Day 281 Writing Short Stories

Lace

The dampness of the cellar made her cough. It came as a fit, and traveled through her body, making her double over to the lace she was sewing. She hurried back to work, seeing the supervisor looking at her. It was Mrs. Illes from the neighborhood. She was a ruthless woman. She got her share of all the laces finished.

Her mother glanced at her questioningly.

She shook her head, saying that she was fine, and went back to lacing.

There was a quota she had to finish. Sometimes she wished they could do this out in the open air, and not in the dampness of the cellar under the smelling fish lamps. But this was how it was. And she would do everything to support her family.

She made a loop and another loop, singing along with the women and other girls. The song made things so much better. There was laughter occasionally, when Mrs. Illes wasn’t in one of her moods or when she popped up to the shop to take the finished products up to be sold on.

She enjoyed singing. Her mother said she had a good voice. Sometimes she dreamed of becoming a singer. It would be grand.

She coughed again, doubling over her lace. Mrs. Illes harrumphed, but she couldn’t help herself. She took a handkerchief out of her pocket and pressed it to her lips. There were dark red dots on the cloth. She quickly put it back in her pocket and pretended nothing had happened.

Doll

A girl gets a doll whose hair keeps growing. I skipped this one.

Lions

Two lions are planning a way to get to the zoo visitors. I skipped this one, too.

The prompts are from the book A Year of Creative Writing Prompts.

I’m not sure if it was my mood or the prompts that I couldn’t write today. I could write my book before the prompts, and it went relatively well. But as soon as I added the prompts to Scrivener, I couldn’t be bothered with them. So, it might be both. If I were more awake and didn’t have to go to work soon, I might have pushed through the mild discomfort with the prompts. But I’m happy that I got the Lace one done. When I visited Edinburgh, we went down to the underground tunnels and heard the strange history of the place. It baffles me why the lacework was done in the darkness, how those tunnels were crammed with people, working under poor conditions under the smelly fish lamps. If you ever go to Edinburgh, I recommend visiting the underground tunnels and hearing their strange history, from body snatching to illegal whiskey.

Thank you for reading ❤ Have a wonderful day!