#8272013

Prompt: Juxtaposition creates tension, contrast, and intrigue. Think of two objects that don’t belong together next to each other: a cat skeleton and a shrimp cocktail, an antique coffee grinder and a wet scuba mask, a spare car tire on a floating iceberg. Once you choose your items, write the story that brought them together.

Items: A wedding dress and an inflatable dolphin.

Note: I like this one a bit more, but still not my favorite thing in the whole wide world

“Well, that’s one way to deal with ending an engagement,” Justine said as she stood on the sidewalk in front of her brother house. Alex was speechless beside her as he looked at mess that had taken the place of his front yard.

“I told her I was sorry and that she could keep the ring.” Alex’s voice was detached; as if he didn’t realize that the shit covered yard and spray painted house belonged to him. “And what’s with the dolphin?” Justine had been trying to figure that out as well, it didn’t fit with the rest of the theme of the vandalism. It had to be almost six feet tall rigged up the way it was and the center piece of the garbage heap that now denoted Alex’s front yard. It was also squeezed into a hideous taffeta wedding gown.

“We were only gone for three hours,” Alex said as he still stood in the middle of the sidewalk in awe. I expected him to be angry, but he seemed resigned to the face that there was nothing he could do.

“She had to have help, look at all this garbage and dog shit,” Justine said as she kicked a crushed can out of the way. “Probably that annoying woman that looked like a horse…it started with a K I think.”

“Kimberly, and it wasn’t her, she recycles and doesn’t eat fast food.” Alex said as he picked up a Burger King wrapper that blew against his leg. “And she doesn’t have a dog.” Justine shrugged and started to carefully walk around the garbage towards the front door. She was glad that Alex had listened to her when she told him not to sell the house when he moved in with Georgia. Justine had never liked her and always thought she was insane, but Alex wouldn’t listen to her.

“This must have been one big-ass dog for the size of these piles.” Justine’s lip curled up in disgust as she hopped up to the second step to avoid the pile on the first step.

“Luckily it’s cool so it doesn’t smell too bad. Get some garbage bags so we can clean this up.” Alex called, but he still hadn’t move. He still stood there, hands in his pockets, looking at the dolphin in the wedding dress. He was transfixed by how ugly the dolphin and the dress were. Had Georgia really been planning to wear that or had she just gone to Salvation Army and found a wedding dress to stick on the dolphin. If it was the former he was even more gratefully that he had called off the engagement.

“You have fifteen missed messages, wonder who they’re from.” Justine said as she brought out a box of trash bags and two sets of rubber kitchen gloves. “You have to let me listen to them all. Maybe even record them to put on Youtube depending on how good they are.”

“You’re enjoying all this?” Alex asked in disbelief as he took a pair of rubber gloves and pulled them on.

“This is the biggest cosmic ‘I told you so’ I have ever seen. I am enjoying every minute.” Justine said with a bright smile showing off her dimples.

 “Yeah, well excuse me if I didn’t take relationship advice from a woman who has been single since high school.” Alex said rolling his eyes and he finally moved from his spot on the sidewalk and moved to the back of the house. The spray painted insults followed his all the way to the back gate, which had been locked. He guessed they were too scared to scratch up their shoes to climb the fence. Alex grabbed the rake and a shovel out of the backyard and brought them back to Justine who was starting at the house now.

“I have to say. I am kind of impressed that she spelled prevaricator correctly, I didn’t think she was that smart. Though it looked like she ran out of neon pink paint halfway through and had to switch to green. Kind of made it lose some of the effect.” Justine said tilting her head and looking the house over as if it was a painting.

“I don’t even know that mean,” Alex said sadly as he kicked one of the bottles further into the yard. It bounced off the dolphin and it tilted precariously since it was only tied to the flag pole hanging off the house to keep it upright.  

“I don’t either, but I am guessing it has something to do with you lying if the other words are any indication.” Justine said as she shoved a handful of wrappers into the bag.

“Pretentious bitch,” Alex mumbled as he raked more of the garbage into the pile. “Why couldn’t she just have put ‘liar’ like a normal person?”

“She did, it’s behind the dolphin, with some colorful adjectives in front of it. I haven’t even heard of some of these,” Justine said with a laugh. Alex had called it off with Georgia because he said she was strangling him. She had a rule for everything and if you didn’t do it just so she would flip out. Georgia couldn’t accept that there was something wrong with her and told Alex she knew he was cheating on her. The argument had gotten so heated had walked out of the house they shared without any of his things. He didn’t think he was going to get any of them back either.

“Oh, I figured it out!” Justine said jumping up and clapping her hands. “It’s supposed to be a shark! She’s calling you a shark!”