photo by Charles Etoroma via Unsplash
She becomes a blur as she passes, rushing from store to store, caught in a whirlwind of purchases, money falling from her hands into every register like leaves spun on the breeze.
She feels herself blurring, her once hard edges bleeding outwards, flaking away like layers of over boiled potato. She thought once that things would shore her up, that the weight of her belongings would halt the crumbling. But instead, they’ve hastened it, eroded her until there is nothing but the chase, the purchase, the empty feeling when she reaches home.
One day there will be nothing left to prove she was here but plastic bags and a pile of unpaid credit card bills.
Written for Three Line Tales. See, write, share, read. Here.
Word Shamble 
So spot on – you wow me once again, Lynn! I especially liked the analogy of the flaking potato skin, but the whole idea that she is buying things to hold herself in, together,is just brilliant.
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Ah, thanks so much Joy. I think her life is ultimately empty and shopping temporarily fills the hole. Until she needs another hit. Thank you for reading
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I’m blatantly stealing this idea for a future character profile — it’s just too brilliant not to! I figure that even if you write a story based on the same character, by the time we both write in our own styles all the way to the end, they will be so different that nobody could tell I cribbed from you. 🙂
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Haha! Steal away. And to be fair, I’m stealing from life anyway. I know someone who, though they don’t have a shopping addiction, forever looks outside themselves to cure their own hollow, not seeing that whatever they change (house, partner, hobbies) it will never make them happy. I’d love to see what you would do with such a character. 🙂
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I’m not sure what I’d do with such a character myself, but the description has made it into my “idea” file for later cogitating. I’ve only recently started thinking more seriously about how to incorporate personalities and traits of people I know into my fiction, and am finally understanding why so many people do it!
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As long as we don’t make it too obviously one real person, we’re fine!
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That could almost read as poetry. And so true of so many people, thus so sad.
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Thanks so much Crispina
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Not an affliction of mine, but I know one person exactly like that. The speed blur is a good analogy of the way we chase an elusive desire and don’t recognise it when we’ve caught it, so off we go again…
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Some people have a void inside them, don’t they. They feel it all their lives and look for things outside themselves to blame or to solve the problem when really they need to resolve why they feel that way. I know a few of these myself. Just hope I’m not one! I do have a terrible plant buying habit 🙂
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Yes, when all of the pleasure is in the chase, you just have to keep running. A pretty senseless occupation. Plants though, that’s different. I’m sure you don’t buy them, put them in a cupboard and forget about them!
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Haha! No, I don’t do that to the poor things. But sometimes they get neglected or demolished by slugs and I feel sorry I brought them home on the first place 🙂
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You’re doing your bit to prevent slug famine at least 🙂
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Haha! Just wish I could find some birds who would eat some for me. They only seem to want to eat my ivy berries
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It’s funny that all those birds like thrushes and blackbirds that are supposed to eat slugs would rather eat anything but!
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