Daily Prompt – A Comedy of Errors
by Michelle W. on February 27, 2013
Murphy’s Law says, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” Write about a time everything did — fiction encouraged here, too!
Hi there.
Time to weave my story telling magic around another Daily Prompt.
This particular prompt is specifically geared towards fiction, which means that I am its victim but you will be able to enjoy the spoils!
Dine well my brethren and feast on this beautifully layered fable.
A Successful Succession of Snafus (by David Ellis)
Julia could tell from a mile off that this was going to be a long day.
A looooooooooong day.
She had already put salt in her coffee, sugar on her poached eggs and both her son Albert and hubby Dale were going to get nice little surprises when they opened their lunch bags. Albert; a beef and horseradish sauce doorstep cut loaf that would be far too big for his tiny chompers to cope with and for Dale; a smattering of cute tessellated cheese triangle sandwiches.
If hubby makes it out of work alive under the sheer weight of embarrassment, he’s going to be mighty hungry when he gets back – I’ll have to make it up to him.
Julia’s thoughts turned to a soothing glass of wine, as she switched on to autopilot, taking care of the household chores. However, she was so distracted by the drama unfolding on the Jeremy Kyle show about fathers who cheat on their partners with other fathers called Eric, she nearly poured herself a glass of vinegar instead.
Ironic how some of these cheaper whites taste like they would be better served over fish and chips anyway.
Julia then gazed down at the washing machine and screamed.
“Oh no – hubby’s clothes have been washing at the wrong temperature!”
She tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for the washing machine to finish draining off its cycle after she violently jabbed the cancellation button.
Well, I guess my little Albert could wear hubby’s clothes, now that they’re probably ten sizes too small for him.
Lady Luck was not smiling on Julia today.
In between a power cut and then subsequently burning the roast dinner she had lovingly prepared for Dale to make up for her lunch faux pas earlier, Julia began to feel as if she could do nothing right.
She decided she was going to make herself look really nice for Dale and enjoy some quality time with him tonight – there was no way she was going to screw this up!
Julia put Albert to bed and then headed into the bathroom. As she dove into the shower, she missed the telephone, which went to the answerphone after several rings.
When she had finished washing herself, she tied her hair up into a bun, did her nails, slipped into a silky robe and chuckling to herself, slipped a rose between her teeth. Dale would be impressed!
The doorbell rang and she rushed down to answer it breathlessly.
“Hey there handsom….uhh?”
Dale was there holding some flowers behinds his Mother Dorris.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the answering machine light flashing accusingly.
Dorris gave her daughter-in-law a quizzical glance – “Why are you in a dressing gown dear, are you not well?”
Dorris spotted the rose clenched between Julia’s teeth. Realisation dawned.
“Oh! Somebody’s getting lucky tonight!” Dorris winked mischievously “And I don’t mean on the lottery! Give me five!”
Dorris held her hand out expectantly at her son.
“Come on, don’t leave me hanging!”
Dale sheepishly smacked his Mother’s hand; Dorris then wandered past them into the kitchen, whistling to herself while Dale mustered up the courage to look at Julia.
Julia bit down hard on the rose, nearly severing the head clean off. Her fierce glare transmitted the message loud and clear to her husband – This is going to take one hell of a back rub and a ginormous glass of wine to fix, let me tell you!
Dale swallowed nervously.
“Guess I had better not tell you about my day at the office then?”
Dale was not a stupid man, he knew when to zip it – that’s why their marriage had lasted over twenty years.
She softened and embraced him.
“Is your Mother staying long?”
“About as long as it took me to eat those cheese sandwiches!”
They both grinned devilishly at each other. It would appear that something was finally going to go right today after all.
For more posts about comedic mistakes, mishaps and mirth, why not try some of the links by my talented fellow bloggers below:-
1. Ilya Fostiy. Memory | Philosophy & Photography
2. The Undoing of Un Fab I An | In Harmony
3. Daily Post: Comedy of Errors | tel-uh-vizh-uh-ner-ee
4. My Thoughts on Personal Disasters | Never Stationary
5. Daily Prompt: Comedy of Errors: Make Your Own Luck! | A YoungEmt’s Blog
6. A Comedy of “Goofy” Errors | steph’s scribe
7. NaNo Fragment-Never Fails | Tommia’s Tablet
8. Murphy picked on me just the other day… | Hope* the happy hugger
9. Sod Off, Sod | The Daily Dilly Dally
10. Nihilism: nothing is wrong, nothing is right | Phelio a Random Post a Day
11. some people have rules, Murphy has a law | thematticuskingdom
12. I Didn’t Make Parole | The Jittery Goat
13. Comedy of Errors | The Nameless One
14. Daily Prompt: Comedy of Errors (and bonus assignment!) 28th Febuary 2013 | ittikorn1994
15. Daily Prompt: Murphy is My Co-Pilot | One Starving Activist
16. Comedy of Errors: Locked in With the CHICKENS | motherofnine9
17. Daily Prompt: Comedy of Errors | Toddling towards entropy…under 24 hours with G$ | don of all trades
18. Daily Prompt: Comedy of Errors « Mama Bear Musings
19. The aptly named Murphy | polysyllabic profundities
20. The little things | Spunky Wayfarer
21. Daily Prompt: Comedy of Errors | Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss
22. Daily Prompt: Comedy of Errors (and bonus assignment!) | The Blogging Path
23. The Worst is Over, Maybe | Beyond Beauty Tips
24. Camping is not for me | Angel Frouk
25. Home Is Your Territory | Chasing The Bubble
26. Out of Gas | Cheri Speak
27. Daily Prompt: A Boring Post… « TheDeafia
28. A Comedy of Errors | The Road to Published
29. Daily Prompt – Ignoring the Signs | Heart And A Half
30. The Quiet One | Should have just stayed home
31. Murphy Lives in My Brain | So I Went Undercover
32. Creative writing prompts #41 – The masquerade | Blog of The Imaginator
33. Comedy of Errors – I’m Afraid Of The Dark
34. Worst day of my life! | Master Of Disaster
35. Daily Prompt: Comedy of Errors | To Breathe is to Write
36. Ten Years of Shock and Awe | Cheri Speak
37. The notepad | Paul Scribbles
38. Murphy is my creeper | theloneshewolf
39. I Surrender Murph! | Life With The Top Down
40. Daily Prompt: Murphy was a lawyer! | baka’s blog
41. Late Night Wonderings | A Beautiful Epiphany
42. What can go wrong, will go wrong. | Getting away
43. Murphy’s Law or Perfect Timing? | A Short A Day
44. Murphy’s Law or Perfect Timing | A Short A Day
45. Daily Prompt: Comedy of Errors (and bonus assignment!) | Amanda’s Blog
46. Singing in the Rainbows | Wiley’s Wisdom
47. Daily Prompt: Comedy of Errors (and bonus assignment!) | Burning Fire Shut Up In My Bones
48. Daily Prompt: Comedy of Errors (and bonus assignment!) | Basically Beyond Basic
49. 28:3 | Daily Prompt: Comedy of Errors (and bonus assignment!) | Family Photos Food & Craft
50. My Bad | Mike Sensitivity
51. Murphy’s Law Writer’s Block | Quando Porci Volare
52. Sick ‘n’ Tired (An exploration of anger as a healing process) | mightwar
53. Daily Prompt: Comedy of Errors (and bonus assignment!) | Chicago Gore
54. Daily Prompt: First Light | Overcoming Bloglessness
55. Murphy’s Law is the story of my life | thelissachronicles
56. Comedy of Errors… When does it stop being funny? | Travel Making Kai 🙂
57. Murphy and Associates | Sammy’s Moleskine
toofulltowrite (I've started so I'll finish) 
Have you ever thought about writing a book? or writing a screen-play about this short story? My advice: you should do it. Your short story is so incredibly well written and it has a lot of potential to be in a hollywood movie. 🙂
Awesome writing my friend. 🙂
P.S please check out my new blog poem. Inputs are most appreciated. 🙂
Dj Dead Cow -http://charliezero1.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/dj-dead-cow/
Hey there Charlie – thank you for reading the story. I’m actually working on a novel (I’ve got as far as writing a synopsis and have a vague idea where it is going) and I also need to start thinking about a new screenplay idea, so your praise is very timely and well received, cheers mate!
Also what happened to the DJ Dead Cow link? I just tried it but could not find the page – have you moved it or are you going to post it again? Look forward to reading it when it is available.
Sorry, I have to take down Dj Dead Cow for obvious reasons.
Someone on here on wordpress which I’m not going to name names. Had the urge to criticize me on the last poem I had on my blog. Do you recall “Blow-jobs & Feces”? Yea, that one. Apparently this person was not fond of “Flarf” poetry. This person claims I was mocking poets/poetry. And this person went out of their way to saying my name to this person’s friends and now they’re all saying bad things. I know I shouldn’t care what people think…I don’t give a fuck…but naming names is something that this person should have respected and just said “Anonymous”. That wouldn’ve been okay with me…But whatever It’s over with. This person had their right to speak and that’s okay with me. I’ve been nothing but nice to this person…and this is the thanks I get. 🙂 hahahahaha!!! Cool. Anywho…I’ll be posting up music videos of my favorite band of all time. “Nine Inch Nails…and many more music videos of Marilyn Manson etc…
That’s a shame Charlie that people are being like that, I don’t see how you can be mocking poets/poetry when you are actually writing it! I guess it goes over their heads and when that happens, no point wasting hot air over it, like you said. I’ve been a fan of NIN for years and I also like a lot of Marilyn Manson songs too funnily enough 🙂