Expansion Joints Challenge, part 22: "Close"

After promising that I would try never to be late again, I am even later this week. Perhaps if I told you all (falsely, mind you) that I couldn't care less about being late, and that I'll post these things when the mood strikes, I'll be on time next week...although, for reasons that will soon become clear, I doubt it.

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. This week has been one that has had the US and the rest of the world teetering on the edge of drastic financial uncertainty. As I write this, it appears that, at the 59th minute of the 11th hour, this Congress may have finally decided that we need to pay our bills, after all, although they still don't appear to grasp that actual revenue may be required to continue to do this. So the side show at the monkey house appears to be over, for the moment. Nearer to home, the sets are struck and the run of the play is ended, leaving all of us with mixed emotions, as the teamwork and camaraderie among the cast and crew were very enjoyable, although the hours and work involved in the production were grueling. It felt like saying goodbye to family to dismantle the sets, put away the costumes and props, and leave the theater and the rest of the troupe behind for the last time until next spring. I promised you at the beginning that you would soon understand why next week's Expansion Joints might well be delayed, and so I move on to the last bit of news to incorporate into the theme: a tropical storm, which is now forecast to be a hurricane by the time it reaches my neck of the woods this weekend, appears to be bearing down on us, and while the forecast track contains quite a bit of uncertainty, these sorts of things can shut down power and internet access even if they are technically near-misses. With all of that to consider, the word this week is a little different. Usually, the words I choose can be used as more than one part of speech, or have at least two different meanings, to give you all a bit of flexibility and/or to torture you with the need to make a decision. Well, this week it is even worse. The word of the week is "close", and I leave it to you to decide which of the words that share that spelling I mean. Both of them fit.

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, free, break, cut, and opening, in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.