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I tried to at least make the writing interesting even if the plot isn't. You might enjoy the massive LAME drama in it. It's amusing in its lameness.
And I definitely did NOT think of this story. It was assigned, character names and all.
Cement Operas
Doris came over and kissed Floyd on the cheek, ignoring the full spoon of cereal making its way to his mouth.
“Morning, babe,” she said , pulling a chair next to his and fluffing her pristine hair. She somehow managed to roll out of bed looking good.
“Morning,” Floyd grunted, setting his spoon down to give her a proper kiss.
Doris pouted attractively as she dragged the newspaper across the table, opening it to the local section.
“Do you really have to go to work, Floyd?” she asked.
“You know I do, Dory. If I didn’t, I’d get my pay docked and then I’d be screwed.”
She sighed, still pouting. “I guess I’ll pick you up. But you’ll be all covered in dust. I’ll have to wear my workin’ clothes.”
Floyd rolled his eyes and smiled so she couldn’t see. Even Dory’s working clothes were impeccable and, well, sexy. She didn’t have anything unattractive in her closet.
“I see you got dressed already,” she said, getting a bit frosty at his lack of comment.
“I have to leave in a few minutes.”
Doris frowned. “But this is the first time we’ve been together in almost a month. Can’t you spend the morning with me?”
“You can meet me for lunch,” Floyd replied. Doris slammed the newspaper down.
“Fine, Floyd. Fine. I’ll meet you for lunch and sit here all by my lonesome until then, and then I’ll come back and sit here for five more hours until I can come pick you up, all alone, with nothing to do except stare at the rumpled sheets.”
“Just be glad the sheets are rumpled,” Floyd grunted, willing himself not to feel guilty. He needed to work for a living, after all.
“Well, I am glad, but Floyd, I wish we could just spend the day together.”
“If you stayed until the weekend, we could,” Floyd replied, allowing a hopeful expression to creep onto his face. Doris smiled, having the nerve to look exasperated.
“Honey, you know I can’t.”
“And you know I have to work.” He checked his watch. “I have to work in fifteen minutes, actually.” He stood up, going over to the sink to dump the rest of his soggy cereal.
“So you’re just going to leave?” Doris asked, miffed. Floyd bit back a yell.
“Yes, Dory. If I don’t work, I can’t pay the bills. They’re kind of important, you know. Your dad doesn’t like me anyway, can you imagine what he’d say if he knew I got fired or couldn’t pay my water bill?”
At the mention of her father, Doris sighed, convinced.
“Alright, babe. I’m gonna go back to bed then.” She gave him a very satisfying kiss before sauntering back to his bedroom. As soon as the door closed, Floyd rushed to his rickety, old pick-up.
When he finally sputtered into the cement plant’s parking lot, he had thirty seconds to spare. He rushed in, ripping open his locker and shoving his clean clothes in.
“Mornin’, Hale.”
“Mornin’, MT.”
The two men nodded politely at each other, simultaneously slamming their lockers and racing to the cement yard.
Floyd didn’t even choke at the tidal wave of dust anymore, he was just that used to it. When he first came, he had been intimidated by the swirling, grey clouds of lung hazard, but now, it was just part of the plant. He was paid to walk through those clouds, so he wasn’t going to complain.
It wasn’t long before everyone was sweating and sputtering. The one good thing about hard work was how fast it went. By the time he had a quick lunch with a very upset Doris, he was sure only an hour or so had passed.
He was surprised when twilight came.
Bull, a huge man in his late fifties, set down his jacket and wiped his face on a ragged towel. MT followed suit, signaling all the other men to be done. Floyd gratefully sat.
“Whose up for a beer or two?” Bull asked, panting slightly from exertion. As everyone voiced their consent, Floyd thought about Doris. She’d be furious.
“I think I’m gonna pass,” Floyd said regretfully.
“S’ too bad, Hale,” Bull grunted.
Will looked at him. “Is it because of that broad waitin’ outside?”
Floyd was reluctant to acknowledge that Doris was openly displaying herself, but he had to with that remark. “Yeah.” He looked at her, standing on the fence, nonchalant as can be, and sighed. “I should be going. See y’ all later.”
They waved him off as he made his way to his locker where he changed into his clean clothes before meeting Doris at the fence. She beamed when she saw him, giving him a flashy kiss to make everyone as jealous as possible.
“Dory–”
“Where are they all going?” she demanded, frowning, as they all piled into MT’s truck.
“To the bar. But, Dory–”
“You weren’t invited?”
“I was, but I told them I couldn’t because–”
“Well, of course you can! Go, Floyd! You’ve been waiting for this ever since you started here! Now, go!” For someone so slim and dainty looking, she sure had a hefty push. Floyd was halfway to the truck before he was even walking on his own.
“Uh, bye, Dory,” he called meekly, jogging the rest of the way. He was greeted enthusiastically as soon as he made it.
“Get in, boy!” roared Bull jovially. Floyd raised an eyebrow at the “boy” comment but, he reasoned as he climbed in next to Will, as Bull was the oldest, he had every right to call him “boy.”
Floyd was never really sure how everyone fit into MT’s beat up truck, but somehow they did and made it to the bar. It took a good five minutes for all of them to roll out and troop into the bar.
A buxom, middle-aged woman came over and took their beer orders, coming back with a tray full of frothing mugs. Will reached for one.
“I don’t think so, sonny,” Bull said in his deep, cheerful growl. Will pouted.
“It’s not like I ain’t never been drunk before,” Will argued, still reaching. MT slapped his hand away. Floyd wholeheartedly approved of this.
“You’re the one gonna have to drive us olds home. You gotta be sober.”
Will sighed. “Fine.” Floyd, glad that was done with, gulped down half of his beer, pleased with its chill as it went down his dust-coated throat. He was pleased with the way the next few, too. And even a few after that.
It must have been after midnight when they all staggered out of the bar, shouting and laughing raucously. Since they were all swaying and stumbling, no one noticed that Will was, too.
They all piled into the truck again, hardly noticing who was sitting on who. Will fell into the driver’s seat and situated himself. No sooner had he started the truck than the truck rammed into a large oak.
It’s funny what can sober someone. All of the men moved as much as they could –being squished had already had its advantages– to look at Will, slumped over the steering wheel. Something red was leaking down.
“Shit..” Floyd muttered.
“It’s been a week. Surely he’s gotten better?” Floyd asked, honestly worried about Will. Bull shook his head again.
“All his vitals are ok, but he’s still unconscious. Dammit!” The older man sat down, head in hands. “I didn’t want him to marry my girl, but damn, she wants him to marry her.”
Floyd wasn’t sure what he could do for Bull, so he just left. That was how every day seemed to go; Bull would sit and mumble about how it was his fault, Floyd would walk away to be replaced by MT, and Will would never appear.
He wasn’t sure when it started, but every comment out of his mouth seemed to be a cutting one. Doris noticed. And Doris wasn’t happy about it.
“Floyd Hale!” Doris shouted from across the kitchen, beautiful eyes blazing angrily.
“What, Dory?” he shouted back.
“You’ve been such an ass lately! I’m tired of it!”
“Then leave!” Floyd yelled, barely thinking rationally.
“I will!” she stormed off into his room, slamming the door. Floyd slumped into a chair at his kitchen table. A few minutes later, Doris stormed back out, suitcase in hand, flung open the front door, and left.
Floyd, still sitting at the table, let out an anguished moan.
“I found a college in Houston. I was hoping you’d know if I could photograph the plant for my entrance project.” Bull raised his eyebrows.
“I guess you can.” The older man shrugged. “Wouldn’t really know.”
Floyd left and MT immediately replaced him standing next to Bull.
“The whelp wants to go to college?”
Bull nodded. “And when did Floyd replace Will as the whelp?” he asked, his voice even more of a low growl than usual.
“They’re both whelps,” MT replied. “Do you think he can make it?”
Bull chuckled without humor. “Not a chance.”
“I think you’re being hard on the guy.”
Both turned at the sound of Roger Rutter’s clean-cut voice.
“Why? He can’t afford a camera good enough to get into a good school.”
Roger shrugged. “It’s not the camera they’re looking at, it’s the man using it.” And without staying to hear the rest of the conversation, he left to find Floyd.
“Sorry, man. It’s hard, seeing as I don’t do nothin’ anyway. What didja want me to do again?”
“I just wanted you to be changing into your work clothes. Is that really hard? Don’t you do that every day anyway?”
‘Do shrugged. “Some days.”
Half an hour and plenty of aggravation later, Floyd was walking out to the kilns, preparing to photograph Roger as he worked.
Unnoticed by him, a familiar MGB pulled into the parking lot. Doris didn’t get out, just leaned forward to watch him. He was so alive. He only used to look alive like that when–
“When he looked at me,” she whispered quietly to herself, resting her head miserably on the steering wheel.
Tonight, she promised silently. Tonight, I’ll go talk to him.
And she kept her word. Floyd had just gotten out of the shower when there was a knock on the door and Doris let herself in.
“Doris,” Floyd said, stopping short in the hallway, a towel around his waist.
“You didn’t call me Dory...” Doris said, biting her lip.
“Am I supposed to?” he asked, treading carefully in dangerous waters.
“Floyd, I love you!” she said instead of replying.
Floyd, speechless, let his mouth drop slightly.
“Won’t you say something?!”
He cleared his throat several times. I love you, too! “I’m sorry you feel that way.” Damn! Why couldn’t he just say what he wanted to?
Doris just stared at him.
“But...Floyd..what we had...What we have...is–”
“Over, Doris.”
Doris looked as if she’d just plunged her head into a bucket of writhing eels.
“Over? But, Floyd–”
“It’s over and done, Doris. You made sure of that.” And, with that, he walked back into his bedroom to get dressed, leaving a distraught and befuddled Doris to see herself out.
The door opened and she sat up straighter, knowing it would be Floyd walking out.
It wasn’t.
Bull and MT came barreling out, barely stopping to glance at her as they slammed their way into MT’s truck. Doris rolled her window down.
“Hey, Rider!” she called. He looked at her from the passenger seat.
“Mornin’, Doris. Here to see Floyd?”
“You could say that. Where’re y’ all goin’ in such a hurry?”
“Will woke up!”
MT didn’t even wait for her to say good bye before revving up and careening out of the parking lot. The next second, Floyd was outside, taking pictures of the car as it drove away. Doris sunk down in her seat, as if it would help hide her. Everyone knew her car.
Floyd, clicking away with that camera, looked so happy. Doris sighed. She was no match for a camera when it came to Floyd. Maybe it was time to go home.
The letter came a week after it had been written. Floyd, putting together his project, just stared at it for a moment before opening it with trembling hands.
Dear Floyd,
I am just writing to tell you that I have gone home and I am not coming back. I took all of my stuff out of your house, so you don’t have to worry.
Floyd, I love you, but I realize that I need to move on. So I’ve found a house in New York and I’m moving there in two months.
Have a good life. Maybe we’ll meet again.
Sincerely,
Doris
Floyd stared at the letter. Sighing, and suddenly feeling the weight of his loss, he tossed the letter into the garbage and got back to his project.
He had been working steadily for a few hours when it hit him.
He did love Doris. He loved her more than he’d ever loved anything or anyone and he was going to get her back. Before she moved to New York.
But there was the tiny matter of finishing his project.
He set off with a full tank of gas and made it to Doris’s house in under three hours, a record. When he pounded on the door, it was Doris’s father that answered.
“Please, sir,” he said respectfully. “I need to see Doris.”
Giving him a beady-eyed glare, the man reluctantly let him in and left to retrieve his daughter. A minute later, Doris walked out looking more beautiful than Floyd ever thought he’d seen her.
“Hello, Floyd,” she said evenly.
“Hello, Doris.”
They stared at each other and then, a second later, were in each other’s arms. Floyd twirled her around, laughing, and she clung to him, eyes moist.
“I love you, Dory,” he whispered.
“And I love you, Floyd.”
“Please don’t move to New York.”
“I won’t.”
“Let’s get married.”
“Ok!”
“On Valentine’s day!”
“Even better!”
He twirled her around again and whisked her to the car.
Floyd, startled by the shriek, ran out of the shower, stopping only to wrap a towel loosely around his torso.
“Dory?!” he asked, panicking.
She waved an envelope around excitedly.
“Floyd, it’s a letter from that college!”
The towel dropped somewhere in the kitchen as he raced to get the letter and rip it open with trembling fingers. He quickly scanned it, then beamed.
“DORY! I MADE IT!”
“OH MY GOSH!”
He grabbed her and whirled her, dampening her white outfit. She laughed as he set her down.
“I guess now would be a good time to give you this.” Reaching into the kitchen drawer, he pulled out a velvet-covered box. Doris gasped.
“Oh, Floyd! How did you afford that?” she asked, slipping the ring delightedly onto her finger.
He shrugged. “I’d been saving up for it.”
“I love you, Floyd.”
“I love you, too, Dory.”
“Will! You’re back!” Floyd embraced the younger man, taking care not to wrinkle his new suit.
“Yeah! When they told me you were having a party ‘cause you were accepted to college, I knew I had to get out. I can’t go back to work for awhile, so Mel and I can’t get married yet, but that’s ok. It’ll happen eventually.”
Floyd smiled, glad that the only visible scar from the accident was a small cut above his left eyebrow.
“Were you surprised when they told you they were throwing a party for you?” Will asked.
“Yeah. From what I’d heard, no one thought I’d get in.”
“Yeah, well, from what I heard, that’s why they threw the party.”
Floyd was about to reply when Doris sauntered over in her tiny dress and snaked her arm over his shoulder.
“Come on, babe. We need to get going.”
“Alright, Dory. Let me say good bye one more time.”
So, did you enjoy the massive squishing of pages and pages of action into small sections? I was very proud, if I do say so myself.
But seriously, guys.
If you didn't think that was lame...Well, I won't say anything mean. YOU SHOULD REVIEW WITH YOUR THOUGHTS. D
