The Twins, Chuckie and Ducks, blossomed, were born, and grew into two sturdy, tow-headed toddlers; husband number two became disenchanted with the demands of domesticity as the twins became mobile and began to climb everything.
Things got even worse when the two girls began to talk and argue, and he quickly learned it was easier to say “Yes”, “Ask your mother,” “Andrew, take the twins with you when you meet your friends”, and “Eloise, can your come here a moment, please?”
Because virility didn’t supply the type of energy needed for parenting and being a marital partner, he deflected demands with his more successful stand-bys of never directly saying no, and of attracting younger women with his boyish charm and situational generosity, and the endearing way the older two children looked after the younger ones for him; the Twins loved their easy-to-convince daddy, too young to notice that he’d lost interest in them, as well.
It was with a heavy and exhausted heart that Bethany interrupted her husband’s nightly reading, after the children had all been bathed and tucked in bed, to say, “You need to put a bookmark in that and pack a bag. This can’t continue, and you won’t ever step up, will you?”
He lowered his reading glasses, smiled, snapped his book shut, and called his current girlfriend to see if she would take him in.
© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2022)
The challenge? Write a story in 6 sentences, no more & no less, and if you’d like, share your creation or just visit and comment on others’ ideas, with GirlieOnTheEdge, Denise. The prompt is “BOOKMARK”, and here’s where you join the party: Six Sentence Stories
Valley of the Trolls 
Husband number 2 won’t get the dad of the year award but you got to take the good backstories as well as the bad!
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Very true. And it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good.
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Not exactly a gentleman if he has a wife and a girlfriend
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Mistakes were made, and the kids have to cover…not quite fair.
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Maybe his girlfriend will tire of him too. But I suspect he has another in-waiting. At least he reads, though what he reads we know not 😀
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There is usually at least one saving grace to be found. Check out Dissppesred 36, in light of your question. 😉
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Will do! Thanks!
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Guys like him always have several on the go… Cycling through, as one becomes too demanding with thoughts of love and forever she is given a cowards release, ignored, and forgotten until she ends or just moves on. She bears the pain because he’s already checked out, it’s just a matter of reshuffling the pecking order, #2 becomes #1, #3 becomes #2 and so on. At the bottom a new exciting play thing fills the empty void. Unfortunately he rarely get what’s coming because even when it does come he oblivious to it.
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Keep reading…things are not always as they seem to be. But sometimes they are!
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Oh I am. That’s the beauty of fiction. More often than not they get their come uppance. It’s in the real world they tend to escape unscathed!
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A difficult decision but a worthy one. A great six, Liz.
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Thanks, Keith.
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Dang, does this sound realistic!
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Story old as time, eh?
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It’s a reality i’ve seen, and it’s sad. He’ll land on his feet, over and over and over, until one day when his charm and good looks and situational generosity don’t work any longer.
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Unless the the Grecian Hair formula gets him first! (Disappeared 33)
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(Love how it happens…) Frank stole my Comment!
I can prove it, I copied as I read, here, look:
situational generosity
see?! proof by italics!
fun Six
Hailing, as I do from Y-Chromia, I will demur from comment on the qualities of certain members (no! Doug, ceayr!! She can hear you giggling.)
I should back away from the keyboard now
Good Six
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Okay, but remember there’s also Andrew, Joseph, and the slow-but-steady Scottish Mage…a hopeful note!
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Good riddance I say!!
(yes, I am already excommunicated by the League of mensticktogetherespeciallyagainstwomen…so..;-)
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😂😂
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A believable dynamic here! Tragic… but thoroughly believable. Nice Six!
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Thank you, Susan!
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And the serial spiral tightens!
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Goodie!
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It’s relief for both of them 🙂
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Yep. Thanks for stopping by & commenting, Reena! 🦋🦋
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Laughing.
You’re not a big fan of energy-lacking men with boyish charm, are you, Liz?
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Lol…I know my Achilles heel, maybe?
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Fun! The continuing misadventures of Chuckie and Ducks!
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Oh, no, yet another dastardly male. 😉 ‘Because virility didn’t supply the type of energy needed for parenting and being a marital partner, he deflected demands with his more successful stand-bys of never directly saying no, and of attracting younger women with his boyish charm’ is a gem.
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I thought some women might find this relatable… 😉
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Nice phrase, “situational generosity”.
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Thanks, Frank! 🙂
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