Writing Challenge - Month Long Special!! Writing Prompt (Week 21)

This week we are sharing day thirteen of the Reader's Digest Writing Prompt Boot Camp challenge. You will notice that I skipped day twelve. This one was just a letter to break up with something, not a person but something you just have gotten sick of. If you want to find that writing prompt you can find it in the PDF from Reader's Digest. And also if you want more information about today's prompt, there is more information here.

So the description of Day Thirteen of the Writing Prompts is Breaking Down. The description talks about blowing a tire and then having to help someone on the verge of his or her own breakdown. The prompt ends by saying, Stuck in a small town, you're about to do something you haven't done in years. Again as always, I don't write in the first person. I write in the third person, so that is how I wrote mine. You can write however you like.

Adrien Poe and his wife Samantha had been fighting for three days. They were on a month-long road trip in the southern United States and just as they had left Alabama the fighting had started. A simple off handed comment that he couldn’t even remember anymore had started the mother of all fights. Now they were fighting about every indiscretion since they had gotten married two years ago. Now they sat in silence as they drove through Mississippi. Not for the first time, Adrien wondered if his wife would ever speak to him again.

Samantha Poe wasn’t sure herself if she would ever find anything to say to the man whom seemed barely more than a stranger. How had they been married for almost two years and still be so blind as to who each other truly was. It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic. As she thought of Divorce again, she started to hyperventilate. She loved Adrien, she really did but their marriage had hit a point where the true struggles of day to day marriage were starting to set in and become the norm.

The loud unexpected bang made Amanda scream as Adrien tried to remain in control and steer the car to the shoulder of the road. When the car had come to a full stop, Adrien shut the engine off. “Geez Mandy you nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“I’m sorry,” she said as tears ran down her face. He hadn’t noticed but she was bawling like a baby and shaking like a leaf.

“Hey, no no,” Adrien turned as best he could to look at her. “Oh Honey, I’m sorry. It’s okay, it’s just a blown tire.”

Amanda nodded as she tried but she couldn’t stop. Everything had been piling up and this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. As she sobbed Adrien realized that he had been a dick. Even though neither of them could remember what had started their fight. Adrien knew he was the asshole for not stepping up and being a man. He got out of the car and made his way over to the passenger’s side. He opened her door and helped get the seat belt undone and offered Amanda his hand so she could get out of the car. For a long while he held her there on the side of the road as she cried. He rubbed her back and tried to comfort her as she cried.

Once she had calmed slightly, Adrien kissed her forehead and stared at her. It was as if he was seeing her for the first time. This was the woman he had fallen in love with. They had started as friends and had grown so close, they had just fallen. “I’m just going to change that tire and then we can stop for lunch in the next small town for lunch.” Amanda nodded as she watched him.

Adrien didn’t want to let on, but he hadn’t changed a tire in years. He wasn’t sure if he remembered just exactly how to do it. In high school they had been taught how to do all kinds of things on a car, but once he had graduated all of that had gone out the window.

Copyright: A.L Keegan (2020)