Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

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by Smitty

Redlight Mind

“And I followed her to the station with her suitcase in my hand. Well, it’s hard to tell, it’s hard to tell. . .when all your love’s in vain. All my love’s in vain.
When the train rolled up to the station. . .I looked her in the eye. Well, I was lonesome, I felt so lonesome. . .and I could not help but cry.
When the train, it left the station with two lights on behind
. . .well, the blue light was my blues. . .and the red light was my mind. All my love’s in vain.”

via Darleen

Bonus:

[I’ve always loved the delicate minimalism of this tune. Keb Mo’s recording of the Robert Johnson masterpiece is true to the emotion, and a clean recording. I certainly won’t be trumping the emotion on display anytime soon.]

17 comments

  3. Wow. But I’m hearing it as “HER suitcase” which, because it’s so much bluer must be right.

  4. You beat me to it. Yes, the lyric is clearly “HER suitcase” – – and the words matter in this context.

  7. The plan had gone foul. The Braindead respond to noise, especially food noise; human talk, cows mooing, chickens squawking. Hundreds had gathered in the Wal-mart parking lot when Joey lit up the abandoned cars with a RPG. Two, then five, then twelve, then all of them at once went up in a fireball that smelled of pork and gasoline.
    I bugged out with Joey, Samantha, One Eye, and me, but we called it too early, a random horde was passing thru, and had been about to drop in, when things went pyro. Now they chased us.
    I pumped the handcar with One Eye until his asthma kicked him flat and gasping. We were going so fast, we made a lot of noise, and that attracted more Brainless. Samantha got caught outside Petersburg, five miles into the Long Run. A diver leapt from an overhanging tree branch, and took her off. I hope she broke her neck on landing.
    We kept on.
    Joey and me,, and things were looking possible, after all, we were faster than the Brainless even when they ran. And we’d been clearing out spots by doing our Lure and BBQ all over the old state of Pennsylvania. Near Johnton was a good chance of a spot of clear since we’d done there in our RV six months ago.
    But then I rounded a curve. And there was a wrecked car, and a wretched station, and I stopped pushing, let my blister pained hands relax. For here, in that station was where I was going to die.
    “Get your rifles, and your pistols. Let’s make these New Yorkers pay for the privilege.” One Eye said, in between gasps as we coasted to a halt.

  8. I bought the old decrepit house because of the ancient rail car parked next to it on the siding.

    The old Pullman was still in great shape…the house, not so much. My plan was to tear the house down, recycling what lumber I could to renovate the old rail car.

    It was going to be my new abode. I’d definitely have to downsize.

    I hoped my new girlfriend would like it. I didn’t Plan on showing her until I finished it.

    As I started on the renovation, I saw the carving…”Abe was here.”

    I wonder what that means?

  11. The stench was noticeable even after the car stopped. It looked like the Grey Death struck here as well is what I heard momma and pappy say. As pappy got out and racked the slide on that
    old gun of his, the rest of my family looked around. I was still too small and young to know what was going on. I just kept my head down and reading the eBook, that momma gave me when we left our home eight weeks ago. It was only after a few seconds that I heard a shot, a scream and nothing else.

  16. For melanistic reasons, it’s the Stones’ version (on Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out) or nothing.

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