Prompt: The pharmacy — “Last name?” The pharmacy assistant’s voice popped the daydream in my ears and the cold, checkered tiled reality of the corner CVS materialized before me. “Last name?” She said. “Sorry,” I said. Forty minutes had passed in that line. It was late. I got off work at six, but wife forbid I don’t pick up the cuckoo pills on...
Prompt: Getting a job. — The moment I asked the question I wanted it back. “All a writer needs do,” Bossman said, “is write.” “Is that true?” I said. “I should know, shouldn’t I?” Bossman said. “I am a writer.” He displayed his yellowed teeth and leaned back in the red leather chair; his obese hands slid into the belly...
This prompt is going up late because I became wrapped up in writing it. It began as a simple prompt about a boy and fish. Prompt: A boy who couldn’t catch fish. — In a fishing village you’ve known your entire life, in a place that never existed, lived a child called Enuki. Like all sons of his village, Enuki was born to a fisherman. And like all sons of his village, on the...
“I am not an expert at anything,” Sally said. Ami swallowed a last mouthful of baby carrots and humus. Sally rearranged the beef on top of her noodles. Her forehead crunched together above her nose and she made low ‘hmm,’ ‘mmm,’ noises as she worked something over her lunch. Ami wiped his fingers without looking and tried to stand. “But if democracy is...
Prompt: The crow and the toad. Inspired by Aesop. — Caine brought in fresh cut wood, fastened into five-foot by five-foot crates. At the open end of the box, he fastened a tunnel of chicken wire that funneled into the belly of the box. He held three of the contraptions as he trudged past me across the watered dirt seed and into the corn. “Say Caine, old boy, what are you doing with...
Prompt: Put on a show. — “Lady and gentlewoman, I am John Myerston Vegali! Today, I will do the impossible. In the far-near-east lies a bear of pure gold, untouched by the hands of man. He is Kosmos, King of the Bears! So! I journeyed East with spear and strength alone; captured the beast, and now present him to you. I did not kill him you see. I had my spear point to his soft belly;...
Prompt: Into the darkness. — “You cannot go, because you will not survive,” the old man said. “I can’t stay, because I don’t live while she is down there,” Tom said. “She is dead my boy,” the old man said. “She ought to remain dead.” “She will not.” Tom said. “Oh, then you will break your oath?” “My oath was for a loving god. A benevolent god.” “Hell is not for mortals. You will be engulfed...
“Yup, yup,” Mul said. He slapped his leather saddlebags and bounced up and down. “Winds are good, I’m set, let’s do it!” “Ha, ha, you’re nuts kiddo,” Bront said. “Your buck doesn’t seem as willing.” It was true. Mul was an agile boy and doing a good job compensating for his buck’s jerks and kicks. Mul grabbed the saddle knob and dug his heels into the stirrups. “Naw,” he said. “He’s just born to...
Here is a prompt based on one of Aesop’s Fables. Enjoy! — Prompt: Fox and the grapes. — “Grapes …” Fox said. He lay with the soft patch of his belly tight against the thin powder of the cool earth; his legs splayed out behind him. Cicadas croaked. He panted as the noon sun bore into his fur. The grapes grew on a creeping vine, six feet up, on the branch of an old willow...