A short story based on Writing Prompts – Creative Copy Challenge #182
Posted: 06 Oct 2011 04:18 AM PDT

1. Exacting – Making severe demands; rigorous: an exacting instructor; Requiring great care, effort, or attention: an exacting task
2. Libation – The pouring of a liquid offering as a religious ritual; The liquid so poured. ; Informal. A beverage, especially an intoxicating beverage
3. Masturbatory – If I need to explain this…
4. Lozenge
5. Gargle
6. Sumptuous – Of a size or splendor suggesting great expense; lavish
7. Degraded
8. Cardamom – A rhizomatous Indian herb (Elettaria cardamomum) having capsular fruits with aromatic seeds used as a spice or condiment.
9. Nefarious – Infamous by way of being extremely wicked.
10. Syncopated – stressing a normally weak beat

The libation flowed over her body and cleansed her of the slimy energy she picked up throughout the day. She even created her own gargle and lozenge to clean her mouth of any nefarious words she spoke; they usually weren’t hers.

She made a sumptuous vegetarian meal seasoned with cardamom; she liked to eat as cleanly as possible. Eating degraded meats was out of the question for her. But no one in her family understood this. The way they eat meat seemed like a masturbatory experience. To each their own.

She didn’t make exacting demands over the people the around her. What gave them the right to do that to her? She gave them the right by not setting strong boundaries. Her syncopated life needed resuscitating. Otherwise, it would be over. And it would be too late for her to live the life she was meant to live.

Amandah T. Blackwell