fracas

In reference to the Running out of space?contest at WordPress.

It was a night he would never forget.

There were flowers, not your typical grocery store kind, but those wildly scented and exotic frangipani blooms, flown in all the way in from Australia. There were candles, big chunky, burn all night candles to create that perfect kind of light where he would look like he did twenty-five years ago and she would notice. There was wine, really good wine and the same crystal glasses they’d toasted with twenty five years ago. The chocolates were chosen with care, the fire was crackling in the fireplace and all he was waiting for was for her to come downstairs.

After all, he knew she’d had something on her mind, he knew she wanted to “talk”. This would certainly make her believe he had every intention of being an “attentive” husband.

He could hardly stand the wait and as he watched her descend the winding stairway, he could see the delight on her face. The corners of her mouth slowly turned though and he watched as a spectator watches a sinking ship, knowing by the time she would place herself softly in the chair next to him, that none of this would matter. She was upset and there was no changing it, no magical disappearance of the conversation he began to dread.

It came out awkwardly.

She was polite, smelled the flowers and smiled; sipped the wine and nodded approval. And then, she said it.

“I, uh… just need some space.”

His whole world came crashing down that moment. He felt like a wrecking ball had just careened into the room. He couldn’t smell the flowers any longer, couldn’t taste the wine and suddenly, though there was a roaring fire crackling and hissing not two feet from where he sat, he was frozen cold.

“Can’t we work this out,” he pleaded?

“I just don’t know,” she whispered, in a reply so quiet he could barely distinguish the words. “I don’t know what to do anymore. I just have too much baggage. I can’t think straight anymore, I don’t sleep well, I’m always miserable and I just don’t know what to do with all this stuff I’m holding on to.”

It was almost as if she was begging him for an answer. He could tell she needed a solution, an answer, a miracle if you will. He wanted to give her that miracle.

“Come quick,” he urged, “I know exactly what you need.” He bolted from his chair so quickly; the wine flew off the table in one direction, spilling its inky redness over the antique rug. He didn’t care.

She could see he was on his way to the office. Not sure what to make of his actions, she sat puzzled for a moment.

“Please,” he called, “Come now.”

She rose from her chair with uncertainty. She’d listened to him before and all that had happened had been one disaster after another, until they’d had to call someone in to fix everything. If only she knew how to keep everything running cleanly and smoothly.

She sighed and went after him, wistfully wishing she could enjoy the wafting fragrance of the frangipani and the flicker of the candlelight. How could she though, when all she could think about was how she was going to get the space she so sorely needed. All she wanted to do was be able to know everything was in its place and that the world was under control but it just seemed so impossible now.

With the resignation of a death row inmate walking that last mile, she made her way down the hallway and stepped through the doorway of the little home office they had created with such hope. He was there, seated at the computer, giddy with excitement.

“Look, read it,” he insisted, pointing wildly at the screen.

She sat down on the edge of the chair beside him, just like they used to long ago when things were new, there was none of this emotional clutter to worry about and the world seemed to be in the palm of their hands. She closed her eyes and remembered that day long ago when they first started out. The words came back to her almost as if they were being played to her on a movie screen.

“WordPress.com is an easy and powerful way to start blogging. It’s Free! Hundreds of great features. Connect with an audience of dozens to millions. Stop sending mass emails to everyone. Archive your thoughts. All the cool kids are. Why the heck not?”

Her thoughts were interrupted by his voice and a gentle tug on her sleeve.

“Look honey, this is how you can get the space. You can do it; you’re the most creative person I know. It’s why I fell in love with you and why I want to be the only other user you ever allow to post on your blog. The most creative idea will win the 10GB of upload space, and you have almost 48 hours left to do it!”

In an instant, she knew everything would be ok.

Suddenly, she remembered that downstairs was a ridiculously expensive plate of chocolates (that would certainly be something she’d have to blog about eating), flowers all the way from a foreign country that would be heavenly once tossed into the bath, wine that definitely needed to be consumed and a roaring fire to enjoy with this guy that looks amazingly just like he did 25 years ago.

Damn, life was good after all.

She would enter this contest and she would win that extra space because when the folks at WordPress really understood how even the idea of that extra bit of space had saved her from doing something really stupid; they would choose her as the winner for certain.

Her mind was racing with all the possibilities of how to use up the extra space but a nudge from beside her jerked her back from that world inside her head.

“Um, you haven’t won the contest yet honey. You log in and I’ll bring the chocolates and the wine in here.”

Indeed, it was a night he would never forget.

Copyright SMW 2006

Keep reading to find out why….

This fictional story is part of my entry into the WordPress Running out of space? contest. The task is to blog about what we would do to use up the prize of 10GB of space if we were chosen the winner.

What I would do to with the space if I won the Running out of space? contest is to keep all of my images right here. Fracas gives away images. Not just to use as desktop wallpaper, fracas gives them out to use, create with and enjoy in a variety of ways. Currently, I’ve been creating thumbnails of the images to upload straight to the blog and display as what’s available. When the user clicks on them, the complete and uncompressed image opens up as an image in a new window, stored at an image hosting site. I would love to keep everything in the blog because sometimes I feel like the woman in the story… I just can’t deal with all of my baggage.

With the graphics program open, a blog window open, another window open with the image hosing site open, a window open showing fracas files on my hard drive and so on, I sometimes want to scream “I need more space”. I haven’t used my free space yet, but I’m a new blogger. When I started the blog in October, I knew that if I kept adding images, I wouldn’t last long so creating thumbnails and linking to somewhere else seemed to be the right choice.

And so…I ask the folks at WordPress to consider me because after all, one good deed deserves another, right? I good deed by taking photos and then actually, truly and willingly, giving them away to people even if they plan to use them to make money with.

And besides that, if I did win… it would create (for me) quite an uproar and that is what my blog (and a fracas) is all about.