One little word
I’ve always been big on words and word choices – words mean things and there is nuance and emotion behind your words — but one thing we don’t usually think about when we’re writing or talking about words – and that is their meaning either in the past or in the future.
During a sermon, the local priest was talking about the original Greek words that were used in the bible and their meaning, and the translations we used, but over time, meanings change and the words you chose mean something entirely different
Today’s Prompt: The wrong word
42flashchallenge 
“Why?” she snarled. “Why…why would you give up everything? For her…For them…”
She was inarticulate with rage..sputtering, confused and lost.
Gavin simply laughed.
“You laugh at me…at me…” she roared back, the perceived insult apparently solidifying under her.
“I am the heir to power, when the dust settles, I will be empress…you…you’re just the garbage picking son of some worthless drones…” she spit the words venomously.
“And yet, here I am, the one of us who’s goin’ to walk away from this, and you’re the one who’ll bleed out…,” Gavin growled raising his blaster, knowing which engraved bullet was in the chamber.
Noticing that there was no sign of wavering in either of them – their cold and emotionless.
“Why? I could have given you everything? Anything you want…”
“Anything…” Gavin laughed coldly, “I want my family back…I want my brother, my wife…and my friends and soldier back…” he growled, “I want their blood not to be spent fighting a stupid bitch, who could not leave well enough alone.”
“I want all my memories back…I want to remember my mom and dad and,” he growled stepping closer, cocking his blaster, “I want my sister to know them too.” He added coldly, “but since some stupid jealous cow had them killed,” he sighed.
“And my baby wants her Daddy back…” Harmony answered, her voice, if possible, colder than her uncles.
“You’d give up everything for those…those…peasants…” she snapped back, “they were failures…losers…failed lab experiments…”
Harmony slammed her blaster into the woman’s head, “Wrong word, bitch…”
“Harmie,” Gavin’s voice had just enough edge to it to pull his niece back, “But she’s right…wrong words, they were special…they were family…something you’ve never understood, you stupid bitch…”
He squeezed the trigger of his blaster, his smile a cold crooked grin, a reflection of his brother’s, “Thomas Sampson sends his regards, Emily.”
Harmony’s shot, answered her uncle’s, “As does Charlie Allen.”
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Word choice has always interested me – the fact that you can evoke an emotion from someone with one word, and watching how others use them to affect either consciously or subconsciously sometimes word choice tells you about the speaker more than their message… sometimes it’s just that you can’t find the right word… or spell it…
Thomas cleared his throat as he stalled before going over the speech he’d written. It was a hard message to record, but this one… this one couldn’t be done in writing alone, the words lost their punch that way and he wanted his friends to hear what he had to say and know how he felt in that moment.
“There are many things that can be said about these two. The sister of my soul, and the brother of my heart. They are amazing people in their own right and today… today we celebrate their union…”
He paused. ‘union’ wasn’t the right word. They were getting married, this was joyous and union fell flat. Together they became something formidable and far more stable than they were alone. She was his calm seas, he was her rudder–Together they were a metal alloy, combining the strengths of the other– supporting each other… everything that marriage represented was amplified between the two.
“Amalgamation?” he said trying the word on and seeing how it felt. ‘Too corporate,’ he thought and he began going through the synonyms for marriage and then even tried slang.
“Today we celebrate more than a marriage,” he said scratching through the original word and making notes in the margin. “Today two people I know, love, and respect are joining their lives and becoming something more than the sum of their hearts. In deference to the bride they are raw elements – like carbon and iron – each has their purpose but when combined, facing the first these two have faced, they become fire tempered steel, shaped and formed and forever changed…”
He sighed and shook his head. It was almost there but not quite. He couldn’t find the words– but he could find the symbol. Smiling he went to the forge and started working. A pair of gold and silver torqs would say what he felt.
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