PACKING - a story in 100 words

Rochelle, the seemingly tireless leader of Friday Fictioneers is relaxing for the summer weeks by posting previously used photo prompts on her blog.  https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/ This photo taken by Douglas M MacIlray is the first picture for which I have already written a story, but you're not getting that - for one thing I can't remember what I wrote before!

Besides, the new story below is more topical, as my daughter and son-in-law are in the throes of packing to move from Tenerife to Northern Ireland. This story is for them. 

PACKING

Mandy was emptying the top of the wardrobe when something coiled around her wrist. Startled, she yanked her hand back, but it was only a flex.

“Alan! I’ve found that drill!” she yelled and tugged at the flex. The drill shot free suddenly and just missed Mandy’s shoulder, pulling her off balance. Instinctively she clutched the nearest shelf and toppled backwards with the wardrobe on top of her. Unhurt but smothered by clothes, she yelled again. “Alan! I need help!”

But Alan had found another forgotten treasure, and it’s impossible to hear anything with your head inside a diving helmet.

UNCHARTED WATERS - Friday Fictioneers

Friday Fictioneers is a world-wide online group of authors who write 100-word stories each week prompted by a photo posted by Rochelle - http://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/  You can follow the link on her blog to read the other stories. 

This is my offering for this week - please feel free to browse and read my other posts.

UNCHARTED WATERS

Dan took risks every day, diving on wrecks for sunken treasure, but the day he took the helmet round to show his sister he faced a hitherto unknown challenge.

Not that he knew that when he said blithely, “Sure – I’ll babysit.”

Dan was like a kid himself, building a camp with the furniture, but when he came face to striped tights with Polly’s rear end he recoiled in horror. Not even the sudden appearance of a giant squid had terrified him as much.

He grabbed the helmet. Valuable antique or not, it was the only way to deal with a smelly nappy.

E FOR BRICK

As in A for ‘orses, B for mutton, C for yourself, Dee-fer- ential.

This is my attempt to apologise for yesterday’s Dismal blog. In my Defence I had spent an hour in the Dentist’s chair while he took a hammer and chisel to a temporary crown. He smiled and said “Demaciado bueno” (too good) – I presume he meant his glue!

Be that as it may, a light-hearted topic for E ELUDES me. E is the most used letter in the alphabet – EVEN my name, ELIZABETH, starts with an E - yet my mind is EMPTY of inspiration.

Today is the first of the EASTER holy days – Jueves Santo - no humour in that.

Then there’s EMBEZZLEMENT – a lot of that in local government here - EVEN less humorous.

Or ENERGY. I’m all in favour of the renewable kind, just lacking in any myself.

There’s been ENOUGH talk about the EURO without me adding my EIGHT-cents’ worth, and I’m sure you don’t want to hear about the time I got stuck in an ELEVATOR.

Ah – got it – ENTROPY. That wonderful musical duo Flanders and Swann (remember "Mud, mud, glorious mud"?) summed up the First Law of Thermodynamics in these words; “Heat don’t pass from a cooler to a hotter/ You can try it if you like but you’d far better notter.”

Definition No3 of Entropy in my Collins goes thus; “Lack of pattern or organization: disorder.” EXACTLY – my brain in a nutshell.

Meanwhile I’d better EXPLAIN my illuminated letter E. The island of EL HIERRO has quietened down after all the EXCITEMENT of the past few months. For those of you who are new to my blog, you might like to read my El Hierro page which I started last October, when the undersea volcano first made its presence felt.

I mention it again now because, although no longer front page news, the ECONOMY of the island is still reeling from the impact of the ERUPTION, and if you fancy an away-from-it-all holiday, you could do worse than ESCAPE to an island you can drive round in half a day.http://www.turismodecanarias.com/canary-islands-spain/tourism-office/el-hierro-island/

ESCAPING from the crowds to an isolated beach can be EXTRAORDINARILY difficult. These two ELDERLY EXPATS only found this little place last year, when our son and girlfriend came out determined to snorkel with turtles. A diver friend of ours said “Go to EL PUERTITO,” so we did.

EASY to find it is not and the road down the barranco twists like an EEL. There’s only one bar which charges EXTORTIONATE prices – ESPECIALLY if you’re obviously an EXTRANJERO – but the bay is EXQUISITE, there's a sandy beach, the houses pile on top of each other like a child’s toppled brick tower, and our young couple actually stroked a turtle. One word sums up their reaction – ECSTATIC!