iPhone or any of those. We’re at grandma’s, remember? She does not have a smart phone. It’s just an old land line phone.”

“Land line? Land? What do you mean? Why land? And where did she put it that I can hear it so loud?”

“Land line because the voice travels through a metal wire or optical fiber that is “landed”. Not cellular radio waves. But I guess she has the ring on max volume so she can hear it from other rooms. It stays fixed in the living room. By the sofa. Haven’t you ever noticed it?”

“No, the only thing I remember by the sofa is that antique calculator kind-a-thing, with the numbers on a dial but no display to show the result. I actually never understood how it worked though…”

“Calculator??? Really?! That’s the phone!!!”

“The phone???!!! But it does not look like one! There is not even a touch screen. Actually there’s no screen at all. How do we install apps on it? And how to get SMS?”

“We don’t, dummy! Old phones are only for speaking. Just voice calls. No apps, no internet, no images. Just voice.”

“Oh!… Really? So where does grandma makes her grocery lists then?… On no! Don’t tell me she uses PAPER!!!”

“Oh boy….”

This post was written for the Flash Fiction Rodeo Contest #2.

The rules for this one are to try to be funny. The story needs to be 299 words long (give or take 9 words) and is supposed to “raise a grin, trigger a giggle, release a chuckle, generate a guffaw, give life to a groan”.

This one was the one I saw as the hardest, as I have a hard time being funny on purpose. Then the day before the challenge was posted, I was writing for a daily prompt and realized the text I had just created could fit this contest, so I refrained myself from publishing for the prompt so I could enter it here. Not sure if was funny enough, but I decided to give it a try anyways ;o)

The winner was announced yesterday on Carrot Ranch Blog and this week’s great prize went to Colleen Chesbro with “The Bus Stop”.

Congrats to Colleen and well done to all of the participants.

When I Grow Up

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“When I grow up I want to be an astronaut!
I want to go up in the sky, travel the universe and make friends from out of this world.
They’ll be fun, with their green skin, long antennae and several eyes.
Or else, or else…
Their loooooooong skinny body and big head with 2 black eyes.
Or else, or else…
Their slimy grayish and gross slug-like shape
Or else, or else…”

“How about with their proportional body, brown eyes and blond curly hair?”

“Yes! That one too!
Wait!… That sounds like my friend Kevin.
Oh…… Is he an alien too????”

 

This post was written for the Flash Fiction Rodeo Contest #1.

The rules for contest #1 was that we tried to go back in time to when we were 6 years old and remember what we wanted to be when we grew up. The size of the text should be of 100 words only.

To be honest, when I was little, I actually wanted to be a dressmaker, then later I switched to either tennis of volleyball player.

So no, I never really wanted to be an astronaut, but I had friends who did, so I used their ambition rather than mine, since it seemed cooler… ;o)

The results for the contest were published yesterday, and the winner was Hugh Roberts, with and awesome entry of a boy who wants to be Santa. See here the winner’s announcement post with his entry and some other picks.

Congrats Hugh! And well done everyone!

I have visitors

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I have visitors this month (actually from last Friday until just after Christmas).
I’ll try to continue posting, but you’ll see a huge drop on the frequency of posts.
The drop actually has already stated last week as I was preparing the house…
And most likely I’ll be posting more pictures than writing, as that’s easier and faster.
😦

Seven Days Seven B&W Photos Challenge – Day 7

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This post was written in response to the Seven Days Seven B&W Photos Challenge, to which I was challenged by GANSU of https://sugunag.com/.
The challenge is to post seven black and white photos, no people, no explanation, of everyday life for seven consecutive days.

I’m also supposed to challenge one new blogger each day, but I must admit that may be hardest part, as I must confess I never feel comfortable challenging people, but I’ll try…

Seven Days Seven B&W Photos Challenge – Day 6

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This post was written in response to the Seven Days Seven B&W Photos Challenge, to which I was challenged by GANSU of https://sugunag.com/.
The challenge is to post seven black and white photos, no people, no explanation, of everyday life for seven consecutive days.

I’m also supposed to challenge one new blogger each day, but I must admit that may be hardest part, as I must confess I never feel comfortable challenging people, but I’ll try…

Seven Days Seven B&W Photos Challenge – Day 5

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This post was written in response to the Seven Days Seven B&W Photos Challenge, to which I was challenged by GANSU of https://sugunag.com/.
The challenge is to post seven black and white photos, no people, no explanation, of everyday life for seven consecutive days.

I’m also supposed to challenge one new blogger each day, but I must admit that may be hardest part, as I must confess I never feel comfortable challenging people, but I’ll try…

Seven Days Seven B&W Photos Challenge – Day 4

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This post was written in response to the Seven Days Seven B&W Photos Challenge, to which I was challenged by GANSU of https://sugunag.com/.
The challenge is to post seven black and white photos, no people, no explanation, of everyday life for seven consecutive days.

I’m also supposed to challenge one new blogger each day, but I must admit that may be hardest part, as I must confess I never feel comfortable challenging people, but I’ll try…

Seven Days Seven B&W Photos Challenge – Day 3

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This post was written in response to the Seven Days Seven B&W Photos Challenge, to which I was challenged by GANSU of https://sugunag.com/.
The challenge is to post seven black and white photos, no people, no explanation, of everyday life for seven consecutive days.

I’m also supposed to challenge one new blogger each day, but I must admit that may be hardest part, as I must confess I never feel comfortable challenging people, but I’ll try…

Seven Days Seven B&W Photos Challenge – Day 2

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This post was written in response to the Seven Days Seven B&W Photos Challenge, to which I was challenged by GANSU of https://sugunag.com/.
The challenge is to post seven black and white photos, no people, no explanation, of everyday life for seven consecutive days.

I’m also supposed to challenge one new blogger each day, but I must admit that may be hardest part, as I must confess I never feel comfortable challenging people, but I’ll try…

Seven Days Seven B&W Photos Challenge – Day 1

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This post was written in response to the Seven Days Seven B&W Photos Challenge, to which I was challenged by GANSU of https://sugunag.com/.
The challenge is to post seven black and white photos, no people, no explanation, of everyday life for seven consecutive days.

I’m also supposed to challenge one new blogger each day, but I must admit that may be hardest part, as I must confess I never feel comfortable challenging people, but I’ll try…

The law of attraction

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I attract to my life whatever I give my attention, energy and focus to, whether positive or negative.
– Michael Losier

at high school

“Hi, your sister is at the Catholic University, right? So is my brother. That’s so cool. I guess I’ll try to get there to. How about you?”

“No! No way I’m going to that University. It’s full of snob spoiled rich kids. Yak! Nah. I’ll try the public universities. I want to be with the masses. I’ll NEVER go to the Catholic University!”

four years later…

“Hey, you made it here at the Catholic University too??!!! I though you said you didn’t want to come here…”

” Yeah I know. They were the only ones offering the course I wanted. But I’m loving it!”

at the University, studying to be a translator

“Hi. I heard that localization company is hiring trainees. I’m gonna try. Are you trying too? They’re the best!”

“Localization?? No, that’s boring. I don’t want to spend my days sitting at an office in downtown translating click here, click there. I want to translate novels, work from home on my pjs, and doing super cool books. No, I’ll NEVER be a localizer!”

a few years later…

“Thanks for accepting our offer to work on our localization firm.”

a few more years later…

“Dear you, please find attached the offer to work on our software development company, as a localizer of our biggest product.”

back at the University

“Hi my daughter, how was your day at the University? Made any new friends? Is the translation department close to the engineering one? Oh… It would be so good of you married a nice engineer….”

“Marry an engineer? Eww, mom! No way. Dad is enough of engineer in my life. Nah, nah. I’ll NEVER marry an engineer!”

a few years later…

“Miss Localizer, do you take Mister Engineer be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and health, to love, honor and obey, in good times and woe, for richer or poorer, keeping yourself solely unto him for as long as you both shall live?

“I do!”

a few more years later…

“Hello Localizers team. This meeting is to announce that we won’t be having in-house localizers anymore. So from now on, your titles and jobs are changing to be of Engineer.”

moral of the story:

Never say never.
The law of attraction does not care if you say yay or nay. It will bring you whatever you spend energy thinking too much about…

This post was written based on the prompt The law, from Writer Write’s October prompts.

The image has a Creative Commons license and is attributed to h koppdelaney, and was modified just to add a border.

Unwritten

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“Oh boy. I’m so happy that we’re together. I’ve been dreaming about you for a long time. So how about dinner tomorrow night.”

“That’d be awesome, but tomorrow I can’t, sorry.”

“Oh, ok. Why not? Family event?”

“Not really. Tomorrow I’ll be having dinner with my boyfriend.”

“What? What do your mean? I am your boyfriend.”

“Yes, you are too. One of them.”

“One of them??? What do you mean one of them? You can not have more than one boyfriend!”

“Why not?”

“Because that’s not right. It’s not accepted.”

“Awnnn… you’re jealous! But that’s ok, honey, I love you too. As much as I love the others.”

“The otherSSSSS????? Others? In the plural? How many boyfriends you have?”

“With you? 4 now.”

“4??? Oh my gosh, girl. Are you kidding me? You can’t have 4 boyfriends. Or 3, or even 2. You gotta have only one!”

“Why?”

“Well…. because you just can’t! That’s how it is! Man, you’re crazy!”

“Yes, baby. I’m crazy for you. So dinner day after tomorrow then?”

“What? Of course not! I love you. I love you deeply, but I want you to be mine and mine only. That’s how it should be with anyone.”

“Nah. I won’t take it like that. If there is a real written rule, you show me. If not, then I make my own rules for my own life.”

“Argh! Ok then. You know what? You’re back to 3 boyfriends now. Bye!”

“Oh boy. One more lost because of the unwritten stupid rule….”

This post was written based on the prompt Unwritten, from Writer Write’s October prompts.

BFF

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Her best friend has moved to a different country, on another continent, at the other end of the ocean.
She passes by the beach and stops to look at that immense mass of water.
She squints her eyes trying to see her friend.
But it’s no use, her friend is too far…

This post was written in response to Sacha Black’s Writespiration #136 52 weeks in 52 words, week 41 and also to today’s prompt BFF from Writer Write’s October prompts.

In the Writespiration prompt we’re supposed to say what happens next, after the picture. I wrote instead about what was happening at that very moment.

Angels

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She saved my life.

She found me laying naked at the woods behind her neighborhood. I was cold and feverish. My back was hurt. 2 big cuts near my shoulder blades.
I had no idea of who, where, when and why I was. My mind was completely blank.
They said it was amnesia and she took care of me. Like a guardian angel.

My memory never came back, but I learned to love her. And she loved me too.
We got married and were very happy. Then she got sick.

It was my turn now to care for her. I did all I could to make her feel better and comfortable at her illness. I gave my life to her. I stopped working, ate just a little, slept lightly so I could hear her calls. It was her turn to call me her guardian angel.

But after some time, her body gave in and she drifted away.
At that very moment I felt a sharp pain on my back, right at the scars near my shoulder blades. The scars opened up and from within something came up.
Wings!
And with the wings, the memory of being sent from heaven to care for her on her illness that was already invisibly starting then.

I looked up and saw her spectral form, reaching her hands to me, calling me to go.
I fluttered my wings and off we went.
Together again, until my next call to earth.

This post was written based on the prompt Angels, from Writer Write’s October prompts.
‘Angels’ was actually the theme for October 1st, but today I decided to switch as I couldn’t come up with nothing worth writing for today’s theme: Rehab. I’ll keep trying and may publish it later (or not ;o)