Hi all,
this is my last week of research before I get back into the next draft of my work in progress. I’m looking forward to it as writing feels slightly more like work than reading does.
Here’s another piece of writing prompt fiction. It turned out quite dark and there’s a swear word in it too so you might want to save it for later if you’re in a bad mood.
People streamed past. A grandmother in a pink t-shirt, dragging two girls bumped into him.
It was 5pm and stallholders had started to pack. The summer was still warm and heat emanated from the metal wall. His brother was inside waiting for him to come back.
Tell him.
His stomach clenched. Rob wouldn’t understand.
Tash was packing away her earphones, wrapping them around the stick from an ice-cream, packing the lot inside a knitted case. She started matching up knitting. Bags. Jumpers, scarves, hats. Multicoloured animals, mostly sea creatures. Her logo was an orange octopus with four sets of knitting needles in its eight legs. It wasn’t a cartoon, more like a tattoo. It gave Clive the creeps. She didn’t care. After this she was going to Uni, Industrial Design.
He had an aberrant thought: he could go to Uni too. Industrial Design. He shook himself out of it. He had never learned anything at school.
Nor outside it.
Tash was ignoring him. Knew he’d make a fuss.
She’d never forgive him.
The baby, Rob. It’s…
Tash stared at him for a moment then looked away. The octopus paused in its knitting. Did it matter whose it was? As long as she didn’t hang that creature over its crib and scare it senseless.
He walked over. “Tash.” He hated that name. “Natasha.” Tash put a dozen knitted pocket squares into a plastic bag.
Knitted pocket squares, for fuck’s sake. Industrial Design had no idea what was going to hit it.
“It’s not suitable for children. No octopus.” She looked at him. Looked down at him. It was easy to forget how tall she was.
“Too late.”
“You’ve told Rob?” He couldn’t believe it. “So…”
“Mr. Elbows didn’t want him. So don’t worry. And I’ve got Uni next month.”
Clive looked at the octopus, knitting.
The prompts were the picture at the top of the piece and the following words:
stream
rob
brother
learned
aberrant
ill
