3WW #4

Welcome to Three Word Wednesday.Each week, I will post three (or more) random words. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write something using all of those words. It can be a few lines, a story, a poem, anything. This is a writing exercise. It doesn't have to be perfect. The idea is to let your mind wander and write what it will. I'll also attempt to write something using the same three words.Leave a comment if you participate.

This week's words are:
Tile
Scarce
Lieu


"Decorating can be such a bore" Elaine thought as she looked through samples of Mexican tile, each one as bland as the next. When she started this project she had a sure vision of what her house would become and everything had gone well in the beginning. Somewhere along in the middle however, the dream turned nightmare as each choice seemed to carry people's lives in the balance, as if a hue of yellow would disrupt nature's grand design. Elaine, now settling for a neutral greenish brown for her kitchen floors turned her attention to the upholstery. As she picked up what seemed to be a miniature Library of Congress edition of swatches, she wondered what had happened to her original plan. This wasn't the way it was supposed to turn out. "I thought I did everything right." she sulked, feeling as dejected as the chartreuse sateen she was certain would never be chosen by anyone, for anything.

Her mind drifted to a place where her design was alive with anticipation of the transition into reality. Everyone likes to have their dreams come true, right? So why did her dream exact a pound of flesh every time she made progress? Why was a consequence or price demanded for each minor success in her life? She worked hard, with passion, courage and conviction, and yet couldn't help feeling like the real song of her heart would always meet with some muffling, some distortion. Just as she would never find the true blue twill for the ottoman, and would need to settle for a royal or midnight hue in lieu of what she really wanted. So she felt that her life would never really be in order. Yes, it would be close enough to make her happy, but still, a tiny piece would feel out of sorts, if only the smallest bit, in this new reality she had embraced so completely and still loved with all of her heart.

Scarce had she made the resolution to choose the closest form of perfection, than she discovered the color she had imagined was real. It would require yet more sacrifice. More, it seemed, than she thought she had in her to give. There would be numerous trades and finagles involved in securing this "thing" but she wanted it. Her heart had been set on it from the moment she dreamed of her life as an adult when she was only a schoolgirl. It would be much easier to go with a close enough "simulation" of her dream. But each time Elaine saw it in her home, in her life, she would know it wasn't really her heart's desire. Good enough, yes, but not real.

"Life is just too short," Elaine explained,"not to have your heart's desire." And with that, she went to work.