Ghosts of Carla’s Past No. 1 by Carla Blaschka

The Stranger

I met The Stranger in 2009, The Stranger gave me words that I crafted as my own from pieces of theirs. I loved The Stranger. David gave me plot twists in the Last Days that I could never have imagined. Dominic, Jen, Charles and Brendan provided quotes and newspapers brilliant covers pulled together my theme. From its pages I created my story and then I stopped. I got lazy. But each week, week after faithful week I would collect the newspaper, hoping to write another story. I needed those news stories of what people did to one another and themselves to give me a jump start. Seven years later the pile is quite high. Will I ever use those papers? No. Do I want to give them up? No. I want to imagine I will be a person who will one day use those papers. That suddenly, out of nowhere, I will have the energy and will to do nothing but write my stories, all day long, all day long in front of a computer, all day long alone.

It’s never going to happen. I know it. You know it too. So I sit here and grieve for the person I want to be and am not as the papers die unread and unused in the recycle bin.

Carla Blaschka is the author of a book called “In The Soup: Demented Recipes 2009 – 2014,” published by Penhead Press in 2014. Her specialty is composing prompt driven flash fiction stories. She currently resides on Capitol Hill is Seattle, WA.

Copyright © 2017 by Carla Blaschka