Tattletale
It’s our last week of A-to-Z Blogging Challenge 100-word flash stories! Next Monday, April 30th, will be the last. I’m sort-of looking forward to seeing what “Z” prompts you throw at me at the weekend. But let’s see if I can make it through the week first! On Saturday, you all gave me a number of “T” prompts to choose from. I’m a little surprised no-one suggested “Tea”–maybe a bit too obvious for me? In the end, it was Dena Pawling‘s that captured my imagination. So here it is:
TATTLETALE
“Was that your Peter skulking out at midnight last night?” Tonya said, winding yarn around her crochet needle. Rose sniffed.
“Maybe so. Why?”
“He’s been hanging with the Parker boys, hasn’t he?”
The stitches in Rose’s knitting tightened.
“Maybe he has. Why?”
“Oh, don’t get all defensive. I’m just looking out …”
“Was it you called the police?”
Tonya eyed her crocheting. “Maybe.”
“It was, wasn’t it.” Rose’s needles clicked faster.
“I—I was just looking out…”
“That’s fine.” Rose smirked. “I’d hate to think Peter told the police about your special plants for no reason.”
Tonya dropped a stitch.
It’s all about U tomorrow! Let’s see what you can do with U. As usual, offer your prompt suggestions in the comments. 🙂
Oh well done. A brilliant twist!
Ideas for u! Oh dear this is taxing my brain😂!
Under my umbrella
Unicorns
Underage
Understudy
Up, up and away!
Thanks, Jane. Taxing your brain? You and me both!! 😉
Some great ideas for prompts. Thank U!
Cute story =)
Ukelele, USA, Udder, Universe, Umpteenth time, Up and down, Until we meet again, Ugh!. And it’s Utterly amazing how you can write so many flash stories, and so quickly!
Dena
https://denapawling.blogspot.com/
Oh, I’m soooo tempted to use “Ugh!” That could be… interesting. 🙂 Thanks for the suggestions, Dena. 🙂
Nice twist! Doesn’t pay to go snooping 🙂
Thank you, Claire. Yes, well, there’s looking out for your neighbor, and then there’s this…!
Oh, no, a dropped stitch! Subtle but clever.
U words…underwear (or the Aussie version, undies), umpire, usurp, undo
(I’ve been checking the “notify me of new comments via email” box, but I don’t get any. I used to get an email asking me to click through to accept the notification straight after, but I don’t get that anymore. Happening with other wordpress blogs as well. No idea why but it is driving me bonkers. I’m logged into wordpress as per usual… o_0)
Thanks, AJ. I was hoping someone would notice the role their yarn-work played in the story. It was a bit of an experiment in form. Notice the only dialog attribution in the whole story is at the very beginning: “Tonya said.” After that, you follow the dialog sequentially, with the knitting/crocheting giving you a sense of how each is reacting emotionally. It might even suggest tone of voice. A mini workshop on “showing not telling.” 🙂
Another good set of prompt suggestions. Thank U for that! I’m not sure why you’re having issues with WordPress notifications. Sounds like either a bug that needs fixing, or a change they’ve made but not made public..?
Excellent – especially the lesson in showing not telling.
A-Zing this year at:
FictionCanBeFun
Normally found at:
DebsDespatches