This very short story was written in ten minutes during an on-the-spot writing challenge at an Uxbridge Writers' Circle meeting.
I've written a brief piece about our two recent horse races at Woodbine, which you'll find after the story.
Three Strikes
Sally was sure the marriage would survive the ups and downs of her life. Gord seemed to have compassion and awareness, an understanding, that neither of her previous husbands had evidenced in any way. He'd even accepted Tim, Sally's son from an earlier liaison, as his own. Gord played with Tim, made him laugh, and taught him how to play golf.
The first sign of trouble was when Gord told Sally he was registered for a conference in Rochester, New York, and would be gone for a week. She couldn't believe a conference lasted for as long as a week, so she did her research. Sure enough, the conference she assumed he was going to only lasted three days. But she didn't say anything.
She stuck to her rule. Three strikes and you're out.
The second sign of trouble was when Gord said he had to work late for two weeks, including a few hours on the week-end. It was a certain engineering design project which had to be completed on time. She found out that the project existed, but when she called him in the evening, he wasn't at his desk.
The third sign was when he bought her the wrong perfume for her birthday. If he really cared, he would have known.
It was only quite a while later, when she was living alone and drowning her sorrows, that she found out she'd been wrong about the conference. It had been a different one in Rochester, Minnesota, not New York Stare. And she discovered that he'd been working on the project at the client's office, not in his own; and that the perfume he'd bought was her mother's favourite: she'd discovered an older bottle of it in her chest of drawers.
Sally drank some more, and reflected that it was a shame that Tim had emigrated to Australia, and that Gord was buried in the back garden.
Squeezed
I'm Dashing raced on Friday, August 12 at Woodbine Racetrack. He came last.
We knew he faced tough competition: the 'right' race hadn't been available at the right time for him.
But we hadn't expected him to get squeezed: literally.
The Woodbine replay posted on YouTube doesn't include the head-on action as they leave the gate, and I couldn't paste the link from hpibet.com. If you have an account you should be able to find the replay of Race 4. It is a dramatic 'squeeze' by both of the horses either side of him soon after they leave the gate. I'm Dashing was a bit stiff the next day, but he's doing fine now.
Chairman Fox raced on Saturday, August 13 and we were pleased with his second place finish. He has faced a lot of challenges including race mishaps (see previous blog post), bone chips etc.., so it was great to see him do well.
Here's the link to his race if you haven't watched it already!
We're hoping we can find the right race for I'm Dashing and that he gets a fair start next time!!
PS
I'm finding it hard to get the first draft finished of Book 5: Life gets in the way!!
And I'm concerned about the incredible increase in printing and shipping costs. Books will be getting more expensive, that's for sure, and this will make it harder for writers as well as readers.
I'm eternally grateful to Blue Heron Books in Uxbridge, Ontario, who continue to include all four of my books on their shelves. They are great supporters of local authors. If you need a book, don't hesitate to buy it from them!!
And thank YOU for your support. Without your encouragement I would have stopped writing a long time ago!!
Copyright Vicky Earle 2022