Too, too easy to follow names and dates and potential relationships down enticing-looking holes, only to find the morning has ended and I’ve not done the things I intended to. So, thanking you yet again for participation and entertainment, I now offer three more prompt words for the coming week: free, nettle, refine. Entries by midnight Thursday June 6th.
Because I’ll be away from home and internet far from guaranteed, I’ll be scheduling new words for Friday June 7th, 14th and 21st, and my ability to either post or comment might be compromised.
Usual rules:
100 words maximum (excluding title) of flash fiction or poetry using all three
words in the genres of horror, fantasy, science fiction or noir. Serialised
fiction is, as always, welcome. All variants and uses of the words and stems
are fine.
Thresholds new [24]
ReplyDeleteNettled by Raven’s ever-present suspicion; having some idea of the circumstances whereby the cousins might’ve heard the history of my naming and knowing it unlikely to have been in any way refined I attempted to free them of blame.
‘It was given me by a person present at my birth?’
‘Aye.’
‘An east coast man?’
Raven began to dispute ‘Men do not attend – ‘ then, remembering the time he had, fell silent.
Wary, one cousin, ‘He …fought for your survival. Against fire, against water. Your name is both charm and reminder. Of what - and who - you owe.’
The Secret Armadillo Soldier (SAS) Diaries - entry 273
ReplyDeleteIt didn’t take long to widen and refine the hole.
Sarg inspected it critically as she moved freely between the space, ‘hmmm, needs a bit of shoring up still, but the others kin do that.
‘Let’s go take a look at these things you reported. They need to be sorted quick. Don’t need anyone gettin’ nettled or scare-jumpy cos this place’ll give yuh the frights wivout all that kinda stuff on show. An’ Aggie, I’ll do the digging and such. You got a couple o’ nice cuts right now and we don’t need anyfing nasty making you sick.’
Sarg's concern for Aggie is touching.
DeleteLovely, smooth use of the prompt words, and the story moves on.
ReplyDeleteFinally Free
ReplyDelete“Jeezum Martha, “What the Hell happened?”
Sheriff Wilkins bent closer to the body covered in small blisters
Martha stood rigid, her legs apart, hands on her hips and rolled her eyes.
“I ain’t never been no lady of refined ways, but that don’t give him no right to treat me like a farm animal……. It was time I set myself free. I killed the sumbitch, that’s what I did.”
“Caleb was indeed a mean one alright. But what did you do?”
“ Fed him a horse nettle salad. Didn’t work, so I pulled down the ten gauge and made sure.”
There's something truly delightful in that final sentence.
ReplyDeleteWell done, MRMacrum... such a fitting end for that scumbag Caleb.
Delete"Delightful" - Yeah, I like that. Thanks.
DeleteOOPS!
ReplyDeleteSea nettles produce a painful though not lethal sting – unless you’re assailed by scores of them. Tonight, the water teemed with nettles.
Made unconscious by a blow to her head, Anna Dobson lay slumped in the rowboat. Randy felt driven to near insanity by his wife’s incessant, carping behavior. His life needed refinement; it was time to be free of her.
But as Randy lifted Anna up, she struggled. She squirmed; she twisted; she thrashed fiercely about.
Caught off guard, it was Randy who toppled from the rowboat and into the writhing tentacles of the nettles.
Smiling broadly, Anna watched.
Nice to see Randy get his comeuppance.
DeleteWonder if they might have deserved each other. Question for another time.
Delete