Two for One - A Writerly Afternoon

My writer’s group met yesterday to read out our assigned topics for October and to participate in a writing exercise just before nibbles and coffee or tea. Our topic - write a tiny story following the guidelines from the Greater Victoria Public Library contest guidelines. As it turned out the attendance for the afternoon’s writer’s group was also tiny as three of our members had conflicting engagements. But we soldiered on anyway. 

One of our ‘away’ members emailed her story to us. By the way, a Tiny Story is to be 420 only - that includes letters, spaces and punctuation! It really works out to about 140 words. We each read out our Tiny Stories. Because the readings were short and sweet, we had lots of visiting time. Here is my contribution:

A Love Story

Richard struggled to push her wheelchair across bumpy grass. Astrid looked up at him with a love reserved for the movies. Their ages were as mismatched as the misshapen clothes on their backs. When his illness became terminal, shelters and workers were her life line to his hospital bed. His death was her great tragedy. A great love transcended the cold ground, wheelchairs, hospital beds and their longing for a home. 

*****

Then it was on to our writing exercise. Our host fanned out a selection of folded papers. We were to choose one and not to show it to anyone else. Each page contained a picture and a line beneath with questions to be answered. Our host had chosen them from the many online writing prompts. I was definitely curious about what and how I would be able to write anything for 10 minutes. I actually only managed nine minutes - and on my iPhone. My questions were:  'It's the morning of her first day of school. What's going on? What does it mean?'

Challenged

I’m not really scared. You’re awfully big and I know I should be but you look like you’re half asleep! How can I be scared when you’re not even awake? Would you like some breakfast? You would have to get up because you’re walking me to school. Did you forget? This is my first day at school and I want everyone to see that I am not afraid of you and that you are beautiful. I will introduce you to all my new friends and to my teacher so they all know that I have a wonderful strong and gentle friend that will be with me every day. Well, most days, unless you stay in bed and sleep. But you really need to wait to sleep until Saturday or Sunday when school is out. Then I’ll let you stay in bed.

“The scariest moment is always just before you start.”

~ Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft