Below is a piece inspired by the prompt at Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers. The key elements were the photo below and a word range of 100-15o (+-25).
Photo from Pixabay.com
To Life – 136 words
The banging woke me.
I’d gotten used to the muffled cadence of voices in the shed, the shuffling of the cows moseying out to pasture, the puttering of the tractor tilling the south field. I’d learned to ignore the searing sun, the drizzling rain, the blankets of snow. After years of work, I’d settled into the ease of quiet retirement.
Then came the banging.
The hammer.
The wrench.
The pliers.
The twisting and yanking.
The loosening of parts seized with age.
The sloughing off of years of inactivity.
The coughing, wheezing, and sputtering.
Finally, the pulsing of fresh fluids, of black blood, and a spark.
And then the slow opening of my eyes from sleep.
“See, Pa, I told you I could bring that old heap back to life! Can I take it for a drive?”
Good one – I think this is my favourite of all the anthropomorphised cars!
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Thanks–I had no idea what to do with this photo. I couldn’t get those crazy eyes out of my head!
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My first time reading your blog, Amy. I think you did a great job with this prompt. Your descriptive style was engaging. I could feel the annoyance of the protagonist. I suppose there’s only so much noise anyone can tolerate. Well done.
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Thanks for the visit! Truthfully, I had no idea what to do with this picture, so I went with the car’s angle on the whole thing. Thinking cars are way out of my normal genre!
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This is wonderful, Amy! Your story is so full of descriptives that really pulls the reader in. I kept reading and wanting more!
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Thank you! These prompts definitely get me stretching those creative muscles.
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That’s good they stretch you! Your story is just wonderful!
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Great story. I wasn’t sure who was speaking until the end..I realized it was the car.
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Yes, I was trying to keep it sort of vague, but that always means a risk of confusion. Thanks for hanging in to read the end!
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It flowed nicely and kept you engaged until the end. 🙂
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I love the imagery this take on the prompt evokes. Great story.
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I love your story.
Glad it was a restoration process, bringing him out of retirement.
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Wow Amy! This is great! The first sentence, particularly the word ‘banging’ engrossed me and the way you described the whole scene, the sentence per sentence construction it is just AWESOME!
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Wonderful write. I loved how you made the car like a human coming to life. It was a great use of personification.
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Lovely personification. So the resurrected the old clunker.
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