Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward

This is my response to the Weekly Writing Challenge. This one is a particularly challenging approach, as we are directed to tell a story in the opposite way as usual. In short, we are to begin at the end of the story and tell it back to the beginning.

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“Ladies and Gentlemen I now preset to you for the first time Mr. and Mrs. Todd Hartley.”

With all the required matters covered the minister gave the command each of them had waited over twenty hours to hear. “You may kiss the bride.” Standing at the unity candle they enjoyed the time alone, even though a church full of friends and family had their attention solely focused on them. The song she selected was a popular love anthem of their dating time and she knew it would give her several minutes to treasure as he held her hands.

She slid on his ring and felt the completion of a long journey she started so many years before to find her ideal mate. The usually cold metal of the ring was warm, reflecting the nerves of Todd’s best man, who had a horrible fright of standing in front of people. She knew having the wedding band they chose together put on her finger would be a moment she would never forget.

She waited patiently as her maid of honor; the best friend she ever knew took pains to straighten her six foot train. She was careful to take even, measured steps so she did not repeat the near disaster before she made it in the church when her hell caught in a hem. She could feel her father’s quaking hand as he let go of her to join her mother in the crowd.

She heard her father’s voice waver as he responded to the minister’s question of who gives the bride. The minister’s voice was steady and loving as always. He had done all three weddings for the Baker girls and Callie was glad he could do hers. Walking down the aisle she thought it was the longest walk she could remember.

When the double doors opened, she eyeballed Todd, beaming as he waited for her to join him. She watched the last of her bridesmaids disappear from sight and knew her turn was next; after the doors were closed of course. Waiting on the steps out of sight, she shared in the nervous energy of her friends that were decked out in identical bridesmaid attire. Her mother’s hug signaled the time had come to head upstairs. The veil in place, Callie was resplendent in her perfect dress, the one she had found nearly a year before.

Standing before the mirror she held her breath as her friends helped her into the dress. The makeup was easier than she feared as her maid of honor was busy talking to keep her mind occupied. Sitting in the “ready room” alone, Callie was aware of the fact her life was going to change significantly when she left home where so much activity was normal.

The church was decorated just as she desired and walking in with all her gear she felt so happy. She listened to the song her college roommate would sing in less than an hour during the wedding and knew it was the right choice to describe her love for Todd. The small car seemed to bulge at the seams as the four girls crammed all their needs before embarking for the church.

Callie stood in the living room taking in the scene of the place she called home her whole life. Each stair she descended seemed to trigger a different memory of her life in this loving home. The tears came quickly as she grabbed her dress and make up from her bed to leave her bed room. Callie looked at the clock to see it was finally time to leave.

Her shower routine was the same as always, something she knew she wouldn’t change when she was married. Padding from her bedroom to the shower, she could hear the excited buzzing coming from the houseful of guests below. Callie lie in her bed and stared at the ceiling, there was a paper posted that said “Today is the day you dreamed of all your life!” The familiar buzz of her alarm clock meant Callie’s last day as a Miss was here. 

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I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Did I get it backwards enough?

I want to point you flash fiction writers to another option. It is Flash in the Pan, where you write short fiction 50-150 words respectively to words chosen and posted each week. 250 responses will be collected and published by Redmund Productions. You can check the details at the following link: Flash in the Pan.

Other Backward responses:

1. Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward – The Funeral | SERENDIPITY
2. Weekly Writing Challenge; Backward | terry1954
3. Galactic Dreams…..(weekly prompt wp) | Daily Observations
4. Love & Hope Through the Darkness | Broken Light: A Photography Collective
5. Weekly writing challenge: Backwards, The last conversation | Life of a Fallen Angel
6. move lungs beating heart | The Seminary of Praying Mantis
7. There Was No Escape From His Father’s Words | The Seeker’s Dungeon
8. Oh the horror! | mostlytrueramblings
9. Shattered | To Write With a Broken Pencil is Pointless
10. International Phone At A London Post Office | Jaye’s Brain
11. Cataclysm (part one) | Master Of Disaster
12. Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward | imaginations
13. Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward | Dead Again | mattsden101
14. How I Became a Library Delinquent | NobsLyfe
15. Weekly Photo Challenge: Backward | MKG- Memories-Keepsakes-Gifts
16. New shores | André from Holland
17. the UNCATEGORISED | WEEKLY WRITING CHALLENGE: the Big House | the TRASH BASH
18. It’s been 323 days. | thanks for letting me autograph your cat
19. staying grounded | Musings of a Random Mind
20. Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward: Heart’s Desire | MythRider
21. A Departure | Goodbye Whoopee Pie
22. Forty Fifty | A Modest Affair
23. Backwards: Surprise Me | Musical Chairs
24. How I dramatised this mobile photo for Instagram | We Live In A Flat
25. Don’t Press That Button | rarasaur
26. Pretender una sociedad sana con una base corrompida | El Panfleto
27. Child of the Shadows | Legends of Lorata
28. Backward Twisting Kahani | મન ની વાત
29. But I’ll never let you go | beautify inside and out
30. i didn’t mean to | wannabepoet
31. Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward | ღ UrbanDrella ღ
32. A Short Story: The Porcelain Bear | I Hope You’re Taking Notes
33. Where it began, I can’t begin to knowin’ . . . | Hippie Cahier
34. Trippin’ In Graceland | Good2begone
35. Inapoi | Photos on the wall
36. Pressed Freshly For Ben | An Upturned Soul
37. Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward | Stevie’s Words
38. Weekly Writing Challenge: Writing Backward – Old Man | Raivenne-lations
39. Into the Guard Rail, short story | Reinvention of Mama
40. Too little, too late | My OCD Diaries
41. Delivered to your door… | Vampire Maman
42. Red shoeprints (DP challenge) | Tim’s Talk
43. “I Guess You Could Call It A Blighted Ovum”- The Story Of My Miscarriage | momasteblog
44. A Chance Meeting | Winding Road
45. Crustaceans Backwards | The Silver Leaf Journal
46. Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward | Four Parts of the One
47. Cataclysm (part two) | Master Of Disaster
48. Dear King of Hearts: | 67steffen
49. Green…Black…Frank | Mary J Melange
50. Here Comes The Rooster | This Is My Corn
51. Waiting for and Ending | A Girl Divided
52. (go down, build up) | y
53. WWC: Remember, you only have one left! | Simple Heart Girl
54. How NOT to Cook Chicken Broth | Little Bliss Book
55. Vonn Vs. The Trombone! (Weekly Photo Challenge: An Unusual POV) (Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward) | The San Francisco Scene–Seen!
56. An Impasse | Hey, Miss Adventures!
57. Hastily Proceeding and The Idiots Stone | A’A IN PARADISE
58. that man | why tiara
59. Highly Impractical and Completely Unanticipated | melanielynngriffin
60. Exposed | Welshalterego
61. We didn’t get arrested in Thailand. | My BF turned me into a lesbian…in Japan
62. S is for Sardonic (aka the Nudist Rock Band Story) | Anecdote Love
63. I am Shattered Pottery | Lily Mugford
64. Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward | Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss
65. One More Class: Why A Teacher Always Goes Back To A Classroom | ~xoxo, msL
66. Backward | The Day After
67. Little Growing Pains | The Lover I Never Had
68. Dance | Little Talks
69. Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward | A Blog’s Life
70. 691 Words Plus A Sentence. | as long as i’m singing
71. Cataclysm (part three) | Master Of Disaster
72. Sideways/Backwards | Cold Coffee Curse
73. Zigzag Routes.. | Journey Called Life …
74. Liathara – The Lord, His Army and the Dragon | Jake Kuyser
75. Turbulence | Silent Soliloquy
76. In the Absence of Time | The Writingwolf: Words and Wonders
77. Processing the life | Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward
78. Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward | Words We Women Write
79. Souliloquy Speak
80. Attempt the Weekly Challenge | Verb the Adjective Noun
81. Backwards | Sue’s Trifles
82. Backwards | decidinglybob
83. The Christmas Dictator | Relatively Awesome
84. Diary Excerpts From a Conflicted Farmer McGregor | Don’t Repeat This in Preschool
85. The Fallen | Confused Humanity
86. Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward | Charcoal And Sterling
87. Red Scarf of Beauty… | EW Brown
88. Due storie in retromarcia | Neva Samaki
89. WHEN SH-NIKE HAPPENS… | Donna Gwinnell Weidner
90. Here I stand | Nameless Non-ficton
91. amygdala hijack | weebeebird
92. Weekly Writing Challenge – Backward. | Shedward
93. Mama’s Sauce- Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward | Waiting on a Word
94. Alice Falls | A Wilderness of Words
95. Nostalgia: Backward | Between Worlds
96. The boy I used to have a crush on | Everything under the sun!
97. Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward | luvsiesous
98. Backwards From the End | The Marmot in My Head
99. Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward | Joe’s Musings
100. Weekly Writing Challenge: Backward | Joe’s Musings