Story Prompt for July 25, 2021
Use these words and photos in your story:
wind elapse
crutch talk
young
and these three pictures:
photo by Finn H. on Unsplash
DECISIONS
Rob sat on the corner of the wall;
his thoughts wandered all over the place.
He kept trying to focus, trying to work out what he could say to his young
cousin. He knew it was up to him to have
a talk with him, Max couldn’t go on the way he had been, missing school,
shop lifting, giving his parents so much angst, it was a wonder they still kept
their sanity.
His Uncle Bob, who Rob was named
after, as his mum had a real soft spot for her cousin, just couldn’t get
through to Max, no matter what he tried.
Enough time had elapsed for somebody else to try and make the
young lad see sense.
Rob thought of Eloise and where
she was at the moment. She’d gone off on
one of her adventures, although she was a bit of a daredevil, he loved her with
all his heart. He knew he would never
change her and he didn’t want to. Her
last email showed her trying to transverse across a rickety wooden, slatted
bridge of a large water course. One puff
of wind and she’d be hanging on to the ropes for dear life.
After a couple of hours and a
very numb bum, Rob left his perch and wandered home. He called up to his mum to say he was home.
A muffled reply of, ‘I’m up
here,’ came floating down the stairs. He
dashed up to the landing and found his mum rearranging the clothes in the
wardrobe.
Eloise stopped in the middle of
the wooden, slatted bridge spanning the water.
She took a deep breath as she looked down at the raging torrent below
her. Ha! Raging torrent, my foot. More like a babbling brook. It probably had pretentions of raging during
the winter months but she couldn’t really see it.
You can’t do it! You won’t do
it!
Yes, I can! Yes, I can! She
chanted back at them.
With another deep breath she took
her time, placing one foot in front of the other she steadily made her way to
the end of the rope walk. She sat down
heavily on the grassy knoll, trying to steady her heartbeat. Gradually its rhythm returned to normal as
she sat and pondered on what she had just done.
She knew Rob would be at home,
waiting for her, his love and loyalty something she trusted with all her
heart. She didn’t tell him how much she
appreciated him allowing her to spread her wings. Hmm, ‘allowing’ was the wrong word. Nobody allowed her to do anything she wanted
to do. If she wanted to do it, she would
find a way to do it, she didn’t need anybody’s permission. She was independent, a grown woman, able to
make her own decisions but ….. but she really missed Rob’s strong and steady
influence. Once she returned home, she
would do her utmost to make sure he knew how much she loved him. It was just
that she wasn’t ready to settle down in to a humdrum life, spend several years
in the rat race, commuting to the office every day until her biological clock
started to kick in and she was ready for motherhood.
Would Rob wait for her? Was she willing to take that risk? Perhaps this was the last adventure she would
undertake on her own, maybe they could find something to do together.
Yes, that was a good plan. She’d think about that when this trip was
over.
Martha thought to herself, ‘ever
wished you’d never started a job?’ Going
through her mother-in-law’s clothing was turning out to be
heart-wrenching. She thought she was
ready, after all it was more than a year since Doreen had passed away. Jim couldn’t do it. This was something practical she could do for
him and take this last burden from his shoulders. What they would do with this room she
couldn’t even begin to hazard a guess.
It had been Doreen’s space for so long, ever since she’d come to live them
five years ago. It hadn’t been as hard
as she thought it might be and Doreen had fitted in to their family unit so
nicely, not interfering but being there with a listening ear when needed.
Boy, did they need her wisdom now
in how to deal with Max, Bob’s teenage son.
Rob had promised he would have a chat with him and see if he could help
set him on the straight and narrow before it ballooned in to more serious
offences.
Now, if only his lovely Eloise
would come home and stay home. Martha
sighed again as she rummaged through the dresses on the hangars, she knew
nobody should, or even could, clip Eloise’s wings, they would just have to wait
and see.
She heard Rob come home and call
up to her. She knew that he was the crutch
her and Jim and Eloise and Bob had come to rely on, he certainly took after his
grandmother in that respect.
Word count: 864
Here is my selection:
This week the black and white challenge is Reflections and Mirrors.
Here are my choices for this week's challenge:
This week our challenge is: white
If you would like to join in:
https://ceenphotography.com/2021/07/13/cffc-white/
Here is my selection:
This July, the host for Words for Wednesday is https://thememoryofrain.blogspot.com/2021/07/words-for-wednesday-prompts-july-7-2021.html.
Words for Wednesday is started by Delores and now is hosted by various people on various blogs. The aim of Words for Wednesday is to encourage us to write using some or all of the prompts.
This week the prompt words are:
1. orphan
2. island
3. farm
4. brother
5. freckles
6. red-haired
7. imagination
8. friend
9. charm
10. Home
Here is my short story using all the words.
Orphan Annie came home after leaving her job
on the farm. She couldn’t stand
her red-haired friend’s brother teasing her about her own freckles. Lisa told her Nick had a lot of charm
and charisma but honestly, thought Annie, that must have been in her wildest imagination
or maybe it was just sibling loyalty.
So, here she was again, in
the bosom of her family, her haven, her go-to when the going got tough. It was her island of peace where she
could recoup, relax and recharge her batteries.
