Five Words - writercize #AtoZChallenge 3.6

Please note: writercize (a portmanteau of write and exercise with a z for ... a twist? fun? street cred?) is participating in the A to Z Challenge through the month of April with alphabetical writing prompts. I'm skipping the stories behind the prompts so you can spend more time practicing and less time reading! Please participate, and enjoy!

writercize: Always a favorite on this site, I give you five words to use however you wish. Poem, flash fiction, sales pitch - let your imagination be your guide. It is always fascinating to see how each person interprets five words differently. Today's words come from Creativity Games' random word generator.

• profit
• mat
• beggar
• mirror 
• nose

I love reading your comments and especially your writercize results, so please, drop me a line to let me know if this worked for you! Better yet, share your attempt with the world in your comment! 

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response. 

writercizer sample response:

Barnabas stared at himself in the bathroom mirror. Today was supposed to be one of the best days of his life, the day he would become master carpenter and ask Lydia to be his bride. He'd waited nearly a decade for this day, toiled and sweat over saws and nails and frames, accepted the early mornings and late nights, demeaning orders and hard physical labor. He'd waited so long for the day he could start a life of his own, the day he'd be paid in cash rather than room and board. 

Now he was sure it was all ruined. He'd live the rest of his days a poor, lonely man and Lydia would find another.

The crooked nose in the mirror, slightly crusted with red evidence of his fight earlier that day, did not bode well for Barnabas' plans. It wasn't his fault, he told himself. It was all the beggar's fault. The beggar had looked so desperate and hungry, so Barnabas offered him a slice of bread. Of course, it hadn't been Barnabas' to give - the bread belonged to the baker - but he was ready to pay the baker once he received his first wages.

Instead, the baker went to Barnabas' boss, complaining about the alleged theft to feed the beggar. Barnabas, eager to resolve the situation, told his boss that he'd meant to pay the baker once he'd earned his wages, and all would be settled by morning. But the baker didn't want to wait, and Barnabas' boss had paid the baker his money.

But not before sending Barnabas on his way.

"Boy, I will not share my profit with the likes of that beggar. You want to play Robin Hood, do it on your own time. You've cost me too much today. You are dismissed," he'd said.

Barnabas, knowing he would never become a master carpenter with the word 'thief' attached to his name, did what any desperate man might do. He punched the man who had told his boss and ruined his career. 

Running towards the baker, Barnabas shouted, swinging wildly, "I'd have paid, you stingy fool. Now I'm out a job and you're out a customer!" His fist landed first on the baker's left cheekbone, then under his chin. The baker's apprentice, seeing the altercation, had run out of the bakery and punched Barnabas square in the nose, causing him to stumble backwards and fall on the cobbler's mat.

Resigned to his fate, Barnabas began to whimper. Seeing that he was no longer a threat to their money or their faces, the baker, the apprentice and Barnabas' boss kicked up some dirt, spat at him, and walked away.

Once he'd pulled himself together, Barnabas had stood up and followed the scent of hops to the closest tavern. There he stood, in the tavern's restroom, pondering his fate. No carpentry. No money. Surely no wife. No future. What was he going to do next?