The leather jacked showed the scars of being his favorite for years.

It wore those
scars with pride, feeling that they enhanced his presence rather than diminishing
it. The scars gave it character and had not overwhelmed to the point that it had
become ratty. The jacket was in its prime and it knew it.
She had come to the conclusion that you could tell a lot about a person by their
ears. The way they stuck out and the size of the earlobes could give you wonderful
insights into the person. Of course, she couldn't scientifically prove any of this,
but that didn't matter to her. Before anything else, she would size up the ears of
the person she was talking to.
It was a question of which of the two she preferred. On the one hand, the choice
seemed simple. The more expensive one with a brand name would be the choice of
most. It was the easy choice. The safe choice. But she wasn't sure she actually
preferred it.
Dave watched as the forest burned up on the hill, only a few miles from her house.
The car had been hastily packed and Marta was inside trying to round up the last of
the pets. Dave went through his mental list of the most important papers and
documents that they couldn't leave behind. He scolded himself for not having
prepared these better in advance and hoped that he had remembered everything that
was needed. He continued to wait for Marta to appear with the pets, but she still
was nowhere to be seen.
Don't forget that gifts often come with costs that go beyond their purchase price.
When you purchase a child the latest smartphone, you're also committing to a
monthly phone bill. When you purchase the latest gaming system, you're likely not
going to be satisfied with the games that come with it for long and want to
purchase new titles to play. When you buy gifts it's important to remember that
some come with additional costs down the road that can be much more expensive than
the initial gift itself.
The words hadn't flowed from his fingers for the past few weeks. He never imagined
he'd find himself with writer's block, but here he sat with a blank screen in front
of him. That blank screen taunting him day after day had started to play with his
mind. He didn't understand why he couldn't even type a single word, just one to
begin the process and build from there. And yet, he already knew that the eight
hours he was prepared to sit in front of his computer today would end with the
screen remaining blank.
She counted. One. She could hear the steps coming closer. Two. Puffs of breath
could be seen coming from his mouth. Three. He stopped beside her. Four. She pulled
the trigger of the gun.
She had been told time and time again that the most important steps were the first
and the last. It was something that she carried within her in everything she did,
but then he showed up and disrupted everything. He told her that she had it wrong.
The first step wasn't the most important. The last step wasn't the most important.
It was the next step that was the most important.
His parents continued to question him. He didn't know what to say to them since
they refused to believe the truth. He explained again and again, and they dismissed
his explanation as a figment of his imagination. There was no way that grandpa, who
had been dead for five years, could have told him where the treasure had been
hidden. Of course, it didn't help that grandpa was roaring with laughter in the
chair next to him as he tried to explain once again how he'd found it.
She never liked cleaning the sink. It was beyond her comprehension how it got so
dirty so quickly. It seemed that she was forced to clean it every other day. Even
when she was extra careful to keep things clean and orderly, it still ended up
looking like a mess in a couple of days. What she didn't know was there was a tiny
creature living in it that didn't like things neat.