I hope your week is going well so far. Here’s your new story challenge:
Can you tell a story in 20 words? You must use the following words somewhere in the story:
- TICKET
- WIND
- BEAR
Last week’s prompt was a photo:
Here are your stories:
Railings and luggage on trolleys. Stacked luggage by a large white painted doorway.
Louise looked at the photo without understanding. What was this place? She had never seen anything like it before. She was a millennial and hadn’t left her town much, especially since the covid pandemic.
“What is it?” she asked Kurt.
“Oh, it’s an old station, you know, for steam trains. Don’t tell me you never saw a steam engine?”
“No, should I have done?”
“Well, it looks like there are gaps in the floor where the trains run on rails. But the fence rails would be in the way if you want to get in the train,” she said.
He scratched his head. What was this photo of…?
Both of them stared at the photo. It was old fashioned and printed on paper. They had no internet connection and so could not take a picture of it and do an image search.
Knowledge only includes what you know. If you haven’t learnt about something, how can you know what it is?
“I think we will have to find more information when we get home. Maybe we can visit it, if it’s close by?”
–
The Suitcase:
Another pile of suitcases faced Joe at the dockside. He had rented a little terrace after the war and lived there with his sister and baby.
Her life was ruined. She was not married. An outcast. Joe would never let Annie give the baby away. He was a lovely little boy named Bertie.
He turned to the job at hand.
Suddenly his eye caught an initial on one suitcase: A.K. Albert Kennerly. He thought he was dead. They were good friends and Joe had watched his friend fall as they went over the top that terrifying morning.
Joe, Albert and Annie had spent a leave together one hot summer during the war. Picnics on the beach, then back to the trenches. He shuddered.
Joe came home to find his sister pregnant. She told him the father was a boy from the village and she didn’t want anything to do with him.
Standing, looking at this suitcase, it dawned on Joe. It all fitted. Here was Albert, on his way to a new life. What a swine.
Maybe he wasn’t aware of the child. If he had, Joe could be on his way to the New World and Albert would be loading suitcases. Joe must find out before the ship sailed.
–
***
Esther Chilton 
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