Carla is fishing to kill Mr Jeremy Fisher with a Gibran Conscience

Fishing to Kill

        Mr. Jeremy took a reed pole and pushed the boat into open water. “I know a good place for minnows,” said Mr. Jeremy Fisher.
        His neighbor merely smiled, keeping her irritation at his constant stream of ridiculous comments to herself. ‘What a windbag’, she thought. He’s lived here for a week and he acts like he knows everything. She fingered the pendant from her father. Given to her on her 21st birthday, it contained six diamonds set around a central opal.
        It was the last thing he ever gave her, her sole inheritance after the financial crash and his heart attack. He was at a gym doing pushups, competing with Jeremy when he croaked.
        She loved her dad; her loss a constant agony. Jeremy had pretended to be grief stricken and played the part of her friend, but she knew better. They gave him her father’s job, his office, his company car and even the memberships at all seven of her father’s clubs. Now Jeremy was trying to take her.
        A local prophet had played the cards for her and saw death all around her. He couldn’t be more right. They got to Jeremy’s spot, his precious minnow pool and threw the small anchor over the side, please with the day and her company.
        He fussed with the gear and burbled inconsequences. She asked him if he was thirsty. He flushed, delighted to have her attention, and wiped his brow, admitting he would love some of her homemade grape juice.
        She smiled, and offered the bottle, the purple bottle, to him.
        He toasted her and drank. She watched as his face turned white and he clutched his head. It was probably that extra nitroglycerin of her father’s. She’d heard too much could kill you, or maybe the prophet was correct: “and if you grudge the crushing of grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.”

---By Carla Blaschka, Saturday, August 13, 2011, at Cal Anderson Park

Prompts Chosen Almost Randomly:

1)        The 6 of Diamonds, the 7 of Clubs
2)        Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter: “Mr. Jeremy took a reed pole and pushed the boat into open water. “I know a good place for minnows,” said Mr. Jeremy Fisher.”
3)        The Prophet by Kahil Gibran: “And if you grudge the crushing of grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.”

Other writers in attendance at the writers' circle were: Bill Lindberg, PurpleMark Wirth and Priya Keefe.