The Absurdly Short Story Challenge

The Absurdly Short Story Challenge Sometimes we forget to use all of the specified words, or we write more sentences than we planned to, but that’s ok! And once in a while we’re extra challenging, by providing a beginning to the story.

(Like the first one below.)

To the following unfolding story, please add a few sentences which include the word and two phrases that are listed.

I was on the London underground during rush hour. This was not a pleasant experience for a timid person such as myself. cheetah not funny in the least a feathered hat Proposed by Carrie

By Maria-Elena The subway train was packed with people standing and holding to the bars like cheetahs, with sad eyes above the masks. The silence was overbearing, broken by deep, random sighs, and made me think the journey was not funny in the least.

Yet, all of the sudden a feathered movement on top of the other hatted heads made me smile. How wild was that: a feathered hat!

By Carrie My friend was hugely amused when she saw a cheetah charging towards me in the millinery department. However, for me, it was not funny in least. Just because this wild animal was wearing a feathered hat, the experience of being smooched by it was no less terrifying.

I forgot to include the part about rush hour!

By Anna In her white shimmering silk dress, wild flowers entwined in her ringlets, carrying a deep pink protea bouquet, her gentle presence was a quite an unsettling contrast to Byron, her ring bearer, the cheetah she had rescued from the veldt and hand reared.

Attempting to concentrate on the beauty of the bride and the declarations of love was broken abruptly by an “aaaachhoooo” from the middle of the congregation to which Byron countered with a hearty roar – everyone laughed but I thought it was not funny in the least. >>

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I said as much to the adjacent guest, who was in Zulu traditional dress and he, in agreement turned towards a chuckling lady in a feathered hat who must have thought he was another cheetah and she fainted on the spot!

Please use the following words: Penguin Star Mobile Rock Proposed by Carrie

By Prana Mr Penguin sat on an Antarctic rock outcropping, hopeful. Almost completely im-mobile, studiously gazing into his night's sky. Star Light, Star Bright would he have his wish tonight?

By Michelle Gwyn unwrapped yet another beautiful cuddly penguin and prepared to take the obligatory selfie plus fluffy picture on his mobile for the band’s fan Twitter feed.

Short in stature, and favouring a dinner suit and white shirt over the more traditional stage attire of the genre, Gwyn was an unlikely rock star.

Who was it, he wondered, that first came up with the nickname, penguin?

By Maria-Elena It was the North Star that was gazing above the frozen polar ocean and a penguin was gazing alone from the top of a rock down to the frozen , silver snowed ocean, when the others were well asleep. He alone was watching or dreaming? We will never know as that was all it was on my mobile video. Or was I dreaming?

By Carrie The just-born penguin peered up into the velvet black. She saw only one little star. The tiny spark had seemed still - but now it became mobile! It swept downward at great speed, landing just four flippersteps away on the same rock, a gift for the new baby.

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Please use the following words: Water Glass Tree Sky Proposed by Michelle

By Prana I sat under the elm tree by the lake's shore. Watching the pink sunset unfold it’s story in the mirror glass water. Sky above its own reflection parading towards heaven.

By Maria-Elena I look through my window at the grey, wind gashing sky, And I hold in my hand a water can, and forgotten why, Amazed by a Serbian Spruce waving, And thinking 'what a tree swaying!

By Aud The sky cried tears of glass as the last tree was severed from the bosom of Mother Earth

By Michelle Jamal had always loved the sea.

He tries not to think now of those blue sky days, when he and his brother paddled in the warm waters of the Med and that magical day, on the glass bottomed boat, with their parents.

Now Jamal is the parent; cradling his beautiful little Karam and praying he really did buy the best lifevest funds would permit.

Tired as he is, Jamal allows himself a brief moment to close his eyes to the endless water around them and picture Karam, safe, at last, asking, “Daddy, can I climb the tree?’.

By Anna In her special place, she saw the flash of blue as a kingfisher darted over the afternoon sun-kissed water, running, trickling over stones like molten glass, slip sliding before it hardens into clear droplets, echoing the shape of her tears.

The light shifted, settling on her tree, capturing the poignancy of the amber tears of resin weeping, dripping from the venerable trunk. Her tree, who knew all of the pain she was unable to show for fear

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of hurting others, supported her spine, nature to nature, gnarled trunk to gnarled back as she slid to the damp earth.

Gazing upward, through the branches, the windows to the sky, she wondered what the landscape would look like if human tears solidified as does glass or resin.

By Andrea There under the sky of rich blue. The young man walked listlessly by the water As if in pain he sat down with his back against the old oak tree. Suddenly something made him stand alert with eyes as clear as glass he beheld the sight of his eldest son

By Carrie The sky is making ice to sweep across the land. How lovely to sit under this tree while tiny sculptures kiss my cheeks. Softly sharp like gently broken glass. Magicked from frozen water.

Please use the following words: Phone Road Diving Proposed by Prana

By Maria-Elena You should not talk on the phone when you're driving, even hands free, you could crash in a tree, or if on a coast road you could have a spectacular car diving

By Anna “What do you want now?” she shouted impatiently as the phone rang for the fourth time in succession.

“No, I am not being rude at all, I am walking down the road, minding my own business and this is the fourth time you have called me!” she exclaimed.

“I am telling you I haven’t had an accident” and with that, she tripped and found herself diving headfirst onto the pavement wondering if the caller was indeed psychic.

By Prana "I'm lost", I say on my phone, diving onto Old Totnes Road. That's not a typo. Lol.

By Carrie The phone rang at 5am and a voice demanded: “Get dressed and meet me at Castle Road.”

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“Oh not again,” I replied. “Diving into the River Dart in February, just so we can get a better view of those turrets, is not a thing I’m willing to do twice.”

Please use the following words: In the wild My heart No certainty Proposed by Carrie

By Anna Exhausted from the climb up to the summit of the hill, I tried to catch my breath while stood bracing myself in the wild wind of the Simonside Hills; hair blown, cheeks rosy from the freezing curling swirling of the cutting North squall.

Thinking I had regained composure, I sensed the familiar churning, rumbling, gurgling, rising from the pit of my stomach, coursing through my body before the primeval scream of my heart escaped, scattering its fragmented shards into the gale.

Time froze, for how long I don’t know but ultimately birdsong floated in and out on the wings of the wind and I breathed, long deep breaths and reminded myself that there is no certainty of when and where it will happen next – but it surely will.

Please use the following words: Velvet Whisper Glow Proposed by Aud

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