The Lady who Lunches

Really short fiction | 394 words

Mrs. Teresa Philips is a Lady who Lunches. She struggles with her weight, packs carrot sticks and two tablespoons of ranch dressing every day, and eats with a group of other middle-aged women who swear their best years are behind them.

She has worked as a receptionist for the same company for thirty-five years. She knows the name of her boss, her boss's boss, and her previous boss, because no one turns over very regularly, and they're all similarly complacent to live out their years in dead-end jobs that pay the bills.

She goes home at exactly five PM every day, and feeds her cat, Winchester, the same food he's had for ten years, because that's how old he is. They turn on the television at seven PM, watch two shows, then make dinner in time for the ten o'clock news. Then she goes to bed and repeats the exact same process the next day.

On the weekends, she meets up with the other Ladies Who Lunch, and they all go for a walk together in the park. If it rains, they meet at Lisa's house and work on the same puzzle they've been doing for six years now. Before then, Lisa didn't work at the same company, but she's been hosting their little get-togethers since she walked through the door. And no one prefers it any differently.

Mrs. Philips was married, a long time ago, and lost her husband due to an early heart attack in his 50s. She never bothered to marry again, and still wears her wedding ring, though if anyone asks, she's available. At least, that's what she would say, if anyone ever asked, but no one does.

Now in her fifties, Mrs. Teresa Philips has lived a perfectly humdrum life. She is quite content with her seven PM shows and her cat Winchester, who purrs delightedly whenever he sees her. They have been great companions these past ten years, and she will be devastated to lose him, so she tries not to think about it very much, especially when he finds a patch of sunlight and lays there the entire day because walking is so tiring.

Her days are comfortably boring, and she likes them that way. And she would be terribly bothered if she knew that she was about to embark on the greatest adventure of her life.

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Hello, dear readers!

I wrote this little ditty in the car during a Nanowrimo attempt a couple years ago. I’d just started writing regularly, and hadn’t realized that cramming words doesn’t work for me, so I got stuck in the story I was working on and churned this out instead, trying to break up the writer’s block before it really started.

It didn’t work, but I got this piece. It’s just been sitting and gathering dust, so I thought I’d clean it off and show it to you.

I know I’ve mentioned it a couple times, but the stuff that writers write when they’re not working on fully-fledged stories really interests me. There are so many in-between moments, like water-cooler conversations, that slip into the realm of obscurity and disappear before anyone can take note. I like those moments, those little pieces of humanity. Everybody has them. After-dinner coffees and sprawling on the couch to binge-watch your favorite show again, yelling at the TV when a contestant screws up and you knew they were wrong, shuffling out to grab the paper or walk the dog when you’d rather be asleep.

You know, little human things. I like those. This one is like them.

I guess you could call it a character study, or something else that sounds important, but I’m not that fancy. To me, it’s a few words about Mrs. Teresa Philips, who doesn’t really have a story yet, but might someday.

Do you have little stories like this, too? Or are all of your ideas fully-fledged and growing into full tales?

Share with the class, everyone. We’re all here to learn.

Until next time!

<3 Olivia

(Photo by Pervane Mustafa, Pexels)