Once upon a time, I decided that it would be a good idea to let people send me a bunch of prompts. (Because I've done it before and I got exactly zero. Well, this time, dear people, I got about 15.) I'll be adding as I finish more. But I'm also doing NaNo, so I'm not sure how many I'll get done.
Anyway, this was based on the prompt: "HG is forced to watch movies based on her books."
"HG! It's movie time," Pete shouted.
"I don't know why you're insisting I watch another one of these monstrosities," Helena whined as she trudged into the living room.
"Because, movies are the future!" Pete cried happily.
"Bloody unlikely," Helena mumbled.
"Come on HG, it probably won't be that bad this time," Claudia added.
Helena begrudging sat on the couch next to Myka, who had wisely chosen to stay out of this debate. Pete was a movie guy. Books had never been his thing. Helena was a steadfast believer that the book was always better. Myka knew there would be no changing either of them.
"What horrors will you be subjecting me to this week, Mr. Lattimer?"
"Oh, not much, just the blockbuster hit War of the Worlds, starring Mr. Tom Cruise," Pete said happily.
There was a collective groan.
"Come on Pete, if you're going to make us watch HG Wells movies, we could at least watch the good ones," Claudia complained.
"We could. And when it's your turn to pick the movie, you can make us watch whatever lame, black and white movie with terrible special effects you want to. But right now, we're going to see some explosions."
"Ugh," Claudia sighed, falling into her favorite armchair.
"I still don't understand why you Americans insist on taking perfectly wonderful books and bastardizing them all in this form," Helena scoffed.
"Because movies are the great American past time," Pete answered.
"I thought that was baseball?" Helena asked.
"Well, yeah. Movies and baseball," Pete said, "Now hush up so I can start the movie."
Helena settled into the couch and Myka set the book she'd been reading on the coffee table. Helena glanced at it but couldn't read the title from her position. She waited as Pete pressed play on the remote and the opening credits began to roll.
Much to everyone's surprise, Helena stayed silent throughout the movie. Even Claudia and Steve had a few comments about the lackluster plot of the Spielberg blockbuster. When the end credits finally rolled, Helena simply stood from the couch, walked to the TV and pressed the open button on the DVD player.
"What are you doing?" Pete asked.
Helena picked up the DVD and promptly broke it in half.
"And that's what I shall do to every insipid, horrific version of any book I ever wrote that has been turned into a movie. If anyone cares to join me, I'll be happy to do a reading from the real War of the Worlds in the study," Helena said before stalking off.
"Wow. I'm definitely not going to play her the radio broadcast on my ipod now," Claudia said.
Myka simply smiled and followed Helena to the study. After all, how often do you get to hear literary classics read aloud by the author.
