Esther Chilton

This week’s writing prompt is:

BEST DAY

What’s been the best day in your life? The day you got married? Gave birth to your first child? Perhaps it was gaining a degree, going on a special holiday, moving into your dream home, or the day you got the all-clear from cancer. You may have had many best days.

You don’t have to share your work, but I always enjoy seeing what you come up with if the prompt gives you inspiration. Your last prompt was TIME. Here are the pieces you shared:

Hugh Roberts:

Has Anyone Seen Felix?

Time! I never have enough of it. Do you?

I have so much to do today and need more time before my visitors arrive. They’ll be here anytime. I don’t know the exact time, but it’ll be today. The anticipation is killing me.

But at least I have everything I need to do those household jobs. I only cleaned the house last week, but it needs cleaning again before they arrive. I hate visitors coming to a dirty house, don’t you?

I’ll grab the mop with the frayed handle and start with the kitchen, scrubbing every corner, even the ones that don’t need it. Then, I’ll move on to the bathroom, ensuring it’s spotless without a speck of anything suspicious. I need enough time to ensure I get rid of any proof of my recent visitor. I had better check that the stairs carpet is also free of fluff and fur and give it a good vacuuming.

When the supermarket delivery driver arrived with all the cleaning products I’d ordered, he asked if I had a bad cold. ‘It’s not a cold, just an allergy to cat fur,’ I told him. ‘I didn’t know you had a cat,’ he replied, his eyes widening in surprise. ‘I don’t,’ I responded. He looked at me as if I were some mad person. But at least he was on time. ‘And why all the bleach?’ he asked. ‘It was on offer,’ I lied to him. ‘You know how it is; can’t resist a good deal,’ I added nervously. For a moment, I thought he was on to me.

87 minutes later

Phew! Where did the time go? I’m finally done. And just in the nick of time, because here come the visitors. Don’t they look smart in their uniforms? Just like they did last week when they visited. Right, I better answer the door. I can’t help but wonder if they’ve figured it out yet. They’ve had enough time. They look like they’re here for a friendly chat, but little do they know I’m onto them.

“Mr Kingston. We meet again.”

“Yes. I thought you’d be back. Is this the third time?

“The fourth. I’m Constable Summerfield, and this is my colleague Constable Jones—-“

“There’s no need to show me your identity cards; I know who you are; come on in.”

“We need to ask you more questions about the recent disappearances of the neighbourhood cats. This time, I intend not to waste any more police time than I have to. Is that bleach I can smell? Every time we come around, you seem to have just finished cleaning. I wish I had the time to keep my home as clean as yours. Now, about those missing cats…”

Kim Smyth:

We waste so much time today, compared to the years when men worked from sunup to sundown. How much time is wasted scrolling social media sites, for example? I’m guilty of time wasting myself, when I look at Pinterest, Facebook, or Instagram. So I try not to stay too long on anything like that. I realize we can’t all be busy every minute of each day, but can we keep from wasting so much time? I bet if we try.

The Bag Lady:

Jim Croce sang it best I think, “If I could put time in a bottle…” How many of us have wished that at one time? Or many? Personally I can think of many now, but a few months ago I was asked if I could relive one moment from my past what would it be? I answered none. That’s the mood I’ve been in the last few months. Not really a bad mood but not my usual funny self. I think my humor is drifting to the dark side…ooooo! 

Tessa Dean:

My daughter wanted to give her sons a good time, so she, her two sons, and I decided to go to the circus. Her youngest son was probably around two years old at the time.

We had to drive over to Philadelphia to the large center they had for programs like this. We found a spot to park, and after gathering what we needed to bring, we headed toward the entrance. A road encircled the parking lot, and it had a curb with a storm drain. That is no problem. We should walk around it rather than climb the deep drain. 

Well, no, that wasn’t going to happen. My youngest grandson started to freak out about the storm drain. I didn’t understand the problem yet. I thought about it as my daughter tried to convince her son to cross the street to the building’s entrance. He was crying and pointing at the storm drain. It finally dawned on me that he said,  “There is a clown down there, and he will get me.” He was afraid. He had recently watched the Stephen King movie It. The clown in that movie was bad. His mother had to stop letting him watch scary movies as he was at the age where they bother him now. He used to love watching them, and there wasn’t a problem, but not anymore. Stephen King brought a lot of things to life, and we couldn’t have him become terrified of everything he made a movie about. 

We tried to direct my grandson around the drain, but he was too close to it and wouldn’t budge. We finally moved down the road away from the center before he would allow us to cross the road. He couldn’t see the storm drain from where we crossed over. I was beginning to think we wouldn’t make it to the circus.

Finally, we made it inside, and the fun part came of finding our seats in this huge center. I had thought we would be walking around like you would if you went to a local circus. I wasn’t prepared to have a seat and I could only see the part of the circus that happened to be in front of our seats. We missed a lot including the magic of the magicians that were set up below us and on the other side of the center. We were up pretty high, allowing us to see more than those sitting below us, but we were still pretty far away. That was the last time that I attended a circus of any kind.

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