U5: Utility

He completed each task with utility and nothing more: teeth, brushed; belt, buckled; shoes, laced. The only indulgence he allowed was a few minutes peering at his watery eyes in the mirror, attempting to rearrange his hair.

T5: Tortollini

The dizziness wouldn't go away; he felt as if someone was pressing tortollini inside his left ear.

S5: Snow

It never snowed in London, but today, of all effing days, it would.

R5: Rich

I wasn't positive he was rich, but I won't lie: I'd be chuffed if he was. Last night I dreamed Da was alive and told he he was giving me 100,000 dollars, and I sobbed my face off -- woke up, face wet.

Q5: Quixotic

(...a word I had to double check to be certain I fully understand)

She's herself, my Christina. When she says "quixotic" she actually means to put on a Spanish helmet and find a windmill somewhere.

P5: Policy

I make it a policy not to let my daughter run my life.

O5: Option

"It's not like I have the options you do." Christine pushed the words from her mouth, her flat tongue rejecting each syllable as if she wanted it to be sweet, but it was foul.

N5: Nonsense

"Nonesense," Ted said, distracted by his email. Heck froze. Nonsense was his mother's word.

M5: Matrimony

No fiction tonight: I'm happily approaching my one year anniversary. Matrimony is a very good thing!

L5: Lift

He lifted her effortlessly. His arms took her up like she'd been attached to a trapeze string.

K5:Kitten

A kitten curled its way out from under the crawlspace, mewling, its eyes not fully open, its black and white fur matted crazily on one side.

J5: Job

I need a new job.
Or:
Some days I feel like Job.
Or:
It's not my job, Heck wanted to whine, but knew that a 40-year old man would look pitiful crimping himself up like that around another excuse.

I5: Impossible

"But... nothing's impossible," Dewey half-said, cradling his tea high against the lower portion of his face.
"Please, little brother," Sloane weighed in. "Impossible is the world's middle name."
Her dad smiled at that, and she felt guilt curdle her chest.

H5: Heart

"Too much heart, I guess" she smiled, trying to stop her own from breaking.

G5:Goodness

It wasn't something he'd ever understood about Ted before: there was goodness there, real goodness, the kind you don't see too often in everyday life.

F5: Few

"Few are those of us who still swim beyond this cove," said Whelf, looking away and expelling a sigh.

E5: Electoral

"I mean, duh, Dad," Janey blurted. She'd just spent her freshman year as a Government and Policy major, and the electoral college was clearly old hat.

D5: Dent

Pretty much everything in the shop had a dent somewhere on its body--the refrigerator had a great furrow along its side at calf-height, the beadboard on the front counter had two vertical gashes were the original, blue-green paint showed through. Even front plate-glass windows had a thousand tiny pock-marks from a fifty years of kids riding up and making gravel waves with their bikes.

C5: Cartilege

Sloane pushed her fingers into the skin around her knee, testing the cap, cartilege and ligaments and feeling for spots of pain.