30 Day Drabble Challenge

Now that I’ve finished all 30 days, I figure I should post them all together since it’s one continuous story. So here they are, all 30 of the 100-word chapters, for anyone who missed parts or who wanted to wait until they were all finished.

And since on Day 1, I didn’t have a story yet and wrote a drabble about writing these drabbles, I’ll re-do that one and make it part of the story instead. To be honest, it’s been bothering me since about day 4 that it wasn’t part of the story.

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Future

Kyle sat with his aunt Betty sipping tea.

“It’s a different view than it was a year ago, isn’t it?” he asked.

Betty looked around at the manicured grounds. “Back then, I was worried about being homeless. You had just been homeless. Kyle, I want to thank you for bringing me along on this ride.”

“Don’t mention it. Not only would you have done the same for me, you actually did. I’ll never forget that. And speaking of rides…”

Betty knew where this was going. “How long has it been now?”

“Like, two weeks.”

“Too long. Let’s go to Disneyland.”

Simple

It hadn’t been complicated like Kyle had expected. When he walked into the bank, he had expected to have to convince a skeptical clerk to even look into the situation. He was sure that some technicality that would prevent the whole thing.

Instead, they were expecting him. He sat down at a desk, signed a few forms, and was the owner of a bank account worth $42,000,000. Mr. Carothers had never acted like a snobby rich guy; Kyle would have never guessed that he had anything like this much.

Kyle withdrew $1,000 and went to tell Aunt Betty the news.

Promise

“I promise you, this is not a joke.”

Kyle sat in stunned silence. He had noticed that Mr. Carothers hadn’t been around at work much, but he figured that it was just a business trip or something. He hadn’t asked about it.

Finally, he was able to stammer out the words “Why me?”

“He saw something in you. He said that somewhere, just below the surface, is someone who can change the world more than even he could. He said your worry stands in your way. He wanted to take away the worry. That’s why he left you the money.”

Letters

The letter was a surprise. Only a few people knew where Kyle was staying.

It also contained news which seemed unrealistic. The letterhead said that it was from Anne Legitt, Family Attorney. Kyle didn’t know if Ms. Legitt was legit, though.

Please call my office at your earliest convenience. I have been instructed to give you your inheritance.

He decided that it couldn’t be true, and he threw the letter away. His parents had been dead for years. Who else would have left him money? Certainly not Logan.

The next week, another identical letter came. Again, Kyle threw it away.

Diamond

Returning to their seats with the hot dogs, Kyle decided he was glad they’d come to the game. Like Aunt Betty had said, sometimes you need to take a little time to enjoy yourself, because otherwise the stress would become overpowering.

He wished his aunt would let him give her more money. He knew that he needed it, but she needed it too. He hoped that she could find a place where he could convince her to let him stay and at least pay some of the rent, now that he was working.

But today was for baseball, not worries.

Winter

It seemed too early to think about.

“I have to be out of here by December first. I don’t know where I’m going yet. If it’s some place where you can join me, I’ll be happy to have you…but I may be homeless myself for a while if I can’t find anything.”

Kyle mulled over this new information. Turns out Aunt Betty’s landlord wasn’t paying the mortgage on the house she was renting from him. The house was being foreclosed.

Kyle wondered what he spent the rent money on instead. It certainly wasn’t on maintenance of his aunt’s house.

Outside

Kyle collected his winnings and drove back to Torrance.

He held the money out to his aunt. “You’ve been so good to me, and it doesn’t even come close to repaying it.”

Betty shook her head. “No. You still need it more than I do. Go out. Maybe spend the day at Disneyland tomorrow. How long has it been since you’ve been there?”

“Seven years.”

“Too long. You hardly ever go outside and have fun. So go. You need to have fun. Ride Space Mountain for me. Then save the rest for the next curve ball life throws at you.”

Thousand

It was dark. Kyle had dozed off on the beach. The dreams were not good ones…he had his recurring dream about being swallowed up by an ever-rising tide again. While it made sense, since he had fallen asleep listening to the waves, this dream didn’t require a nearby beach to be triggered.

As he drove away from the beach on Imperial Highway, he decided to stop at 7-Eleven for a Big Gulp. On a whim, he bought a Triple Play lottery scratcher.

He got back in his car and scratched the ticket. The 27 matched. He’d won.

Mad

The sun had been down for two hours, but Kyle had not moved. He still sat on the beach, trying not to think but failing miserably in the attempt.

He was too overwhelmed. Between the new job — which wanted to teach him things faster than he could learn them, trying to please Aunt Betty (she had been nothing but gracious, but Kyle still felt like a burden), and trying to fathom Logan’s death, his thoughts were going too many directions at once.

He wished he could just check in somewhere, get drugged up by Nurse Rached, and forget reality forever.