All of October Elephant's Child is supplying us with prompts every Wednesday. What we do to them is up to us, poem, story, shopping list, ignore ... the grand idea is to make us write.
Go to Elephant's Child's place to read some good stories. This is a challenge,
where the old saying "The more the merrier" holds true, therefore: Please, remember
to go back, read other peoples' stories there or follow their links
back. And please leave a comment after reading. Challenges like this one
thrives on interaction.
Machine
Telephone
Fiction
Delightfully
Trap
Skulduggery
And/Or
Groaned
Umbrella
Fertile
Corner
Deft
Selection
Today I'm
re-visiting an old main person of mine, Paul, from a story,, I've been writing on and off for at least 20 years. The first two parts -- in Danish only -- can be found here and here. If you try reading them via an online translating tool I would recommend DeepL. It is SO much better than "Giggle Translate".
Once again I took up the additional challenge of using the words in the order they were given.
The answering machine went on, as he did not pick up the telephone when it was ringing. Paul just stood there listening. It felt like a piece of fiction, he had won a prize for the painting he had submitted. Delightfully surprised he scribbled the number and went outside to calm down a bit before calling the committee. He was still afraid it was a trap, some of his friends pulling his leg. On the other hand this would probably cross the border from pranks to skulduggery. Hesitantly he picked up the phone, and groaned as he looked to the slip of paper in his hand. Drops of water from the umbrella in the corridor, still wet after yesterday's showers, had made the number illegible.
His fertile mind invented ways and means of making the scribble legible: Ironing, lemon juice ... then from a corner of his mind rationality spoke: "Just listen to the answering machine once again!" With a deft move he made the tape rewind to the beginning, and found a new slip of paper and waterfast ink in his selection of writing materials.
Blogger putter stadig tilfældige kommentarer i spamfængsel. Jeg lover at slippe dem ud hurtigst muligt.
Blogger is still randomly putting comments in spam-jail. I promise to free them as fast as possible.
This is a truly delightful snippet - and I love that he went outside to calm down. I often do that too.
SvarSletThank you. Fresh air is an antidote to great many things.
SletBlessed be the tape rewind.
SvarSletEven messymimi's grandpa might agree. ;-)
- -
DeepL translated:
Velsignet være båndspolingen.
Selv messymimis bedstefar er nok enig. ;-)
Thank you, Sean Jeatings, both for your comments and for proving that DeepL works for other people as well ;) The first is a bit funny, but understandable. The second sentence is perfect.
SletCongratulations to him, both for the art and for remembering he could listen to the message again. It's amazing how we will sometimes panic with excitement and calming a bit brings a solution.
SvarSletThank you for this, as this was exactly the state of mind I was thinking of!
SletI hope it is real and he did win a prize :)
SvarSletGreat use of the words :)
Sorry, no it's not a true story. They are old persons of mine from a book I still want to write.
SletGreat story and all the words in order too, Charlotte, you rose to the challenge magnificently!
SvarSletXO
WWW
Thank you. I hope to eventually finish this story, but I fear not.
SletI guess how it is, sometimes we go dumb for no reason but at least, he remembered the answering machine.
SvarSletGood use of the prompts.
Have a lovely day.
Thank you, yes we're all like that headless chicken sometimes ;)
Slet