“Okay, class, gather round,” the teaching assistant, Miss Fisch said. “Mrs. Goldie is going to read you a new book.”
All of the fish swam together and formed a circle. Their teacher, Mrs. Goldie situated herself in the middle of the circle and held up a new book.
“Listen up, Children,” Mrs. Goldie said. “I think you’re really going to enjoy this one.” All of the young fish blew bubbles in excitement.
Written for Cyranny’s One-Minute Fiction challenge.
Frank (aka PCGuy) and Di (aka Pensitivity101) alternate as hosts for Fibbing Friday, a silly little exercise where we are to write a post with our answers to the ten questions below. But as the title suggests, truth is not an option. The idea is to fib a little, a lot, tell whoppers, be inventive, silly, or even outrageous, in our responses. Today is Di’s turn to host and she wants to know…
1. What is rolling stock?
It’s a 30-can box of Rolling Rock beer.
2. What is a rolling deck?
It’s a portable deck on wheels that you can roll around to different locations in your backyard.
3. What is role play?
It’s when you dress up like a doctor and your significant other dresses up like a nurse and you operate on each other.
4. What is ‘on a roll’?
Butter and sometimes jam.
5. What does a rolling stone gather?
A lot if frustration for Sisyphus.
6. What is a rolling boil?
A boil under the skin that rolls around when you touch it.
7. What is a rolling pin?
A pin used to pop a rolling boil.
8. What is a steam roller?
A hair roller heated by steam.
9. What is a roller coaster?
A round coaster that you can roll and spin.
10. What is a roller skate?
A skate is cartilaginous fish that is part of the class Chondrichthyes, which also includes sharks, rays, and chimeras. A roller skate is a skate that has a tendency to roll over in the water from top to bottom while swimming.
Sisyphus cartoon from New Yorker.com.
“Do you have a pen or pencil I can use for my crossword puzzle?” Diane asked Jacob.
“Sure,” Jacob responded. “There should be a few pens in the drawer in the kitchen island. It’s the one directly across from the wall oven.”
“Thanks,” Diane said. She got up walked from the living room to the kitchen.
Last night she and her boyfriend had a huge fight at the party Jacob was hosting. Her boyfriend stormed out and Diane had then gotten too drunk to drive home from the party. Jacob felt bad for her and invited her to crash at his place. He showed her to his guest room, and she immediately passed out on the bed.
First thing this morning, Jacob came into the guest room carrying a steaming hot cup of coffee in one hand and a bottle of Advil in the other. Now, a few hours later, Diane was feeling a little better but still quite mortified. She called her roommate to pick her up and take her home, and figured she could kill time working on the morning newspaper’s crossword puzzle while waiting.
When she got to the kitchen, Diane went to the specified drawer, opened it up, and saw that it was full of stamps torn from envelopes. “I didn’t know you were a philatelist, Jacob.”
“A what?”
A philatelist,” Diane repeated. “A stamp collector.”
“I’m not a stamp collector,” Jacob said.
“If you’re not a collector, why do you have a drawer full of stamps torn from envelopes?” Diane asked.
“I am a collector, but not a collector of stamps,” Jacob said. “I couldn’t care less about stamps.”
“I don’t get it,” Diane said. “Then why are all these stamps in your drawer?”
“Because I collect postmarks,” Jacob said. “Stamps are just things people stick on envelopes, but postmarks tell you where and when the sender mailed them. And to me, that’s much more interesting than some stupid stamps.”
Written for KL Caley’s #writephoto prompt, where the theme is “stamps.” Photo credit: KL Caley.
Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of your earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.
How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Friday Flashback post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.
If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (the 26th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.
This was originally posted on November 26, 2017.
The percussive sound of a jackhammer tearing up the street outside of his bedroom woke Alex up from his deep slumber. He looked at the clock on his nightstand. It was 1:37 in the afternoon and Alex was only halfway through his daily afternoon nap.
He got out of his bed, put on his robe and slippers, and headed downstairs to the kitchen, where his granddaughter was preparing a snack for when her kids got home from school in about an hour. “Hi, Pop Pop,” she said cheerily. “You’re up early from your nap.”
“How can I nap with all that racket going on outside,” he said grumpily. “What are they doing out there?”
“The public works department is repairing some of the old sewer pipes in the area,” Andrea responded. “It’s supposed to take about a week.”
“That’s just great,” Alex grumbled. “Got any Advil? That damn jackhammering is giving me a splitting headache.”
“Sure,” Andrea said, opening up one of the kitchen cabinets where she kept some household medical supplies. “How many do you want?”
“Just give me the goddam bottle and a glass of water,” Alex snapped.
Andrea handed him the Advil bottle and a glass of cold water. “You know, Pop Pop,” she said, somewhat tentatively, “maybe you should go visit Adam this week until the street work is done. I can give him a call and have him come pick you up. It will be good for you to have a change of scenery and to spend some time with your grandson and his kids.”
“No way,” Alex said. “Those little rugrats of his are more annoying than that goddam jackhammer out there. And his wife is a shrew. Besides,” he added, “it’s a three hour drive out to his place in the middle of nowhere. And you know my back can’t handle three hours sitting in a goddam car.”
“Fine,” Andrea said, knowing that she was in for another wonderful week of constant complaining from her grandfather. She would have preferred the peace and quiet of the jackhammer.
Written for today’s one-word prompt, “percussive.”
Welcome to November 26, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).
Today’s word is “hollow.”
Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.
Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.
And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.
This, That, and the Other 