Thank you, @lordtimoty. That was fun. By the end of the story, much like Marlene, I found myself being sucked into Travis' peculiar world.
You managed several levels of reckoning. He's an accountant. Of course he reckons. Then there is Marlene's appearance, which obliges him to reckon with reality. Then there is his determination to bring retribution to Marlene for her claim. My heavens, the story reeks with reckoning. And your dialogue is on the mark. Interesting that you don't like dialogue. I sometimes find that easier to do than anything else (though I don't really write stories anymore).
My first story for the day. It's a good way to start.
Good Morning @agmoore - hope the weekend is treating you well. I've spent the morning complaining about the gloomy skies and the rain, but, it's just gone 9am and the sun has started to come out, I can hear a bird or two in the background. Starting to think the universe heard my cries of woe and is rectifying the situation!
I always think of reckoning in a violent kind of way, which is where 'The Crucible' quote kicked in. This prompt had me a little stumped, as in every scenario - there was violent intent. I started to imagine this story as Travis vs a little mouse, but of course, the dialogue limitations there... ;)
I think the problem with dialogue is that it is so often used to drive a narrative, and robs the story of interest. In my offline job, I'm not sure I've told you, I'm a High School teacher - and I have some really black and white advice about dialogue: use it sparingly, or not at all. I feel like it's 'job done' when they go for the second option. That is, unless they're needing to be prepped for those silly standardised tests, where they get marked for showing a variety of punctuation marks. Then it's the old, 'Let's have a line of speech', to create a bit of interest - but we don't need two lines!! Ah the risk of misplacing a comma and then losing the same mark they'd just won. I hate those stupid tests.
Anyways, hope you have a good one, and as always, I very much look forward to our chats - Tim.