This week’s writing prompt is:
HEAT
What does this word mean to you? Lying in the scorching hot sun on holiday? Feeling the heat because you’re under pressure? Enjoying the warmth and crackle of a log fire? Your cheeks reddening because you’re embarrassed? An argument getting heated?
You don’t have to share your work, but I always enjoy seeing what you come up with if the prompt gives you inspiration. Your last prompt was CRAZY THINGS YOU’VE DONE. Here’s the writing you shared:
One of the things I have regretted most in my lifetime is getting married. It wasn’t my choice. I was blackmailed into it by my now ex-husband.
I told him we had to break up because I had met someone I wanted to be with. I didn’t like what he had done to me. He was emotionally blackmailing me, and it ended up with me agreeing to marry him because he said he was going to kill himself if I didn’t. I was horrified, and at the time, I couldn’t stand the thought that it might be my fault if he committed suicide.
I learned many years later that it wouldn’t be my fault, but I couldn’t understand that. It turned out that he was a narcissist, and his behavior was that of a true narcissist, as I later came to understand the full implications of his demands.
The only thing I don’t regret from that time was that we had three wonderful children. I will never regret that.
One of the craziest things we did as a couple was early on in our marriage. We had been invited by then best friends Larry and Joanne to drive down to Guadeloupe River to go rafting for the weekend, followed but a week at the beach in their motor home. We drove through the mother of all thunderstorms in his borrowed dune buggy. The lightening was so intense, it lit the entire way, and the rain was so hard, it was coming in through the glovebox! I was soaked by the time we got to our destination, in the dark! We’d even had to take refuge for a while in an abandoned car wash stall. We made it, had a wonderful weekend and week-long vacation in Port Aransas, but wowzers, what a crazy ride down it was!
So many crazy things! Cycling home to my mother-in-law’s house over the Pennines springs to mind. It was after an Easter camping trip. It snowed heavily as we started home over main roads. It was about 45 miles to cycle. But there was a steep hill to climb at the end. We were heading up about five miles of steep hill. Unfortunately the snow had other ideas. The road had been cleared until we got halfway up. Then we were faced with snow drifts and snowbanks. Even with our combined strength (we were on our tandem with a bike trailer carrying our gear) we realised it was crazy to go on. So a twenty mile detour back down the hill was the only solution.
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Esther Chilton 
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