The Handyman: The 31 Sentence Contest - Round 4
The 31 Sentence Contest: Round 4
Random number sentence sequence:
17, 3, 5, 24, 9, 3, 28, 26, 7, 18, 22, 25, 20, 12, 10, 30, 1, 8, 6, 19, 11, 21, 14, 29, 2, 31, 27, 4, 16, 13, 15
Intrigued by this contest and its rules, I challenged myself to determine whether, in my first attempt, I could accomplish this unusual sentence sequence and still compile a coherent story. I hope I succeeded.
No one should be harrassed, not anytime, anywhere, by anyone, for any reason, or under any circumstances.
Jeb stood smiling.
His new neighbors finally arrived.
They must have tons of valuables to fill that two-story home, he thought to himself, as not one but two moving vans pulled up.
He waived again, baredy able to contain his excitement.
He couldn't wait.
As the couple emerged from their car behind the two moving vans, they were startled to find this stranger standing in their yard near the realtor's "SOLD" sign.
Other than offering his disastrous baked chocolate chip cookies, Jeb's thoughts were swirling as he tried to figure out a proper welcome for his new neighbors.
Flashing a smile, Jeb extended his hand.
"I'd like to welcome you to the neighborhood," he said, as he waited for the man to reciprocate.
With no sign of reciprocity, Jeb reluctantly withdrew his hand while complimenting the couple on securing the largest home on their block.
Backing away onto his own lawn, he continued to shamelessly observe the couple until the movers finished unloading the last of their elegant household items.
Inside his own home, Jeb envisioned being invited over for dinner where he'd bring them up-to-date on the neighborhood activities.
After patiently waiting for the invitation that never materialized, Jeb became distraught.
Six weeks later, the Harringtons held an elaborate housewarming party.
Fuming over the fact that the Harrington's didn't invite him to their posh party, Jeb outfitted himself with his best starched overalls, strolled across the lawn, and rang their doorbell.
Nothing.
Jeb could hear loud music and laughter inside.
A huge, burly guy then appeared.
Unable to produce an invitation, Jeb's friendliness was greeted by their door being slammed only inches from his face.
Taking this as a rejection of his neighborly intentions, he left.
Sharpening the specialty tool in his dark, crowded basement, Jeb didn't notice his bleeding hand as he kept pressing down harder.
While on vacation, Jeb manicured the Harrington's yard before their regular lawn service arrived.
Thinking the Harringtons no longer required their company's services, the lawn maintenance company discontinued it's service contract on their home and removed them from their client bi-weekly rotation list.
Scheme accomplished.
Not suspecting what had been occurring for three months, the Harringtons became suspicious only after they finally noticed their accountant's statements didn't include the monthly invoice from their lawn service company.
Little did the Harrington's know that Jeb filed a lawsuit against them until receipt by certified mail to appear for breach of contract for his handyman work.
They sprang into action.
The Harringtons filed countercharges of harrassment and trespassing as other neighbors came forth on their behalf.
They proved their case against the unstable neighbor who obviously yearned for attention.
Jeb realized he wasn't as smart as he thought starting down his path of harassment.
Thanks,
@justclickindiva
Happy rest of the week everyone with whatever your endeavors.
SOURCES:
a) JustClickin logo created at CoolText.Com
b) Unless otherwise noted, all photos taken by me with my (i) Samsung Galaxy 10" Tablet, (ii) Samsung Phone, & (iii) FUJI FinePix S3380 - 14 Mega Pixels Digital Camera
c) Purple Butterfly part of purchased set of Spiritual Clip Art for my Personal Use
d) Separator Lines Free ClipArt Belt from Public Domain Vectors & ShadedLine from ClipArt-Library
e) All Tribe logos used with permission of Tribe Discord Channel admins.
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STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Enjoyable story.
Jeb has got to keep himself from daydream all day long. I recently had someone get mad and frustrated at a game and turn that on me. Like the neighbors in this story, I have my boundaries too.
Those neighbors were weird too. How could they resist the disastrously baked chocolate-chip cookies? The nerve! 8-)
What was the writing process for you like? What did you get out of this exercise?
hi @tristancarax. Thanks for accepting my story into the contest.
First, I've been competing in the ZAPFIC 240 character micro fiction contest where you tell a complete story as possible in 240 character or less. Winning several of those taught me how to be more concise in my writing. Since I can be long winded (by my freewrite entries), this was a challenge, especially with the sentence variation.
I approached this contest like I do my freewrite.
I go ahead and write my story so I can make sure what I want to say is there.
I then looked at the various sentence structure and revised my sentences to say what I intended in the amount of words required.
I kept the 31 sentences separate with each sentence on a separate paragraph. Only way I could visually see the story and maintain my sanity.
Used word counter.com to check my word requirement.
A few times I wanted to change words; but had to remember to go back and put the sentence through the word counter again.
I previously wanted to develop this story into a full-blown rewrite, and was going to use it until I saw this contest. For example, when I found the picture of the man/lawn mower, I already knew where I wanted to go with it. But I had to omit Jeb's history with previous homeowners. I kept the SOLD sign to signal he had previous neighbors...but they couldn't take it any longer, so they moved on. But I'm glad I went this route with the story.
I think this was a awesome challenge. It forces you be concise in your words and thoughts. I know you're busy, but when you get a chance, look at a few of my Freewrites and We-Writes. I need to devise a way to categorize all my writings in my posts for easy reference.
Apologies. off topic now.
Interesting story. That happens many times... one person dismisses another and they retaliate by annoying them in return. We humans are so vain, aren't we?
Yes, can be sometimes. The thing is one never knows how much another person can tolerate. One person may just shrug and let it roll of their backs, while another may be deeply hurt and feel slighted and hold it in their heart.
Thanks for shopping by and viewing my post. Appreciate your comments. Have a great day, and take care.
BTW...I won the contest, Yeah.....
Wow! That's so cool! Here's a !BEER to help you celebrate! 😊
And stay away from the !DERANGED people!
wow, how exciting. thanks. even though I don't drink, I'll add it to my collection.
No way there are deranged people running around steemit. Everyone I've met have been such awesome individuals :)
View or trade
BEER.Hey @justclickindiva, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @trincowski for you. Enjoy it!looks inviting. thanks for your thoughtfulness. much appreciated.
It's a fun experiment. I see the !DERANGED token didn't went through. Let's try again. 😁
And now it worked twice! Ahahahhahha! 🤣 🤣 🤣
I always knew double the luck would come my way one day. And now I can say it actually did. Even if from a deranged...
.
Great story thanks for sharing on Listnerds
@justclickindiva
Have the best day 😎
!ALIVE
!CTP
!BBH
@justclickindiva! You Are Alive so I just staked 0.1 $ALIVE to your account on behalf of @benthomaswwd. (15/20)
The tip has been paid for by the We Are Alive Tribe through the earnings on @alive.chat, feel free to swing by our daily chat any time you want.
Apologies, I missed commenting on your nice reply. I appreciate you stopping by. Glad you liked my story. It was difficult when I first attempted this type of story structure.
Take care.
Don't worry friend you are welcome have a wonderful week ahead 😎
@justclickindiva
!ALIVE
!CTP
!BBH
@justclickindiva! You Are Alive so I just staked 0.1 $ALIVE to your account on behalf of @benthomaswwd. (10/20)
The tip has been paid for by the We Are Alive Tribe through the earnings on @alive.chat, feel free to swing by our daily chat any time you want.
It definitely is a challenge to create a story with exactly 31 sentences. You did great. Thanks for sharing.
Hello. Thanks for stopping by. Yes, it was the most difficult challenge I've attempted so far. I used to think the Zapfic micro stories were hard, but trying to construct a story with only 31 sentences; then each sentence had random number of words you only could use, now that's extremely difficult and still have the flow of the story make sense.
So glad you liked it. I appreciate your support.
Take care.
WOW -- a tour de force of meeting the prompt requirements AND a good lesson ...