Welcome to your new story challenge:
Can you tell a story in 28 words using the following words in it somewhere:
- EAVESDROP
- SPACE
- BURGER
Last week’s challenge was to write a story in 41 words using the following words in it somewhere:
- BALLOON
- FANCY
- TRANCE
- SATCHEL
- MONKEY
Here are your highly amusing stories:
Gibraltar. Can’t stand the place. An English Spain? Don’t make me laugh. The last time I went this old woman put me in a trance with some fancy-worded spell. Then some monkey stole my satchel and floated away with a balloon.
Nicola Daly:
‘Fancy a sweet? They fell out of Billy’s satchel when he was monkeying around.’
‘Always-in-a-trance Billy? Go on. Mmmmmmmmmmm ooooooooooh. Look at meeeee! I’m a ballooooooon floating hiiiiiiigh in the skyyyyyyyyy. Can’t stop-p-p-p-p. I might pop-p-p-p!’
‘NO! YOU’RE LIVE ON AIR!
At the Balloon Fancyers (sic) AGM the AC/DC tribute band at half-time were really authentic, making a grand entrance – with Angus in his schoolboy outfit and satchel – the highlights being, ‘Hell’s Bells’, ‘Thunderstruck’, and a Foo Fighters ‘Monkey Wrench’ cover.
Kate in Cornwall:
“Just relax…you’re slipping into a trance…you’re imagining your boss, that monkey on your shoulder, in a bag – nothing fancy, perhaps a satchel – being tied to a balloon and floating away…away…and…WAKE UP! That’ll be 500 dollars, please.”
At a fancy jungle fair, a monkey in a trance clutched a satchel full of peanuts. A red balloon floated above him. Suddenly, it popped—he snapped awake, shrieked, and vanished into the trees, peanuts trailing behind.
Hypnotist’s Monkey
George learned to hypnotize and he was adept.
At a fancy party, George’s victim, Evan, was soon in a trance. “You are a monkey with a balloon in your satchel,” he ordered Evan.
Evan smiled, unfazed, “Took the same class, mate!”
Pete:
With my monkey brain in full trance mode I was oblivious to my surroundings. The guru opened a fancy carpet bag satchel, pulled a huge party balloon out with one hand, and a sharp ominous hat pin with the other.
POP!
I believed it was a fancy dress party so went as a monkey.
I had a bottle in my satchel, wore a balloon as a tail but feigned a trance when I realised it was not that kind of ‘fancy dress.’
Party! Party! Fancy dance
Balloons aloft, you strut and prance
Feelings stirring in your pants
Awakened from a midlife trance
Getting monkey off your back
Dropping satchel like a sack
Putting love-life back on track
(Hoping you’ve still got the knack)
Murray Clarke:
A good friend of mine told me about the time he went to the zoo and saw a monkey walking in a trance, with a face like a balloon – sorry, baboon, carrying a satchel full of roasted nuts. Fancy that, eh!
I drove to Napa Valley to the annual hot air balloon festival. Dozens of fancy hot air balloons were floating in the air. I must have been in a trance watching them because a monkey suddenly appeared and stole my satchel.
A ride in a fancy balloon was all he could fancy when in the hypnotic trance. Then he discovered that Satchel Page made a monkey out of him over such nonsense. He and Satchel are no longer speaking.
They tell you at the zoo, to beware of the monkey who thinks himself so fancy that he appears to be in a trance carrying his diamond studded banana satchel. When you aren’t looking, he bombs you with a water balloon!
The Town Council was hosting a fancy balloon show to raise money for the town hall’s repairs. They also featured a monkey who followed directions while in a trance. Marco used the monkey to hand out the flyers in his satchel.
The blue balloon floated up into the sky. A toy monkey attached to the string. I’d taken it out of my satchel on the way to school. I fancied myself as an astronaut, in the trance of a daydream, now realised.
Before their hot air balloon took off, a fancy car swerved towards them, chased by what looked like a monkey on a motorcycle. As if in trance they watched as the monkey took bananas from its satchel and started throwing them.
–
Her uncle, a robber turned ring master, had left her a fancy satchel full of photos: Him holding balloons with monkey faces. Like in a trance she suddenly understood: Mon key, my key. The booty was hidden in the monkey caravan!
Penelope’s Day Out
In town center, Penelope the monkey sashayed in a fancy dress, her satchel stuffed with treats. A bouquet of balloons held her in a trance—until one popped! She shrieked, slipped, and scattered sweets, sending pigeons into a frenzy.
Moonlight Magic
Entranced by the magic
of the harvest moon,
We met a carpetbagger
upon a seaside dune.
From his fancy satchel
he extracted a balloon.
Then to piping music
of a loud bassoon,
appeared the strangest monkey—
in truth? A big baboon.
High-flyer
A monkey, carrying a fancy satchel on high in hot-air balloon, crazily waving tiny bananas. Passers-by stared up as if in a trance as the cheeky primate offered his snacks – “Who needs gravity?” he laughed, “I’m above all that!”
Sanny M:
A monkey in a hot air balloon?
No-one would stand a chance
The vision had come so soon
Before they put her in a trance
She’d found her fancy satchel that day
And the plans of the monkey takeover
She had to stop it come what may
But maybe once she was sober
Monkey Business
“Monkey balloons for sale!” yelled the guy in the park. Pulling his cart over, he took out a satchel full of balloon shapes, and inflated a monkey one. His fancy hand moves put me in a trance, so I bought it.
The balloon escaped and went up, up, up! “No one’s gonna hold me down!” “Fancy that!” Said the lil ‘ol lady as she stared in a trance. Suddenly, from her satchel, poked out her tiny pet monkey reaching for the balloon.
Fanny in a fancy fairy dress twirled in a trance in the ballroom dance with her partner in a monkey costume. They twirled around a giant ghostly balloon. The balloon popped and snatched her partner into the satchel in the center.
I attended the “fancy” party as Indiana Jones, with a satchel of rocks and a monkey with a balloon of Harrison Ford tied to its wrist. As in a trance, I realized too late that it was not a “fancy-dress” party.
Be Hopeful
Paula dried her eyes and pulled Sock Monkey Steve out of her fancy satchel to calm her nerves. After going into a trance during her date with Mike, she left feeling calmer. A balloon floated by with the words be hopeful.
“This fancy story unfolds in a trance, with me imagining a monkey holding a satchel of bananas and a blow dart in his hands. He will snack on his favorite treat while waiting to pop the vendor’s balloon at the zoo.”
Squirreljan:
“Do yer fancy a balloon ride?” Monkey Masters interrupted my boredom trance.
“Yeah, why not.” I grabbed my satchel. “Do you think they will let us?”
“Nope, but who cares.”
Ever been sick on a teacher from a balloon? – I have.
A deflated balloon from long ago resides inside the worn leather satchel, along with another big top memory. A playbill showing a monkey dancing in an imaginary trance, on the back of a horse adorned with fancy ribbons in its mane.
Carnival
I’d arrived. The carnival was a trance: laughter, clatter, ringing, fancy lights. My inner child begged to grab a balloon and vanish into crowds… but I had business. I reached into my satchel — a monkey was there chewing the pages. Dammit!
One day a magical hot air balloon appeared in the town square. A tuxedo-clad monkey hopped out of the magician’s satchel and started doing some fancy juggling. The delighted children danced happily while their parents stared as if in a trance.
The ad read, “Hypnosis in three easy steps.”
Aha! Her solution to what her boss had in his fancy satchel. Not papers – it contained something bulky.
Four weeks later, she sent him into a trance. She opened the satchel to find – skinny balloons twisted into monkey forms.
***
Esther Chilton 
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