She glanced around the room, looking at her feet and then the framed prints on the wall. She felt like she’d never really seen the images before, despite so many years in the house. She avoided his face, knowing how deep the pain was she would see in his eyes.
She tried to make small talk, about the yard, the weather. She knew she sounded like an idiot, but couldn’t stand the silence.
After an eternity, he finally spoke.
“Look,” he said, “I’m exhausted. Shut the door behind you”
Glad for the excuse to leave, but terrified she’d never be back, she twisted the cold brass knob.
1pointperspective 
100 word challenge – must use the phrase “I’m exhausted. Shut the door behind you”. So yeah, technically, it’s 107 words
Nothing wrong with breaking a rule now and then.
Nice piece!
Thanks..wait! what? I broke a rule?
I’m sure that’s a first 😉
I’m seriously confused…what rule??
I thought you said it was supposed to be 100 words but you had 107–so I was just making a joke. Obviously not a good one. 🙂
Sorry for the confusion, and there are no penalties for jokes which aren’t understood – they’re called “artists”.
Just to clarify, it is called The Hundred Word Challenge and it can be found at Julia’s Place on WordPress. Whenever Julia, in her devious ways, demands that we insert some phrase into the piece, the words in the phrase don’t count toward the 100. It’s kind of dopey that I bothered writing about the 107 vs. 100 anyway, since readers don’t get the word count that the writer gets, so unless someone wanted to sit there and count every word in the piece…
The important thing to me is that people have taken the time to read it, and in your case to comment. I appreciate it.
Gotcha. And I believe our conversation has now earned its place in a Seinfeld episode, given it took a fair amount of back-and-forth to reach the conclusion… 🙂
OOH! Can I be George?! I’ve got the hairstyle for it. Though to be honest, once I started watching “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, “Seinfeld” started looking kind of weak by comparison.
No problem, George. And I, by default of my two X chromosomes, will be Elaine. But my clumbsiness is more in line with Kramer…
Just keep the racial epithets to a minimum there, Cosmo.
🙂
Oh I thought this was a written version of that “out of body experience” you were telling me about.
Similar…no catsuit or pervasive scent of lilacs in this piece. Also, no cloying Fogelberg soundtrack.
Hahaha!
Hmmm. I’m sorry. I seem to have lost my composure there. More Fogelbery please…
“Fogelbery” one of my the lost classic breakfast cereals of my misspent youth!
Oh gosh – there is so much I want to know about what led up to this. Really excellent writing keeping your reader gripped. Thank you for sharing on the 100WCGU
glad you liked it…these 100 word pieces are like delicious appetizers without the satisfaction of the entree
Easy read right until the ‘cold brass’ at the end which somehow really rammed home the emotions here and transformed the piece. Nicely done.
glad you liked it…and at 100 words, it won’t pack the pounds on