It’s Thursday and time for your new story challenge. Can you tell a story in 73 words using the following words in it somewhere:
- EXCLUSIVE
- SWITCH
- RAVE
- LIP
- APOLOGY
- VERSE
- SWEATER
The previous challenge was to write a story in 52 words using the following five words in it somewhere:
- PIROUETTE
- COMIC
- EGG
- WRESTLER
- SYLLABLE
Here are your excellent stories:
At dawn, a wrestler practiced a pirouette, oddly graceful. His comic coach balanced an egg on a book, chanting each syllable. Laughter echoed. Balance, he learned, isn’t strength alone, but listening to rhythm, patience, and surprise, even when crowds expect thunder, afterward under lights, the mat felt softer, wiser, alive, somehow, again.
Unfortunate Choices
Peeking out through the stage curtains, the comic realized he would be pirouetting on eggshells as he wrestled with syllables sure to displease this audience of militant women. He wished he’d checked out who his audience would be before choosing his topic. “Barefoot and Pregnant” was not going to win applause tonight!
Eggstreme Wrestling: No Shell, No Mercy
In the wrestling ring, burly wrestler Hulk Eggman pirouetted gracefully, dodging foes. Fans roared! But mid-spin, he slipped on giant comic book egg – splat! Yolk everywhere. “That’s one syllable I won’t forget: OUCH!” he bellowed, cracking up the crowd in hilarious defeat.
Broken Promise
The egg did a pirouette then dropped to the floor. Her rant, more profane than a pinned wrestler’s, would have been comical if every syllable wasn’t foreign to the sweet old woman. She was terribly frightened and addled by the scarcity of groceries. She wished she’d understood socialism actually meant “equally hungry”.
Joe was not your ordinary wrestler, he loved ballet. Having a body shaped like an egg, it was difficult to aspire to that profession. Almost a comic sight secretly practicing one pirouette after another, his body shape helped achieve them. No one seemed to deduce possibly ballet interpreted symbol on his uniform.
The wrestler held an egg in one hand and a stand-up comic under his arm while doing a pirouette and reciting a seventeen syllable haiku. No one clapped.
At dawn, a comic wrestler practiced in the gym. Each pirouette became an inside joke and every move a new syllable in his silent language. He broke his fast with a single egg, reflecting on the absurdity of grace and strength. That morning, laughter and muscle danced together, rewriting what was possible.
Wrestlers of the 1970s were such characters: Big Daddy with his egg-shaped head and Nappy costume; Giant Haystacks with his Comic Cave-Man schtick; and the alliterative Polly-Syllable-Seasick-Steve who pirouetted, perambulating precociously, way before his time.
Twenty minutes or so on the canvas, and none of them looked like a work of art.
Susan Batten:
“At the summer Wordquest Fest, we were entertained by jugglers, fire-eaters etc… After the talk on “Gendre”, an egg-wrestler put on a show with pirouettes for comic relief before we tackled the serious stuff in “Syllable”.
I saw the prompt and began to ponder my response.
No common syllable rhythm hit me, but my mind began working overtime with a variety of ideas.
The best was a comic image of a wrestler doing a pirouette in a purple tutu whilst trying to fry an egg in a pan.
Murray Clarke:
Although pink flamingos often stand on one leg, and lay one large egg every year, they cannot pirouette like a ballet dancer in Swan Lake. Another interesting fact: A sumo wrestler can also stand on one leg, read a comic, and talk incessantly in words of one syllable like: dog and cat.
Macho Man Randy Savage became famous as a wrestler. After that he tried his hand as a comic until the night he did a pirouette on stage, twisting his ankle and screaming out two one syllable words in pain. For the next week Elizabeth made his breakfast every day, a raw egg.
At dawn, the wrestler practiced a pirouette, surprisingly comic, on the pier. He balanced an egg on his palm, whispering each syllable like a spell. When gulls laughed, he bowed anyway, proving grace can bloom inside brute routines, even before breakfast and bruises fade today beneath clouds, courage hummed softly within him.
His documents state his profession as “comic wrestler”. What it means is that he performs in pink tights and a tutu between the professional wrestling bouts. He pirouettes on stage, then screams a single syllable, something like “Knoutsh!” or “Brang!”, and ends up with egg on his face. Dada is anarmadillo!
Nicola Daly:
Sidney Syllable read his comic while he tucked into an egg sandwich. His favourite story was the one about Ringo the Sumo Wrestler who fell in love with a ballerina. Afterwards he went to practise his pirouettes. If Ringo could woo a ballerina by learning how to pirouette, then so could he!
Pirouette for me, said the artist, I want to add a super ballerina character to my fantasy comic. She will be up against the egg a wrestler with a name of one syllable. She danced a fandango instead and he was so impressed that he started work immediately. Rave reviews soon followed…
The hefty wrestler came bursting into the diner. He bellowed one syllable to Midge, the little waitress, “Egg!” All the other diners were staring, some getting up to oust this beast. Midge just giggled, giving him a wink and a comical grin. “Dance,” she said. He twirled a perfect pirouette and bowed.
Thrift-A-Palooza
On a whim, I went to Thrift-A-Palooza to see what treasures I would find. I was so engrossed in the thought that I did a pirouette before entering the store. I saw many items; a Faberge egg, an 80s wrestler comic, and a guide book on syllables. Or does it say, syllabus?
The wrestler downed his glass of liquid egg while reading a comic in the Saturday Evening Post. He got his protein by drinking raw eggs and eating a carnivore diet. Tonight, he would be in the ring with a woman. It will be interesting to see who will pirouette first! Not him!
Laughed Off Stage
The wrestler changed career paths and became a stand up comedian. When he wasn’t funny, someone threw an egg at him. In a frenzy to utter his next syllable, he twirled himself into a pirouette and split his pants! The audience roared. Too late, the heartbroken would-be comic made the people laugh.
Broadway critic, A. Syllable was brutal in his review of The Pirouette at Wrestler Lane.
“Everyone involved has egg on their faces for their effort in making a murder mystery into a musical about a standup comic and a troupe of aging dancers. This one gets a firm single syllable rating — Flop!”
He dreaded hearing the one syllable command from the ring master.
Turn, Turn, Turn.
Hercules had been employed as a comic wrestler in the circus ,but to earn more money he was made to dress up in a pink tutu outfit and balance on an egg shaped ball and perform several pirouettes.
Squirreljan:
“How many syllables does it take to make a pirouette?” The comic twirled around three times. “Three, get it, ha ha.” He ducked as the eggs flew at him.
Later that night he flexed his muscles in the shower, washing the debris off. “Mum was right. I should have been a wrestler.”
The Arabesque Annihilator – at the Gym
At the gym, the flamboyant wrestler tried a pirouette balancing an egg on his nose. It fell, he swore. The coach, reading a comic, barked, ‘One more expletive syllable and you’re out!’
Started, he leapt in the air – producing the greatest grand jete his fellow wrestlers had ever seen – and got a standing ovation!
The Comic
Detective Torrez watched as a comedian known as the wrestler completed a comic set with a pirouette on the stage, the crowd roaring with laughter. A red‑faced waitress tugged her sleeve, whispering a single syllable in her ear that cracked the case wide as an egg.
the comic wrestler
is a not a serious nestler
as they piroutte
the audience no greek chorus
eggs him them on
with multi syllables
of pin up and pin him
end it
and the champion
will go the what is left
of the white house
on july four for number two hundred and fifty!
***
Esther Chilton 
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