13 May 2017 – Writer’s Guild: Stolen Prompts

Prompts stolen from The Orange County Writers Guild:
1. The ocean is mighty
2. Opening the cabinet door I found a bowl of scrambled eggs
3. Just google it

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I finally got home – at about 7:30
the sun was just beginning to set over the Sullivan’s swing set, next door.

Lawn was too deep
weeds were higher than the porch. It was only Wednesday –
long time till I could mow and clean up the garden.

Grimacing, I opened the door – it smelled bad and it was cold inside the house, but
I ploughed my way through the dirty clothes and
the greasy, empty fried chicken buckets.
I was heading for the kitchen
I was hungry but something wasn’t right!

No dirty dishes.
The sink was clean.
The counter-top sparkled.
Hoping that I had been visited by the kitchen elf, I crossed my fingers
and opened the fridge.

Damn! Empty.

I let the door swing shut on its own volition and held my breath as I reached for the freezer door
maybe some ice cream?
A single ice cube was frozen to the bottom of the compartment. A jar of peanut butter stood proudly next to it.

Then it hit me;
there could be only one explanation. I scrambled to open cupboard doors where I found dust lying heavily around freshly washed melamine dishes. I found Mama Kitty in the cabinet below the sink – hmmm.
Finally the only cabinet left, the only one I had not looked in, was the short one above the fridge. Opening the cabinet door I found a bowl of scrambled eggs.

I knew it! Grandma was here and I found her cuddled up, in her sleeping bag
napping in the tub.

Smiling, I touched her shoulder and watched her eyes pop open,
“Grandma,” I said, “why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

“I wanted to surprise you, Todd. Doesn’t look like  Becka’s been around for a while. She leave you again?”

Grandma always called me Todd, even though my name was Ken.

“Yep, ‘fraid so.”

“I cleaned the kitchen.” She said, climbing out of her bedroll and stepping out of the tub, “You don’t have a lot of food…
We can go shopping and finish cleaning if you take tomorrow off to drive me
to the market and take care of the yard.”

“Yeah, let’s do that. How long can you stay Grandma?”

“Well, I think maybe a couple of days. I hear your cousin Connie might need me up there in Toronto. I hope it’s not snowing there already.”

“You hungry, Grandma? There’s a new Italian place on the West side
that’s supposed to be good. My treat.”

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The OC Writers Guild has a new book out.  An anthology.
Titled:
Vol. 1
BREVITY IN PARADISE

Get it on Amazon!