Sorry this wasn't up earlier. Saturdays are always difficult to write on for some reason. Hopefully, after the holidays, things will get easier. We'll see.
Wheel of Genres, turn, turn, turn! Tell me the genre I will discern!
Today's genre is... Romance!
Cool. I actually romance... to an extent. Like I don't tend to like the movies on the Hallmark channel, but I do enjoy in my video games and anime. I don't know what the difference is. And writing romance in my own books is one of my favorite things to write. Let's see if I can spark that magic on my blog.
Thirty minutes on the clock: 30:00. And... go!
It was a beautiful, sunny Sunday afternoon. The birds were chirping, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the freshly fallen snow looked like a postcard. It was too bad then that Elizabeth had volunteered to help decorate her church that day for Christmas. She looked longingly out of a window in the church hall while assignments and partners were being given out. "Elizabeth!" someone called.
"Here!" she said.
"You'll be hanging garland today. You'll need to head down to the old school rooms and fetch the boxes. Room 105, I think it is. Benjamin will help you out."
"Okay," said Elizabeth. Then a crank in her mind turned over. "Wait? Benjamin?"
"That's right," said a manly voice next to her.
Elizabeth turned and faced Bewildering Benjamin, the strangest fellow in the entire parish.
"How do you do, Elizabeth?" he said. "I am Benjamin."
"It's a pleasure," she said uneasily.
"Well, then, we better get a move on." Benjamin led the way, taking long strides into the hallway that connected the hall to the school.
Elizabeth followed a good nine feet behind him. Benjamin had had a reputation speaking little, and often staring at people. And when he did speak, he was often curt and direct. Most people ignored him, but they couldn't deny he had a true devotion to the Lord. He came to church every week, sat in the same pew, and always volunteered when he could. This made him appear devoted and docile which had won him the favor of the pastor and the little, old church ladies.
Elizabeth had never spoken to him; she had only seen him church. She couldn't substantiate any of the rumors of his queer behavior. She had never seen him stare, but the few times they had had accidental eye contact, there was a strange neutral, but also far away look in his eye. Where was he in his mind when he did that?
"Here we are," said Benjamin suddenly. "105." He grabbed the doorknob and moved forward. "Ah!" he said, ramming his shoulder into the door.
"Are you okay?"
"Fine."
"The door's locked?"
"I don't think so," said Benjamin, trying the knob again. He struggled to turn it.
"I'm pretty sure it's locked. I'll go get some--"
The knob clicked and the entire door shuttered.
"There we go," said Benjamin, opening the door.
Elizabeth gaped. "How did you know it wasn't locked?"
"It didn't feel locked. There was give in the knob."
"Oh."
"Let's find those boxes of garland." Benjamin stepped into the classroom and flicked the light switch, but nothing happened. He tried it a few more times. "Great. Well, at least it's sunny today."
Despite the fact the lights weren't working, the room had large paned windows on the other wall. There was more than enough light to see.
"So, where's the garland?" asked Elizabeth.
Benjamin turned to face the wall next to them. It was actually a chalkboard that ran the length of room. But above it was an area that looked like it was being used for storage. There were dozens and dozens of boxes. "Guess we got our work cut out for us," he said.
"I'll say," said Elizabeth, stepping up to the wall. The chalkboard was slightly taller than her and the entire storage space was above her head. She lifted her arm and her hand barely touched the bottom of the nearest box. Benjamin on the other hand was able to look at the storage space in the eye.
"I guess I'll hand the boxes down to you, and we'll conduct a search that way."
"I suppose."
Benjamin grabbed the first box and handed it off to her. Elizabeth set it on the ground and then took the next box from him. When they had a few of the boxes down, they inspected their contents. They found decorations, but they all looked Hawaiian themed. "What is this?" asked Elizabeth.
"Vacation Bible School decorations," explained Benjamin.
"Oh."
"But, why would they keep them alongside their Christmas decorations. That's weird."
"That is weird."
Benjamin and Elizabeth put the boxes back, and searched the next few in the same manner. Again, they weren't the right decorations. They had the same problem with the next selection.
"Oh!" whined Elizabeth. "This is stupid."
"This is inefficient," admitted Benjamin.
"There must be fifty boxes up here."
"Easy."
Elizabeth pouted. This would take a lot of work before they even began decorating. She looked over at Benjamin. He had that blank stare again. "Benjamin. Something wrong?"
"Hm? No. I was just thinking that if the shelving... space? Up here was strong enough, I could pick you up and put you on top of it, then you could look for the garland up there."
"I... don't like that idea."
"Okay."
"If only we had a step stool."
"There might be one around here."
"Where?"
Benjamin turned the other way and checked the closet that would have used to keep the teacher's supplies. He stooped down and stood back up, balancing something on this hand. "Yo," he said.
"Incredible," said Elizabeth, looking at the folded up step stool. "How did you know?"
"I didn't. It was just a guess."
"A very intuitive guess."
"I suppose," said Benjamin, handing her the step stool.
Elizabeth opened it up and climbed it. She was now able to see into the shelving space. "This is much better," she said, checking a box's contents.
"Glad to have helped," said Benjamin, checking boxes himself.
A silence fell among them. Elizabeth couldn't stand it. She felt terribly awkward, but she didn't know what to talk about with Benjamin. She didn't have any starting points. If only there was some place to start.
"Is that your natural hair color?"
"What?" said Elizabeth.
"Is that your natural hair color?"
Elizabeth grabbed her long, red hair. "Yes."
"Very nice."
Elizabeth got a bemused smile. "Why?"
"I like red hair. I wish more women had it. I actually went to school with quite a few red haired women. They've all died their hair now. Terrible shame that."
"Why?"
"Because natural redheads are so rare! No redhead should ever die her hair."
"Oh." Elizabeth smiled to herself. "You like my hair?"
"Yes."
Elizabeth waited for him to elaborate, but he didn't. Elizabeth was a little disappointed. She really wish he had said more about her hair. She reached up for a box and paused for a minute, looking at him. He was so passive, and yet, he wasn't cold as ice. His opinion on redheads had quite strong. "Do you... do you ever look at me in church because of my hair?"
"Sometimes. Other times it's because I'm looking at your... your... um, never mind."
Elizabeth looked at Benjamin. He looked nervous and a little embarrassed. "Looking at my what?"
"Never mind. It isn't important."
Elizabeth bit her bottom lip and smiled. He was checking her out. She giggled to herself and went to grab the next box, but her hands missed. She faked herself out and as she went to grab the shelf's edge, her hand fell between two boxes, and she tipped over the stool. She cried out.
"Are you alright?!"
"My hand's stuck! I can't get it out." Elizabeth's hand got stuck between the two boxes and with stool tipped over, she was now dangling over the shelf by her arm.
Benjamin rushed to her side. He tried to move the boxes apart, but they wouldn't move due to boxes on either side of the them.
"Hurry!" whined Elizabeth.
"Um..." Benjamin looked at Elizabeth's hand stuck between the two boxes. He then looked down at her and squatted. He grabbed her around the hips and lifted her up. She was able to move her hand deeper in and then up and out of the gap. Benjamin set her down.
"Ow..." said Elizabeth, rubbing her hand.
"Are you hurt?" asked Benjamin. He grabbed her hand and examined it, before turning it over and looking at the back of it.
"No, I'm fine," she wailed.
"Do you want me to kiss it?"
Elizabeth looked up at Benjamin; he was grinning like an idiot and snickering. Elizabeth looked down at her hand and smiled herself. Not only did he have passion, but he also had a sense of humor. "It couldn't hurt," said Elizabeth, lifting her hand.
Benjamin stopped laughing. But then he gingerly took her hand in his fingers and brought it to his lips, kissing it ever so softly.
Elizabeth was terribly embarrassed. "Thank you," she squeaked.
"No problem."
Benjamin didn't say anything else to her as he right her step stool and started working again. Elizabeth quickly set about her work too. She had no idea how to comprehend what just happened. Bewildering Benjamin, the strangest man in the parish, had just kissed her booboo. And he did it so tenderly, Elizabeth thought he might have been in love with her. Is that why he was always looking at her in church, or did he just think she had a great butt?
After a few more minutes of silence, Elizabeth snapped. "You're strange," she said.
"That's not news to me."
Elizabeth jumped.
"They call me 'Bewildering Benjamin,' ya know? Credit to them for the consonance, but I prefer to think of myself as being esoteric or eccentric. Well, whatever. But, why do you say I'm strange?"
"Well, you're really quiet..."
"Oh. So for the same reason the others say it, huh?"
"Well, yes, but you're more than quiet. You're funny, opinionated, and... charming."
"So?"
"Well, no one would've guessed it from the way you act."
"Silence is just one of my personality traits. We can't all be one-trick ponies. Besides, aren't there multiple facets to yourself? Are you just a girl with red hair?"
"I didn't mean to upset you."
"I'm not upset. I was just making a point. I'm sorry if you thought I was yelling."
"You weren't yelling. It's just your words seemed a little harsh. But... your tone was perfectly reasonable." Elizabeth shook her head. "You are bewildering. You can make something mean sound perfectly normal."
"I'm a man of many talents."
Elizabeth smiled. "I guess so." She grabbed a box that was a little deeper on the shelf than the others. It was heavy, so she had shimmy it over to the edge. It was also taller than the others, so she had to tip it on its side to open it and get a look inside. But as she tipped it, it turned out to be heavier than she thought. It slid forward and hit her in the face. She squealed, and thought she was going to fall over, but an arm around her back caught her. Then with one hand, Benjamin pushed the box back onto the shelf.
"Are you alright?"
Elizabeth sulked. "No..." she said, rubbing her forehead.
"Where does it hurt?"
"Mainly my pride..."
"Well, there's nothing I can do about that."
"But it does hurt up here," she said, pointing to the center of her forehead.
Benjamin grabbed her hand moved it away. He then used his other hand to brush her hair away as he kissed her on the forehead. He looked at Elizabeth with just a hint of a smile. "All better?"
"It also hurts here," she said, pointing to a spot below her right eye.
Benjamin leaned in and kissed her below the eye.
"And here," she said, touching her left cheek.
Benjamin kissed her there too.
"And this," she said, pointing to her lower lip, "has been achy for a while."
Benjamin stepped closer to Elizabeth, putting one hand on the side of her face and the other on her hip, pulling her closer. He then kissed her for so long and so passionately, Elizabeth actually lost herself within it. When Benjamin pulled his face away, he gave her one or two more small pecks before resting his forehead against hers.
"I think we should get a move on," she said, trying to convince herself.
"Just one more," said Benjamin, moving his lips in again.
***
Okay. I'm not going to say stop the clock because I definitely wrote over. There's no point in pretending I didn't. That was an hour and 15 minutes. What can I say? I was into it, and there was a lot to set up if I'm honest. When it comes to romance scenes, you have to write them so that your audience can understand why these two people want to kiss each other, and I didn't feel like I could justify that in 30 minutes. So, that's that.
Keep writing, my friends.
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