Prelude To a Novel

Izzies

Event: 500 Word Snatch

Location: Milk Wood, Second Life 

Host: Lizzie Gudkov

Prompt: Write a short prelude to your novel.

Time: 30 mins

Time corrodes even the most resilient relationships. Routine, boredom, money problems, children are but a few of the reasons behind an inevitable outcome. The middle-aged couple, Jenny and Blake, was no exception.

They couldn’t really pinpoint the exact moment when their lives became practically separate. It was a slow process. At first, it seemed to be an effective way of dealing with the overbearing every-day-life problems. Dividing tasks amongst the two made it easier to survive the hustle and bustle of a busy family life. Then, each took on their own tasks over and over again, becoming totally independent from the other, making decisions without the need to ask for the other’s opinion. And without even noticing, they had a separate life.

Jenny went to work and dealt with being the money maker of the household and Blake, after leaving a job that made him miserably unhappy, became responsible for the kids and the house.

This apparently successful strategy paved the way to flexible schedules, additional hours they could manage on their own, and more room for lies.

Inevitably, the couple drifted away from each other and it was only a matter of months, and the right set of circumstances, until both found someone else who made them feel special.

Jenny’s lover, Lucas, was a bright young man with a shady past and a history of trickery, whose strangely charming manipulative ways found a safe haven in the needy, still very attractive, middle-aged woman. In his mind, this relationship was a business deal. On one hand, he would make her feel sexy and wanted. On the other, she would accept his mysterious and often seemingly eccentric rules.

Blake’s lover, Chrystal, who was recovering from a messy divorce and had recently moved to a house across the street, became the perfect addition to his life. She was young, fresh, bubbly and full of life. She was her own boss and had no one to answer to. Moreover, she was the ideal person to make her wife jealous. Blake wasn’t sure why his wife still hadn’t reacted to the hints he threw in here and there about a certain Chris, but he believed she would eventually notice them.

So, this was a recipe for disaster. And disaster did happen.

Detectives Michelle Bisset and Vic Klein had a plateful of inexplicable evidence to sort through in search of answers, especially because local thugs, a gang from out of town and a sweet elderly lady were determined to be as unaccommodating as they could possibly be.

The local thugs seemed to be unwavering in solving things on their own. The gang from out of town caused a commotion and took off as quickly as they could. And the sweet elderly lady, who knew everyone and everything about everyone, single handedly managed to confuse everyone with her nosy ways.

Who did what? When and how? These are only a few of the answers brought to you by the novel Obscure Connections.

(This novel was written for NaNoWriMo and is in the process of being edited at the moment)