April 24, 2018 – Prompt – salt, light, hand, cover, water

It wasn’t long before her hand started to shiver, the water was ice cold and with the light going out it felt eerie and depressing all around.
“Where was Robert after all,” she wondered. She looked anxiously all around at the darkening sky.
“Will he make it safely over the icy bridge and come looking for me,” she wondered.
The car was a total wreck and her hand was turning numb and cold, stuck in the mangled, bent, metal of what was once a car door. Yes, her wrist was broken, crushed probably with the impact, as the car had skidded over the wet pavement and hit the rock on the side of the lake. It all seemed such a loss, and now the wave of darkness slowly crept over her consciousness as she fell asleep.

Tim Bhajjan

*****

The beach where I live has a wide sandy area. One day I took a walk in the morning sunlight, and something on the stretch ahead caught my eye. A section of cardboard laid on the ground near a grassy overhang. Wary some crab or jellyfish might be under it, I extended my hand and turned the covering away. Much to my surprise, I found a hill of salt. A trickle of water ran around the white grains from the runoff above.
Bending down, I looked at the mound closer and saw small black bugs depositing one salt grain at a time onto the salt hill.
This was most curious. So, I followed the trail of beetles up on the grassy ledge above me. There, someone had dumped a load of road salt on top of the bug’s home. They were busy removing the grains away from the entry to their tunnel.
This taught me a good lesson. That there is more intelligent life beneath our world.

(c)A.Nation2018

Nancy Nation

 

November 28, 2017 – Prompt – use Flee, Coffee and Tradition in your response

Flee, Coffee, Tradition

It is a good tradition to drink lots of coffee before attempting to flee from the bulls in Pamplona.

JL Lahey

*****

Cora’s tradition was to put salt in the coffee.
Not too many in the park liked that. It just wasn’t their thing.

Where it started was from Yuma’s water. Way before everyone decided, except for Cora, that desalted water was the “in” thing.

We all used to joke, “There was a process if you drank Yuma’s best outa the tap: first you go get the snippers, second find an indestructible tumbler, third open the faucet wide, fourth you let about five inches ooze out, more if you really liked the salt, fifth you snipped that off, and last you added distilled water and mixed vigorously.

Well that old joke didn’t go over well, and those who reacted unfavorably had to be ready to flee or face another tradition: a mild form of tar and feathering. Cora had frequently endured such festivities.

Afterward, she always replied to the inevitable question from someone in the mob, “What did you think of that?”

She’d retort, “Well except for the honor of the tar, feathers, and rail, I could have done without the ceremony!”

Cora still puts salt in her coffee, and that’s the way it comes for all guests at her home.

Donavin A. Leckenby