Write on Wednesdays - The great outdoors

I'm slipping in right at the last minute with my Write on Wednesdays post today.  It's been a long time between drinks with WoW, and I felt really refreshed taking on a writing prompt again.  I haven't been writing in my downtime but have been thinking about it a lot, so it was great for me to have that little push to take a few moments to write something.

WoW has become a monthly activity for the time being, but I'm not complaining, I'm just happy to have any writing time in my life!  Our prompt for this month was to write down the first line of the last thing we'd been reading, then find a quiet spot outside to just sit for 15 minutes.  After that time is up, only then can we continue on with our writing, using that first line as a prompt or starter sentence.  I must say, I really enjoyed my 15 minutes of outside time!  Even though there were noises all around me, planes, cars, dogs, people doing things outside their homes, it was still revitalising to just stop.

Here's my piece for this week, which continues on with my Tony story:


The two civil guards wore black tricorn hats, capes, and olive-green uniforms.
They walked straight past me as I headed on down the lane toward the market square, one of them affording me a disinterested, yet accusatory, glance as we crossed paths.  They didn't know who I was.  Nobody did.  Not that they should, I hadn't done anything wrong after all.  And I was very used to just being one more anonymous person on the street, I'd been one of them all my life.  Yet, after the past two months in Melbourne, months of people both in my life and strangers alike, knowing I was that guy who won big on the lotto.....this return to normality felt both easy and confusing at the same time.  Probably more on the easy side I suppose.  See, this is exactly why I came to Spain.  I needed to distance myself from the new reality that was mine at home.  I know it won't last forever, if I stay away long enough no one will remember who I am once I'm back.  I can feel safe again.  It rattles your nerves when a stranger bails you up on the street to talk about "the win".  You never know if they'll turn around at any minute and try to swipe your wallet.  Of course that could easily happen in Spain too, but funnily enough, I feel a lot safer here in this unknown place.
Of course there will be at least one person who'll remember me when I get back.  Jacqui hadn't been happy when I left.  I realised then, that she expected me to do as she preferred.  Really, it had always been like that between us.
This trip was as much of a shake-up for her as it was for me.

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