Feb 12, 2014 Original Short Stories
Guitar
(See story prompt below my story)
©2014 Vijaya Sundaram
February 7th, 2014
Being a single mom isn’t bad, thought Swapna, riffling through the shirt-pile. I get to choose anything I want for Santosh. Luke can’t stop me. Luke, who had controlled her every move, and whom she missed, despite her relief when he had left her and their son.
Don’t remember!
She moved on to a Spiderman-themed sleeping bag. Santosh will be thrilled with this!
She approached the man at the garage door.
“This is great – your son must be too old for it now, huh? I don’t see a tag. How much is this?”
“Five,” he answered, turning to arrange something.
Inexplicably hurt, Swapna shook herself.
“Could I leave it here? I’m still looking,” she said.
“Sure,” he replied.
She moved around, found a red, unscratched Schwinn bicycle. Fifteen dollars! She wheeled it next to the sleeping bag.
The man was watching her. Watch away! she thought.
Then, she spotted the guitar, leaning against the garage door.
“You’re selling that Gibson?” she asked, incredulously.
“No, I changed my mind. That belonged … Are you done?” he asked.
Curious now, she turned to open her purse.
Movement near the window drew her attention. Someone had sat down near a photograph of a teenaged boy holding the Gibson.
Silently, Swapna handed over twenty dollars, wheeled the bicycle with sleeping bag on it, and stashed both in her trunk.
As she pulled away, she looked at the man. He had picked up the guitar, and was holding it tight.
Her throat closed.
(250 words of text, including my name, but nothing else.)
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Story Prompt for the final session with Michael Downing:
There are two principal characters: A buyer and a seller. The location is a yard, the property of the seller, where that person is having a yard sale, a garage sale, some sort of home sale. How the buyer found out is … not really important.
This is the story of a completed transaction. Among whatever else the seller has on offer at this sale, you must name three items: a bicycle of some kind (something that has wheels), a musical instrument or music-playing device, and a sleeping bag.
What you know about the seller is that recently, within the last year, a child of the seller’s died. This stuff the seller is selling belonged to the child.
The buyer and seller have never met, and know nothing of each other. Neither the seller nor anyone at the sale mentions the child, the death or the cause of death.
By the end of the story, your goal is that the readers understand the loss of the seller brings us to this moment.
Limitations:
Past tense
No more than 250 words.
Third person limited to the buyer. (the only omniscience belongs to the buyer – third person, however).
Tags: #Loss, #Original Short Story, Buying and Selling, Father and son, Garage Sale, Guitar, mother and son, Story Prompt by Michael Downing
Feb 12, 2014 Original Short Stories
Thanksgiving
(See story-prompt at the end of my story)
©2014 Vijaya Sundaram
January 31st, 2014
Rob and I are driving to Maynard, racing to get there in time for Thanksgiving supper with his folks, something I always dread, because I’m vegetarian and they’re not, and I’m complaining to him about this charade that happens every year, when I see that I’m driving straight at a man who is standing on the road, swaying, covered in blood, but I don’t know how to stop, when I hear a horrible thump, and someone flies into my windshield, his face in front of me, eyes wide open, mouth open, blood pouring from his head, and a scream is filling my car, but I don’t know whether it’s his, mine or Rob’s, for Rob is telling me to drive on, and I do so, screaming hysterically.
Three hours later, at the police station, after I’ve answered all the questions, confirmed the date on which I have to appear in court, being assured that I probably won’t be charged for a hit-and-run, I’m drinking a Styrofoam cup of hot coffee kindly offered to me by someone, and my heart is returning to its normal rate, even though I know it’ll never ever be the same again, because I just killed a man, for God’s sake, when Rob says in what he thinks is his joking voice, “Mother will be upset, you know. We’re always late, and now we’ll never be able to make it up to her.”
I think of the dead man and burst into tears.
_____________________________(250 words, including my name)____________________________
Here are the details of the prompt for this technical exercise:
TECHNICAL EXERCISE 2
The challenge is to write a two-part story.
Scenario:
Part I.
There are two people, a driver and a passenger, in a car moving along a dark road. It is very late at night or very early in the morning. The two people know each other rather well. They might be friends, blood relatives, romantic partners, or work colleagues.
The car hits something, and both people realize that the car hit a human being—and that person is dead.
The driver slows or stops the car.
The passenger persuades the driver not to get out of the car and to drive away from the scene of the accident.
Part II.
Part II begins at least a week after the accident, but as much time as a year may have passed since that night. Let the reader know how much time has passed.
The two people are together. Maybe they are still in a relationship, or maybe they are not. You have to establish where they are and why they are there.
Something happens—this might be as apparently insignificant as a gesture, a sound, or a spoken phrase, or it might be a more dramatic event—that reminds both of them of the accident.
Write the story. Assume your readers know nothing about the characters or their situation when you begin.
Limits
- No more than 250 words. Yes, that includes both parts I and II.
- Part I must be at least 125-words long. (Along with your name, please include the word counts for both parts I and II on your story.)
- Use first-person narration. Both parts of the story must be told by the same character, either the driver or the passenger.
- The narrator must use the present tense to tell both parts of the story.
- One more limit: Part I must be a single, perfect sentence—that is, the sentence must adhere to the conventions of standard grammar and syntax. And forget about semi-colons; they are not needed.
Tags: #Original Short Story, 250 word short story, Creative Writing Exercise, Flash Fiction, Michael Downing, Micro-Fiction, Thanksgiving