Trust (Story Fragment)

When you tell someone you have a dragon and they tell everyone. Everyone thinks you’re crazy.

Walking into school I could feel everyone staring. My dragon coiled its tail around my neck so tight I could barely breathe. I knew no one else could see it.

At lunch I sat alone under a tree. Rob sat down beside me. I glanced over at him. He twitched and rubbed his ear.

‘I can’t see your dragon but I believe you when you say it’s there,’ he said, ‘I have a goblin, it drives me crazy.’

We smiled at each other and my dragon licked my nose.

The Lovers (a story fragment). by Christine Lucas

Christine Lucas wrote a very intriguing expanstion of my story fragment the lovers you should check out her blog here Christine Lucas.

Christine Lucas

The wind ruffled his hair. She liked how it sent his fringe tumbling over his eyes. This would be the last time she saw him looking like this, strong, handsome, his skin glowing with the last rays of a dramatic sunset. As if sensing her gaze he turned to face her. Sadness tinged his eyes. ‘Are you having doubts?’

‘No,’ she shook her head. ‘Though it is a long way down and the river fast flowing.’

‘It is, but we are together. That’s all that matters.’ He reached for her hand. Their shoulders touched as they sat on the railing of a bridge. They looked down at the raging river below them. The breeze smelled sweetly of honeysuckle. ‘Scared?’

‘A little,’ she tried to look nonchalant, swinging her bare legs over the gorge.

‘We don’t have to jump you know.’

‘But you’ll think I’m a coward.’

‘No I won’t,’ he…

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Sometime I Wonder… (story fragment)

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be a bird. To fly everywhere and see the world from above. People think birds a free but really they are just confined by different boundaries than we are. We are confined by these fences and the guards with guns but even before we were here we weren’t free. That’s what we were trying to fight for but now I see freedom is all relative. You can only be free if you think you are. Maybe that’s what people are talking about then they say the birds a free. The birds just don’t know where their freedom ends yet.

This is a fictional short story fragment.

To Market

Here is a responnse to one of my prompts by nombredelapluma. Please go check out their blog.

nombredelapluma

He had never been good at striking a bargain
His mother should have known
Better than to send him to market
Never know what you’re going to get

Worried, he told himself these things,
Not wanting to be a disappointment
He had coins in his bag she said should be enough
But no candy or fluff

He wasn’t smart, he told himself, a lie
But he was strong, willing to learn and try

At the markets’ edge he met a man
Who said, catch the pig, and if you can,
He’s yours to keep, but if you fail
I get your money and the pig, tip to tail

Back at home he talked to animals
So he whispered to the pig about future meals
And shook the strangers’ hand
Who oiled the pig with a grease can

The man was surprised to watch the pig
Jump into the boy’s arms…

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The Possum (Exergesis)

The Possum is a story that almost wrote itself. I didn’t really know what I was writing until I started. It was a story that started with the writing instead of the idea. I began with the first sentence and that led me to the next idea. As I started to write I pictured the place in my head and although I did not include in the story all the details of the place, I chose some and they became the story. The place had a life of its own once I let myself imagine it.

The idea of an underground house is something that interests me and has interested me ever since I heard about it years ago. In Coober Pedy (in the Australian outback) there are people liveing in ‘dugouts’ old mines that have been converted into modern homes. The temperatures outside can be extreme but the underground home stay at a comfortable temperature. The story is not based there but the idea of the underground home came from hearing about this.

 

The Possum (Short Story)

It’s dark and cold but that’s how I like it. It makes me feel safe to be able to snuggle up in blankets. I want to stay like that and never come out. I like the feel of cold air on my face, not so cold it makes my lungs hurt but cold enough to make my nose cold to the touch. I had always wanted to live underground. It means light doesn’t wake me up in the morning. I don’t have to wait for the sun to go down to go to bed. I can have my own schedule. Well it should depend on work too but I work from home so it doesn’t matter.

I stretch and reluctantly crawl out of bed. It’s tempting to stay there all day but I need to get up and put the shade cloths up over my garden. It’s going to be hot and I can’t let the sun fry everything. I pull on shorts and a t-shirt and step into thongs. Outside it’s already starting to heat up even though the suns barely up. I turn on the pump at the tap and connect the sprinklers. I let it run while I tie up the shade cloths. I check the tomatoes and beans and pick the handful of ripe ones. There is a snail on my cauliflower. I pick it up, drop it and stand on it. It makes a satisfying squelchy crunch. I turn off the water and go back inside.

The possum sits staring at me with wide frightened eyes. It’s the size of a big rat, it’s definitely a ringtail. I should have known better than to leave the door open even for that short time. I walk towards it slowly. I get within a meter of it before it bolts. It dashes around my house knocking books, glasses, paper, pictures and stationary onto the floor as it crosses the bench. I quickly shut the door that leads to the hallway connecting to the rest of my house. Now it is at least contained in one room. I open the door that leads outside. I try to chase it towards the door but it has other ideas. It’s on my bookshelf now knocking more books and pictures onto the floor. I make another grab for it but again it evades me.

I stop chasing it. It crams itself into the space above the books on the top shelf and sits staring down at me. I get the stool and place it in front of the shelves. Then I get a cardboard box and a wooden spoon and hop up on the stool. I manage to get it into the box with only a little prodding from the spoon. Then I quickly shut the box, hop down from the stool and carry it outside. I shut the door behind me before opening the box. The possum jumps out and runs up the nearest tree vanishing from sight.

I go back inside letting out a sigh of relief. The temporary chaos and excitement that invaded my house was gone. I could relax again.

This is a fictional short story. Here is the exergesis.

Waking Up With Wings (Short Story)

My alarm went off. I sent a hand out from the warm tangle of my sheets, across my desk to silence it. Then pulled it back in. Something felt wrong. There was extra weight on my back and my shoulders felt like they were being twisted. There was something tickling my skin under my t-shirt.

I groaned and sat up turning on my lamp. I reached around and scratched my back. That’s when I realised there were feathers and wings folded neatly under my t-shirt. My first thought was this is a cool dream. I got up and turned on the light.

I pulled the t-shirt over my head. Then I spread my wings. Controlling them was just as instinctive as moving my arms. I opened my cupboard door and my reflection stared back at me, framed by wings the same brown as my hair.

Cutting holes in the back of another t-shirt I pulled it on and managed to get the wings through without too much difficulty. The house was silent no one else was up yet, it was Saturday morning. I’d forgotten to turn my alarm off for the weekend. I slipped into the back yard.

I flapped my wings experimentally. Nothing happened, I tried again, harder. My toes left the ground. I took a run up and launched myself into the air. I was flying. I laughed this couldn’t be a dream it was too real. The cold air against my skin. The feeling of my beating wings.

I was getting higher with every stroke. I looked down the view was amazing. I had no intention of stopping but I was getting tired. Then an air current took me and I glided effortlessly. I floated, regaining my breath, only having to flap occasionally.

I looked down again, I had no idea where I was anymore. The wind was picking up. Suddenly I just wanted to go home. I tried to drop down but a huge gust of wind took me and swept me up. It was getting hard to breath. Then I blacked out.

I came to again plummeting towards the ground. I flapped desperately but it was no use I crashed into the ground and passed out again.

I opened my eyes, and was confronted with white. My head and arm were sore. I tried to sit up but was pushed gently but firmly back. I could still feel my wings under me. I looked around. I was in a hospital surrounded by curious faces, I didn’t recognise anyone.

Then a police officer arrived and shoed everyone out except one doctor. Then she turned to me.

‘What’s your name,’ she asked.

‘Felicity Windson,’ I said.

I could see she was dying to ask about the wings but was too polite to say anything just yet. I wished I had the answers. I also wished I could just go home but right now that seemed like it wouldn’t be happening for a while.

This is a fictional short story. Here is the exegesis.