The paper was blank. It shouldn't have been.

There should have been writing on

the paper, at least a paragraph if not more. The fact that the writing wasn't
there was frustrating. Actually, it was even more than frustrating. It was
downright distressing.

1.Sometimes it's the first moment of the day that catches you off guard. That's
what Wendy was thinking. She opened her window to see fire engines
screeching down the street. While this wasn't something completely unheard of,
it also wasn't normal. It was a sure sign of what was going to happen that day.
She could feel it in her bones and it wasn't the way she wanted the day to begin.

2.All he could think about was how it would all end. There was still a bit of
uncertainty in the equation, but the basics were there for anyone to see. No
matter how much he tried to see the positive, it wasn't anywhere to be seen.
The end was coming and it wasn't going to be pretty.

3.She didn't understand how changed worked. When she looked at today
compared to yesterday, there was nothing that she could see that was different.
Yet, when she looked at today compared to last year, she couldn't see how
anything was ever the same.

4.I've rented a car in Las Vegas and have reserved a hotel in Twentynine Palms
which is just north of Joshua Tree. We'll drive from Las Vegas through Mojave
National Preserve and possibly do a short hike on our way down. Then spend all
day on Monday at Joshua Tree. We can decide the next morning if we want to do
more in Joshua Tree or Mojave before we head back.

5.The blinking light caught her attention. She thought about it a bit and couldn't
remember ever noticing it before. That was strange since it was obvious the
flashing light had been there for years. Now she wondered how she missed it for
that amount of time and what other things in her small town she had failed to
notice.

6.There are different types of secrets. She had held onto plenty of them during
her life, but this one was different. She found herself holding onto the worst
type. It was the type of secret that could gnaw away at your insides if you didn't
tell someone about it, but it could end up getting you killed if you did.

7.The trail to the left had a "Danger! Do Not Pass" sign telling people to take the
trail to the right. This wasn't the way Zeke approached his hiking. Rather than a
warning, Zeke read the sign as an invitation to explore an area that would be
adventurous and exciting. As the others in the group all shited to the right, Zeke
slipped past the danger sign to begin an adventure he would later regret.

8.Matt told her to reach for the stars, but Veronica thought it was the most
ridiculous advice she'd ever received. Sure, it had been well-meaning when he
said it, but she didn't understand why anyone would want to suggest something
that would literally kill you if you actually managed to achieve it.
9.They had always called it the green river. It made sense. The river was green.
The river likely had a different official name, but to everyone in town, it was and
had always been the green river. So it was with great surprise that on this day
the green river was a fluorescent pink.

10.What have you noticed today? I noticed that if you outline the eyes, nose,
and mouth on your face with your finger, you make an "I" which makes perfect
sense, but is something I never noticed before. What have you noticed today?

11.The lone lamp post of the one-street town flickered, not quite dead but
definitely on its way out. Suitcase by her side, she paid no heed to the light, the
street or the town. A car was coming down the street and with her arm
outstretched and thumb in the air, she had a plan.

12.The light blinded him. It was dark and he thought he was the only one in the
area, but the light shining in his eyes proved him wrong. It came from about 100
feet away and was shining so directly into his eyes he couldn't make out
anything about the person holding the light. There was only one thing to do in
this situation. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a flashlight of his own
that was much stronger than the one currently blinding him. He turned it on and
pointed it into the stranger's eyes.

13.The shoes had been there for as long as anyone could remember. In fact, it
was difficult for anyone to come up with a date they had first appeared. It had
seemed they'd always been there and yet they seemed so out of place. Why
nobody had removed them was a question that had been asked time and again,
but while they all thought it, nobody had ever found the energy to actually do it.
So, the shoes remained on the steps, out of place in one sense, but perfectly
normal in another.

14.Puppies are soft, cute, funny, and make a big mess. Every month or two our
family fosters 6-12 week old puppies for a puppy rescue nonprofit organization.
We all enjoy cuddling their furry bodies after a clean bath. Fresh puppy smell is
great. The puppies play with each other and our adult dog. They look so funny
when they lay on top of each other and sleep. While puppies can be great fun,
they also can make big messes. 4-6 puppies can make a lot of puppy pee and
poop. It's a challenge to keep the puppies and the puppy pen clean.

15.The boxed moved. That was a problem. Peter had packed the box three hours
before and there was nothing inside that should make it move. The question
now was whether or not Peter was going to open it up and look inside to see
why it had moved. The answer to that question was obvious. Peter dropped the
package into the mailbox so he would never have to see it again.

16.He watched as the young man tried to impress everyone in the room with his
intelligence. There was no doubt that he was smart. The fact that he was more
intelligent than anyone else in the room could have been easily deduced, but
nobody was really paying any attention due to the fact that it was also obvious
that the young man only cared about his intelligence.

17.It was easy to spot her. All you needed to do was look at her socks. They
were never a matching pair. One would be green while the other would be blue.
One would reach her knee while the other barely touched her ankle. Every other
part of her was perfect, but never the socks. They were her micro act of
rebellion.

18.She reached her goal, exhausted. Even more chilling to her was that the
euphoria that she thought she'd feel upon reaching it wasn't there. Something
wasn't right. Was this the only feeling she'd have for over five years of hard
work?

19.Green vines attached to the trunk of the tree had wound themselves toward
the top of the canopy. Ants used the vine as their private highway, avoiding all
the creases and crags of the bark, to freely move at top speed from top to
bottom or bottom to top depending on their current chore. At least this was the
way it was supposed to be. Something had damaged the vine overnight halfway
up the tree leaving a gap in the once pristine ant highway.

20.The piano sat silently in the corner of the room. Nobody could remember the
last time it had been played. The little girl walked up to it and hit a few of the
keys. The sound of the piano rang throughout the house for the first time in
years. In the upstairs room, confined to her bed, the owner of the house had
tears in her eyes.

21.Sometimes it just doesn't make sense. The man walking down the street in a
banana suit. The llama standing in the middle of the road. The fairies dancing in
front of the car window. The fact that all of this was actually happening and
wasn't a dream.

22."It doesn't take much to touch someone's heart," Daisy said with a smile on
her face. "It's often just the little things you do that can change a person's day
for the better." Daisy truly believed this to be the way the world worked, but
she didn't understand that she was merely a robot that had been programmed
to believe this.

23.The young man wanted a role model. He looked long and hard in his youth,
but that role model never materialized. His only choice was to embrace all the
people in his life he didn't want to be like.

24.The robot clicked disapprovingly, gurgled briefly inside its cubical interior
and extruded a pony glass of brownish liquid. "Sir, you will undoubtedly end up
in a drunkard's grave, dead of hepatic cirrhosis," it informed me virtuously as it
returned my ID card. I glared as I pushed the glass across the table.
25.Peter always saw the world in black and white. There were two choices for
every situation and you had to choose one of them. It was therefore terribly
uncomfortable for him to spend time with Ashley. She saw the world in shades
of gray with hundreds of choices to choose from in every situation.

26.It was supposed to be a dream vacation. They had planned it over a year in
advance so that it would be perfect in every way. It had been what they had
been looking forward to through all the turmoil and negativity around them. It
had been the light at the end of both their tunnels. Now that the dream vacation
was only a week away, the virus had stopped all air travel.

27.At that moment, she realized that she had created her current life. It wasn't
the life she wanted, but she took responsibility for how it currently stood.
Something clicked and she saw that every choice she made to this point in her
life had led to where her life stood at this very moment even if she knew this
wasn't where she wanted to be. She determined to choose to change it.

28.There was little doubt that the bridge was unsafe. All one had to do was look
at it to know that with certainty. Yet Bob didn't see another option. He may
have been able to work one out if he had a bit of time to think things through,
but time was something he didn't have. A choice needed to be made, and it
needed to be made quickly.

29.What was beyond the bend in the stream was unknown. Both were curious,
but only one was brave enough to want to explore. That was the problem. There
was always one that let fear rule her life.

30."So, what do you think?" he asked nervously. He wanted to know the answer,
but at the same time, he didn't. He'd put his heart and soul into the project and
he wasn't sure he'd be able to recover if they didn't like what he produced. The
silence from the others in the room seemed to last a lifetime even though it had
only been a moment since he asked the question. "So, what do you think?" he
asked again.

31.Twenty seconds were all that was left and Richard could hear each one tick
by. Fifteen seconds now remained and the panic began to fully set in. Ten
seconds and he wasn't sure he had enough time. Five seconds, four, three, two,
one...

32.She nervously peered over the edge. She understood in her mind that the
view was supposed to be beautiful, but all she felt was fear. There had always
been something about heights that disturbed her, and now she could feel the
full force of this unease. She reluctantly crept a little closer with the
encouragement of her friends as the fear continued to build. She couldn't help
but feel that something horrible was about to happen.
33.The boy walked down the street in a carefree way, playing without notice of
what was about him. He didn't hear the sound of the car as his ball careened
into the road. He took a step toward it, and in doing so sealed his fate.

34.The amber droplet hung from the branch, reaching fullness and ready to
drop. It waited. While many of the other droplets were satisfied to form as big
as they could and release, this droplet had other plans. It wanted to be part of
history. It wanted to be remembered long after all the other droplets had
dissolved into history. So it waited for the perfect specimen to fly by to trap and
capture that it hoped would eventually be discovered hundreds of years in the
future.

35.He hid under the covers hoping that nobody would notice him there. It really
didn't make much sense since it would be obvious to anyone who walked into
the room there was someone hiding there, but he still held out hope. He heard
footsteps coming down the hall and stop in front in front of the bedroom door.
He heard the squeak of the door hinges and someone opened the bedroom door.
He held his breath waiting for whoever was about to discover him, but they
never did.

36.There was something in the tree. It was difficult to tell from the ground, but
Rachael could see movement. She squinted her eyes and peered in the direction
of the movement, trying to decipher exactly what she had spied. The more she
peered, however, the more she thought it might be a figment of her
imagination. Nothing seemed to move until the moment she began to take her
eyes off the tree. Then in the corner of her eye, she would see the movement
again and begin the process of staring again.

37.Betty decided to write a short story and she was sure it was going to be
amazing. She had already written it in her head and each time she thought
about it she grinned from ear to ear knowing how wonderful it would be. She
could imagine the accolades coming in and the praise she would receive for
creating such a wonderful piece. She was therefore extremely frustrated when
she actually sat down to write the short story and the story that was so
beautiful inside her head refused to come out that way on paper.

38.They say you only come to peace with yourself when you know yourself
better than those around you. Derick knew nothing about this. He thought he
had found peace but this was an illusion as he was about to find out with an
unexpected occurrence that he actually knew nothing about himself.

39.He ordered his regular breakfast. Two eggs sunnyside up, hash browns, and
two strips of bacon. He continued to look at the menu wondering if this would
be the day he added something new. This was also part of the routine. A few
seconds of hesitation to see if something else would be added to the order
before demuring and saying that would be all. It was the same exact meal that
he had ordered every day for the past two years.
40.There was a time in his life when her rudeness would have set him over the
edge. He would have raised his voice and demanded to speak to the manager.
That was no longer the case. He barely reacted at all, letting the rudeness melt
away without saying a word back to her. He had been around long enough to
know where rudeness came from and how unhappy the person must be to act in
that way. All he could do was feel pity and be happy that he didn't feel the way
she did to lash out like that.

41.Out of another, I get a lovely view of the bay and a little private wharf
belonging to the estate. There is a beautiful shaded lane that runs down there
from the house. I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths
and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. He
says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making a nervous
weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies and that I
ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try.

42.She closed her eyes and then opened them again. What she was seeing just
didn't make sense. She shook her head seeing if that would help. It didn't.
Although it seemed beyond reality, there was no denying she was witnessing a
large formation of alien spaceships filling the sky.

43.I'm meant to be writing at this moment. What I mean is, I'm meant to be
writing something else at this moment. The document I'm meant to be writing
is, of course, open in another program on my computer and is patiently awaiting
my attention. Yet here I am plonking down senseless sentiments in this
paragraph because it's easier to do than to work on anything particularly
meaningful. I am grateful for the distraction.

44.Greg understood that this situation would make Michael terribly

uncomfortable. Michael simply had no idea what was about to come and even
though Greg could prevent it from happening, he opted to let it happen. It was
quite ironic, really. It was something Greg had said he would never wish upon
anyone a million times, yet here he was knowingly letting it happen to one of his
best friends. He rationalized that it would ultimately make Michael a better
person and that no matter how uncomfortable, everyone should experience
racism at least once in their lifetime.

45.Her hand was balled into a fist with her keys protruding out from between
her fingers. This was the weapon her father had shown her how to make when
she walked alone to her car after work. She wished that she had something a
little more potent than keys between her fingers. It would have been nice to
have some mace or pepper spray. He had been meaning to buy some but had
never gotten around to it. As the mother bear took another step forward with
her cubs in tow, she knew her fist with keys wasn't going to be an adequate
defense for this situation.

46.A long black shadow slid across the pavement near their feet and the five
Venusians, very much startled, looked overhead. They were barely in time to
see the huge gray form of the carnivore before it vanished behind a sign atop a
nearby building which bore the mystifying information "Pepsi-Cola."