How it works

How it works

Jeannie snuggled into the corner of her sofa, her laptop perched on a pillow in her lap. Sunshine flowed through the window behind her, warming her back. She sipped from a straw sticking out of her first of many Diet Cokes for the day, while clicking on soft music to play in the background. The entire room had taken on a golden glow in the late morning light. She sighed a relaxing breath, burrowing into the ambiance.

She reached to open a blank page on the screen, but first… emails. There was one from her mother, the usual, ‘are you eating well?’ she glanced at the plate of her favorite cookies, waiting nearby. ‘Yes…’ There were several emails from stores with wonderful deals, should she please just decide to buy what they wanted to sell her. She deleted them, choosing today, at least, to stick to her own list.

Next Facebook. She perused her friends’ posts, laughed and “awwww”-ed in all the appropriate places, made a couple comments, left smiling.

Finally, the blank page. She had woken up with an idea, she often did. Her habit was to let it jell a while as she went through her morning routine, shower, dress, take the dog out, feed dog and cats. Do morning exercises, occasionally…

She closed her eyes now, mentally knitting all the pieces of her idea together. Where to begin? She smiled and began to type. “Marilyn looked at the bloody knife in her hand, she couldn’t remember how it got there. Her forehead throbbed. As she reached up to cool it with her other hand, she caught sight of the bloody body crumpled at her feet…”