Jillian Chantal

As I’m not really working on anything big until NaNoWriMo starts on November 1st, I decided to write a Thanksgiving short story to keep me on my toes and on my daily writing schedule. This will be the story for the next couple of weeks for the Tuesday Tales posts. This week’s word is RAILING.
Be sure to check out the other tales here.

Molly tied the last of the burnt-orange colored ribbon to the railing with a tight square knot. Thanksgiving was the next day and she hadn’t had time to bring out her decorative turkey and cover the columns and rail across her front veranda until this chilly Wednesday evening. She’d been out of town until that morning and even though she needed to be cooking, deep in her soul, she really desired to have her traditional decorations up so she could sit out on the porch and enjoy them.

The five-foot tall turkey was made of wood and each of the slats representing feathers behind its circular body were painted different colors to make for a festive tail for old Tom. Molly and her father made the bird when she was in high school and named him Thomas which she didn’t think was very clever so, in her mind, she always called it Frank. When she moved out of her parents’ house after college, her dad insisted she take the thing with her. It was a piece of home and she loved that critter.

She smiled at the back of the turkey seated in her yard and shivered as a shadowy figure passed in front of it. Clasping her hands around her bare arms and wishing she had her sweater, she called out, “Who’s there?”

“It’s Chip. Chip French.”

Her stomach leapt to her throat. Chip French? She hadn’t seen him in ages. He’d moved to Louisiana when they were in eleventh grade and even though he came back to town to see his grandparents from time to time, she was rarely home when he did. She reckoned she’d last seen him freshman year of college.

I wrote a 1500 or so Young Adult short story for this week’s word prompt of EVERGREEN. The sentence came to me when I read the prompt but I didn’t have a story to put it in so I made one. It’s only going to be a short story and I’ll share the whole thing later in the month. Here’s the link to the other stories.

The girl kept swinging as he approached the set of six swings hanging from the tall metal frame. He glanced around the park. They were the only people in the vicinity. Thornton stood beside the metal bar closest to the swing she was in and shading his eyes from the sun that was now a bit higher in the sky and blocking his view, he tried to get a good look at her. She seemed to have on the same skirt she’d worn the week before and it fluttered and snapped in the crisp October air.

She appeared to notice him and slowed the pumping action of her legs to allow the swing to come to a stop.

As soon as the swing was still, Thornton approached her. She smiled at his out-stretched hand. “I’m Thornton Flannery. I saw you last week—”

She paled and shook her head.

“It’s all right. I don’t want to hurt you.”

She seemed so scared, he wanted to comfort her and let her know that he meant her no harm. He pulled out the package of gum and holding it out to her said, “Evergreen”—he smiled at his own nervousness—“I mean wintergreen—gum?”

She shook her head again and shuffled her feet in the dirt.

Concerned that maybe she was mute and unable to speak to him, he asked, “Can I help you communicate? Can you understand me?”

The girl’s smile was sad but she still didn’t say a word.