Kindergarten Couple

The Keep Writing Challenge for today was to write a 200-word (exactly) story using the prompt "prompted." I adapted a true story that came from a conversation between my daughter and her son.

Kindergarten Couple

"How was your day?" I asked my 5-year-old son on the way home from school.

He sounded exasperated, "It was OK, but Maddie and I had to have a SERIOUS talk."

All year Maddie and Eli have been “boyfriend/girlfriend” – a relationship Maddie takes very seriously. My classroom is just down the hall from their kindergarten, and each time I see Maddie in the hallway, she yells, "Hey, Eli's mom! I'm Eli's girlfriend!"

Questions filled my mind now as I waited in the quiet car for Eli to continue. Had his teacher made them sit and talk because they'd interrupted class?  What had happened to warrant a SERIOUS talk?  What IS a serious talk to two 5-year-olds?!

I asked, "Who said you had to have a serious talk."

"Maddie," he replied.

"Really! Why?" I prompted.

"Well, I played with Ryder (a MALE friend of his) on the playground at recess, and she said I have to play with HER the most because she’s my girlfriend. I told her that I still have other friends and I AM going to go play with the boys sometimes!"

“Was that okay with Maddie?”

“She said she’ll still be my girlfriend.”

The training starts early!

One Marble

The Keep Writing Challenge prompt for today, May 13, 2020, is "marble." The assignment is to write a story using 100 (exactly) words. 

One Marble

The stunning young woman descending the stairs took my breath away. Glancing at the young man beside me I knew, by his shining eyes and sudden breath intake, that he, too, was transfixed. My daughter was off to her Senior Prom.

As the door closed behind them, a cocktail of emotions compelled me to the sideboard where a large apothecary jar sat. In it was one lonely marble.

One marble. Only one. 

Eighteen years ago it held 936 – one for each week we would have to raise our baby – our baby who will celebrate her 18^th birthday next week. 936 weeks! Now only one.

At Day's End

The Keep Writing Challenge for 05-12-2020 is the write a 150-word (exactly) story using the prompt "clock."

At Day's End

The sun hovers near the horizon, and twilight descends. End-of-day approaches.

Throughout the morning I strove – meeting challenges, reaching for concrete goals, testing, expanding then shrinking back, rethinking, adjusting, serving, achieving.

Well into the afternoon I toiled. “You can do it! Make it happen! Do your part! Look to the future!”

Now, as the clock slowly ticks toward the dark, my time for striving and serving is done. I evaluate, affirm choices, and find satisfaction in past achievements. I cherish the interactions of morning and relationships of afternoon, and I breathe a grateful prayer, rejoicing in the future and adventures of my precious ones.

Even as my energy wanes, I paint in sunshine, travel the world in the words of a novel, and watch the sun’s face darken as a breeze cools my skin.  My bed of rest awaits, and, until day’s end, I will fill each moment with love.

Bite Me!

The Keep Writing Challenge for 05-10-2020 is to write a 300-word (exactly) story using the prompt "pink."

Bite Me!

“Hey, what’s that? Stop it! That’s greasy!”

Startled, I looked around. I thought I was alone in the bathroom. Seeing no one, I stepped to the door and looked out, “Jim,” I called,” What did you say?”

I looked down the hall and glimpsed my husband in the mirror of the other bathroom. He was serenely shaving and obviously had not been near my bathroom. Hmm!

Puzzled, I returned to the bathroom and continued to survey my face in the mirror.  My cheeks looked a little pale, so I quickly gave each a little slap to pink them up before continuing to blend my foundation color. It had been weeks since I’d used any makeup. After all, I’d hardly been out of the house during the quarantine!

Humming, I was feeling good and refreshed after my shower. My makeup mostly done, I blew my hair dry and stepped into the adjoining bedroom to slip on the clothes laid out on the bed. I was still puzzling over the voice, but I’d heard nothing more – except some indistinct grumbling that was common in the old plumbing system of our antebellum home, so I determined to forget it.

However, when I reentered the bathroom to put the finishing touches on my makeup, I remembered and had to laugh at myself. My overactive morning mind! I had actually entertained the notion that it was my SKIN talking to me! Absurd! 

Nevertheless, I found myself listening as I began to put the finished touches on my face. Okay, ready for lip color.

As the colored stick touched my lips, they began to move of their own accord and a shrill cry filled the bathroom. I watched and listened in horror as my lips shouted, NOOOOOOO!

Fine. You win! I’ll just bite my lips for color!

House Cleaning Day

The Keep Writing Challenge for the day was to write a 180-word story using the prompt "batch."  The word has always appealed to me for its unusual sound, so I chose to use the sound to the word as the focus of the story instead of writing about its meaning.

House Cleaning Day

My mom! She gave her batch of five a childhood without match! Jobs had to be done (houses don’t care for themselves, you know.) Kids have to be raised.  Family unity has to be built. And my mom was VERY resourceful!

So on cleaning day, Mom’d bake cookies.  But cookies were never just cookies!  No! There was always a catch!

“Johnny, repair the backdoor latch. Good job! You want a cookie? Don’t  snatch!”

“Marie, sort the socks. No mismatch now! Here, catch!”

My baseball-loving sister would snag the high-fly, and eat her catch.

“Arnold, go comb that messy thatch.”

Well, look at “Pig Pen” - neat as can be!

Now - snacks “down the hatch” with dispatch!

Twins Jax and Max, fresh out of their sacks, with work-ethics lax, tried to sneak behind backs for their cleaning-day snacks.  

“Hey, John,” Mom would call. “You’re a dad, not a batch; duties attach!”

Flashing a knowing smile, Dad’d crook his finger at the twins, “Come earn those snacks, boys.”

Mom gave us a childhood without match!

Did we love cleaning day? Natch!

Fight to the Finish

The Keep Writing Challenge for 05-06-2020 was to write a 120-word (exactly) story using the prompt "fitted."

Fight to the Finish

Once upon a time in a faraway land, a diligent homemaker toiled. Mabel cooked and cleaned to provide comfort and security for her family -- their needs were her daily bread.

One afternoon, our hard-working heroine entered the laundry room and found herself face-to-face with a fearsome enemy. Did she back down? Ha! Shoulders back, eyes steely with determination, she stared – right into the shifty little corners of a punk fitted sheet.

Mabel bravely grasped those smirking corners, tucked them quickly together and threw the sheet, folded in half, onto the counter.

Knowing she had the sheet where she wanted it, Mabel slapped the folded corners together, matched edges, and quickly tucked the wad away.

Punk sheet, have you met Mabel?!

Purple Power

The Keep Writing Challenge for today was to write exactly 120 words in a fiction piece on "Purple."

Purple Power

Millicent scrutinized the face in her mirror. The crow’s feet were deeper than before, but the forehead remained smooth. Her intense green eyes were flecked with gold, suggesting the strength of that heavy metal.

Millie had always been the blue lady. Blue - the color of stability and calm. Her friends counted on her as a port in their storms. Now the divorce papers on the dresser glared an open challenge to that blue calm.

Squaring her shoulders, Millicent stepped away from the mirror and slowly, piece by piece, donned the new outfit.

Striding out the door, a red trail of fierce energy combining with her calm blue aura, she breathed in the purple power. Queen Millicent accepts the challenge!

June

The Keep Writing Challenge for April 30, 2020 was to write a 300-word (exactly) short story on "June." This  quote from  Bernard Williams gave me an idea.  

"If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance."  

June Boasts

Novie glanced at June, “Yes, my days are short and often rainy, but actually my weather diversity is one of my greatest appeals. Kids love that. They sometimes get to play outside in the sunshine without sweaters, and they don’t have to come inside while it’s still daylight to do their homework.  They have time to do inside chores after it’s dark. And they MIGHT get a day off school when I whip up a fluffy snow.  And they always get days out of school for a long Thanksgiving weekend. Hey, what’s not to love?”

June tried to conceal her disdain as she pressed her lips into a smile. “Oh, that’s true, of course. I never get to offer snow to the children like that.”

 Of course,” she added, “they don’t NEED days off during the carefree weeks of my month!”

Novie, sensing that she’d ruffled June’s feathers with her boasts, tried to placate her friend, “Oh, yes, June, I certainly understand your appeal even though you can’t boast a single holiday or significant weather surprise. Tell me…”

“Oh don’t you condescend to me, you arrogant month!” June interjected. “Snow and Thanksgiving are great gifts indeed, but rainy days in November suck, my friend. Can the kids go out and play and splash in YOUR cold rain? NO!  In a JUNE rain, children put on bathing suits and splash and skip and cool off. They don’t have to scurry inside, bundle up, and gaze out a window!”

“And, my dear friend, top this, if you can!  My sunny days and starry nights are perfect for knowing and loving others – picnics in the park, family road trips, walks in the woods, strolls on the beach, standing arm-in-arm above green mountain vistas! Whispering sweet nothings, planning futures! Why, I practically invented ROMANCE!

A Bitter Pill

Today's assignment in Deadlines for Writers was to write a short story on the topic "Platinum" using exactly 120 words.

A Bitter Pill

Detective Ridley Rhodes looked up from his hospital bed at the officer who was taking over his big murder case.

“Thorough notes and case file, Ridley,” Marie Johnson complimented her colleague. “What about that hair found under the body though? Long, silver strand like that? Should we be looking for a female? Maybe it’s not the husband or the boyfriend.”

“Excuse me, Detectives, I gotta check my patient’s vitals,” Ridley’s nurse, Tom, interrupted.

Marie flashed Ridley a grin as Tom left the room, “Being laid up with a broken leg wouldn’t be so bad with a nurse like HIM taking care of you!”

Such a shame that these skilled detectives didn’t know about the platinum wig in Nurse Tom’s locker. 

Breaking Point

The Keep Writing prompt for today, April 28, 2020, is #36 "Maxed" 100 words (exactly.)

Breaking Point

It wasn’t my idea to paint the damn cow; it was Fran’s.

Okay, so I went along with it. Big deal!  

Before that day:

You need a pie for a fundraiser? Count on me for a dozen or two!

Design and sell ads for the Spring Dance? Right here; I’ll spend my week doin’ that.

Pick up Old Mrs. Smith’s groceries for her again this week? Sure, glad to help.

Teacher Appreciation Week? Of course, I’ll  plan and set that up for you – and serve refreshments!

Before? – Exhausted and totally maxed out!

Now?  Happily gazing at a beautiful rainbow cow!