#mondaymixer is an interesting flash fiction compo, requiring exactly 150 words and at least one thing, verb and adjective, chosen from three of each. Today’s list is:

Things:
1) slurry
2) schism
3) peculation
Verbs:
1) garner
2) posit
3) swank
Adjectives:
1) mawkish
2) draconian
3) sportive

Overachievers, those who use at least five can receive a special prize. It struck me how many S sounds there were in this week’s list. And that got me going with lisps (lithps?), and snakes, and theft, which lead naturally to who would be the first lawyer. I decided (in the interests of not being disqualified) that I would write the above words as is, rather than substituting the ‘s’ for a ‘th’ or a ‘sss’; if you can imagine a lithp in thome of the thpeech, I’d appreciate it. Here is my entry:

“Sssivil Sssuit”
by Dr. Mike Reddy (@doctormikereddy)
[150 words, overachiever award]

“Sssir, your swanking has causssed a schism.”

“A what? A ‘thicthm’?”

“Do not play gamesss. I’m as sportive as the next sssnake, but I posit that you play the fool to garner approval from the Judge, while leaving sserpentkind in the slurry of his wrath! The peculation of applesss from the Tree of Knowledge is entirely yourss, Sssir, desspite the guardianship of ssaid Forbidden Fruit entrussted to you. A theft that you attempted to pin on my clientss, Eve and Ssserpent, for no other reason than the irrational ssleight of the perssseived losss of a rib.”

“Hey, I’m a guy. Ribs are important! Especially at Barbecues!”

“Your Worship, I would like to request a draconian resstraining order againsst this mawkish Man, preventing him from coming 300 cubits of the property Eden’sss Garden. Furthermore, I would sseek costsss and damagesss to a fig tree at sssaid property resssulting from thisss action.”

“Piece-Work”
by Dr. Mike Reddy (@doctormikereddy) [150 words, overachiever award]

The long untended wood rendered every wind into the lightest zephyr. Its thick canopy of foliage filtered every torrential downpour into a sparging of the forest floor. From sunrise the woodsman had single-handedly cleared a section of fern, bramble and hated honeysuckle. Then discarding all but shorts, he felled with axe, lopped with bill hook and laid the stripped trunks of ash and hazel. Not all, mind you, but the rotted, the crooked and the too numerous, leaving the straightest, aloof, insular, unfettered by competition. They would fetch the best price at market, but the profits of his labour would be his son’s reward.

The Sun could now penetrate a little into the wood. So, at 9 o’clock he plonked himself down against an oak to eat his lunch, then basked, naked and somnolent, in its burrowing warmth. Piece-work, the woodsman ruminated to himself, was Peace work also.