I hated how my roommate thought her doings were none of my business. She’d appear in the living room, all decked out, and simply say, “I’m going out now.” No explanation. No talk about maybe doing something together as friends. That’s why I started following her. It’s wasn’t my fault – if she’d been more open it never would have happened.
Please use the open space below to share your first 50 words on the topic “I’m going out now.”
First 50 Words - Prompts for Writing Practice 
His modus operandi was to behave as usual. Nothing in his demeanor or behavior would indicate anything was wrong. The first time it happened my brother and I were doing homework or reading quietly. Mom was working. Her shift at the factory this day was in the afternoon. Dad said, “I’m going out now.” We thought nothing of it. When it was closer to dinner we wondered where he was. When was he coming home?. The answer was never. He’d decided it was time to move on to Arizona or Florida or wherever. It was time for him to take a break from the responsibilities of fatherhood. It was time for him to take a break away from his wife. The pattern was always the same. He would return to his family after much pleading to my mother and try again. But he never could succeed in being a family man. He was a lovely human being. Very handsome. Very talented. Very calm disposition. Very intelligent. He just should never have sired children because he failed as a father. He failed miserably as a husband. Abandonment is a devastating thing to a family. It leaves lifelong scars. When I went to see him in the ICU just before he died in a Florida hospital, his physician was completely shocked that he had children. You see – he never mentioned us. All I heard before he died was, “I’m going out now.” And he did.
“I’m going out now,” my grandmother said. I was six at the time, my two sisters even younger. I was surprised…Nonna never left the apartment, at least not that I’d ever seen. But there she was, in a blouse and slacks, a silk scarf hiding the fact that she was bald from the chemo, her handbag over her shoulder. Pop-pop was taking his after lunch nap at the time, my parents were at work, and who was I to stop Nonna from going out.
“How could you let her go out?” My mother yelled into my face when she arrived I don’t know how long after Nonna left. By then Pop-pop had gone to look for her. I had no answer for my mother, I could only say, “She said ‘I’m going out'”
Pop-pop found Nonna, wandering in a Norwegian neighborhood (until then, we, being Italian, hadn’t known there was a Norwegian neighborhood). It was years later that I found out Nonna had suffered from depression all her life and before I was born, there had been many incidents of her just leaving home and wandering the streets, sometimes for days at a time.
Four little words: “I’m going out now,” can signal the innocuous or the important; a triviality or fulfilling a childhood dream. This Sunday it was the dream thing. Mom thought Dad would be doing the ordinary when he told her he was going out. Not so! A couple of hours later he phoned. Mom asked where he was and what was he going to do next. His reply, “I’m going to see a man about a dog.” Dad loved surprises.. On his return he was accompanied by a beautiful and crazy Dalmatian puppy, Sparky.
“I’m going out now,” said Daddaw. “Paul and I will go fishing and bring you back something to cook for supper.” Paul came back early. Nannaw had already cooked supper. “Daddaw told me to come on up and tell you he’d be there in a few minutes.” We waited. And waited. Supper got cold. Finally Nannaw called Mr. Wooten. “My boys will go looking for him,” Mr. Wooten said. They found Daddaw, dead in the boat. He had known the heart attack was coming, and he sent my brother away so his grandson wouldn’t see him die.
A perfectly normal conversation over tea and muffins could turn irascibly and unretrievably argumentative . When one took a stand on any topic, it was imperative that the other should take a totally different standpoint . It was amusing , sad and pathetic in degrees. I mean, come on ,these are siblings we are talking about. Most of their childhood was spend together, going to same school, sharing teachers, friends, books. How could they have such different view-points , to the point of sulking, and not communicating for days altogether.
Their spouses would begin a conversation of their own , on some completely different topic, to salvage the situation. But, sooner or later, the brothers shouts of anger would drown and silence any pretence at normalcy.Then one of the wives would get up and say-“I’m going out now.” The other one would silently follow.