This week we found a new one and here's what it told us to write: Word Count - 350, Genre: Comedy, Character: A hermit, Material: A football, Sentence: 'I can't see you.', Bonus: Your character is loved by everyone.
His Take:
As he climbed back up the mountain to his cave, Ralph realized that it was getting harder and harder to make the climb. Being a hermit was fine, but he wanted to find a ranch-style cave, but he knew those commanded a premium price, and in a lot of mountain communities there was a waiting list for ground floor two bedroom ranch caves.
When Ralph finally reached his cave, he plopped down on the ground and put his feet up on the rock that he used for a footrest. Just as he got comfortable (for a dirt floor and sitting against a rock wall of a cave) he heard someone knock at the opening of his cave. Ralph yelled “Yeah, you’ll have to come in. I can’t see you” and in came another hermit. “Berry delivery! I’ve got 3 pints of strawberries, 2 pints of blueberries and some raspberries that aren’t quite ready to eat yet.”
The berry delivery man’s name was Barry and he and Ralph had known each other for as long as they’d been hermits and were the best of friends. Ralph welcomed him and they sat across from one another and started eating the berries. They chatted about the usual hermit stuff. What was new around the mountain, how awesome it was not to have to decide when to stop texting during a text message conversation, and how far they had to walk to go to the bathroom. They guessed it was mid to late January, and that meant it was time for the Super Bowl.
Of course, neither one of them knew who was playing this year, on account of the hermit thing, but they both got into talking about how much they looked forward to it each year, and how much they loved the sport in general.
Barry told Ralph to hold on and soon he came back carrying an honest-to-God football. Ralph was super excited to see one, and before long they were tossing the football back and forth, playing catch. Ralph said “Ok, dude, go long!” and he hurled the football as hard as he could into the air, and it looked like it was going to sail right past Barry. Barry dove for it, but he wasn’t aware of his surroundings and fell out of the cave and plunged all the way down to the ground, dying instantly. Ralph is a dick.
Her Take:
As a girl, Zorya had been afraid the people in the little town would hate her. The awkward and hirsute daughter of Polish immigrants, she stayed hidden in the corners of classrooms away from the other kids.
As she grew, though, everything had changed.
Instead of avoiding her, they seemed entirely charmed by her. The accent she would never lose, her dark eyes hooded by unruly eyebrows, the general witchiness of her, they loved everything about her.
It was a shame, because she hated people.
She had not been treated unfairly. In school she had a tutor who helped her graduate with high honors. She went on to college with a full scholarship, earned her doctorate, and when she returned to her small town after her parents passed away, she was welcomed like a home-town hero.
No, they had never been unfair to her, she just thought people were awful.
They greeted her with big, toothy blonde-haired smiles and asked how she liked the weather. If the sun was shining she would say, “Tsk. We need rain.”.
If much needed rain was in the forecast she’d tell them, “Ugh. All it does is rain here.”
She did this so they would leave her alone. But they didn’t.
They invited her to barbecues and picnics, birthday parties and ice cream socials.
And every time they did, she would shake her head and pretend to mutter something mysterious.in Polish. She didn’t know enough Polish to mutter much of anything, but they didn’t know that.
She tried to use the Evil Eye to curse people on the street who nodded in a friendly way when she passed, but she didn’t know how to do any real curses, so she swore under her breath in English instead.
When a football fell in the tiny backyard of her late parent’s home, she kept it. The boy from next door knocked on her front door and politely asked for and it she yelled from the kitchen, “Go away, little neighbor boy, I do not see you!".
She swore she heard his polite little voice saying, “Thank you, Miss Zorya!” as he skipped away.
Comments
Post a Comment