The Missing Piece

Welcome to the One Plan and the inaugural story, The Missing Piece. I want to thank everyone who has supported me in this venture. I hope the stories connect with you in some way or simply entertain.

Here is a sneak peak at The Missing Piece.

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Phil struggled as he pulled the massive puzzle piece across an impressionist landscape. Degas? Monet? It was hard to tell; the haze of the dream was as blended as the terrain surrounding him. The piece, awkward in his hands, seemed to fight against him. Didn’t it know he was trying to help?

Shifting his grip and pulling backward with all his weight, the odd dogleg only sunk deeper into the blurry grass. He knew that somewhere, maybe a bit further to the left, a bit higher; random lines formed a perfect union.

I will see this through.

With a massive heave, Phil grunted and pulled the piece free. The release sent him staggering. Melded scenery rushed by in soft pastel flows as Phil stumbled backward, the giant piece still in tow. Without warning, the brink of a softly dabbed rock cliff suddenly appeared and Phil fought to slow his momentum. He pushed back against the monstrous piece that now seemed to drive him, his feet sliding in flexed strokes of gray and brown.

Don’t you know I’m helping you?

Everything stopped. There was air beneath his heels as they hung over the mottled cliff edge. Phil stood frozen in place, pulled between a plummet to the soft strokes of the deep gorge below and the weight of the giant piece, once again unmovable. A shiver of fear ran down his back followed by a rivulet of sweat.

If only I could get a better grip.

There was a section of the puzzle piece, just inches from his right hand, that jutted out like a misshapen ear. He lunged and his hand only found empty air.

Phil woke with a start, his head popping up from his workbench. No cliff, no monster piece, just the quiet hum of the workbench lamp and an unfinished puzzle in front of him. Wincing he reached back and rubbed his wrinkled neck with a wrinkled hand. Massaging the sharp pain that had accompanied his sudden awakening reminded him of his advancing years.

Blinking away the remnants of the nightmare, he looked at his watch.

12:30 a.m.

His latest challenge lay before him...READ MORE.