Words for Wednesday ~ August 13

Word for Wednesday is a challenge that was started a long time ago. Now it has turned into a movable event with Elephant's Child as our coordinator; and the Words provided by a number of people.

The general idea of this challenge is to make us write. Poems, stories, subtitles, tales, jokes, haiku, crosswords, puns, ... you're the boss.
Use all Words, some Words, one Word, or even none of them if that makes your creative juices flow. Anything goes, only please nothing rude or vulgar.

In August, Mimi of MessyMimi's Meanderings will supply us with prompts.

 It is also a challenge, where the old saying "The more the merrier" holds true.

So Please, remember to follow the links, go back and read other peoples' stories. And please leave a comment after reading. Challenges like this one thrives on interaction, feedback and encouragement. And we ALL need encouragement.

- - A - - B - - C - - 

This Wednesday's prompts:
Easy
Student
Invasion
Encourage
Housing
Spectrum
        and/or the following archaic words
Gaud -- a trinket
Moil -- drudgery
Pore on -- think about, dwell on thoughtfully

Biking home today I got this idea for a story. Unfortunately only one of the archaic words  fit, but as we always say: "Use all Words, some Words, one Word, or even none of them", I feel good to go.

A Monday in the early summer just before the summer holidays. Or in other words towards the end of the first year on Unicorn Farm.

Susan sat on the garden swing when mom and dad returned from shopping. They looked at her, and mom asked, "But Susan! What happened?"

"It was an accident," Susan began, "and I lost my keys, and my bike is broken something terrible, and I think these pair of pants are only good for the bin."

"But what about you?" Mom asked.

"I'm bruised, and now after sitting, I feel stiff and sore all over, but nothing is broken or even sprained. I could walk home."

"Thank God," mom said, "come in and I'll scrub the wounds."

Susan followed mom into the big bathroom upstairs. Her right arm and leg were bloodied and filled with gravel and dirt.

Mom said: "This is going to hurt, but please remember what aunt Iris always says about scrubbing away the dirt?"

"I do! And her threatening to use a brush if hands are not enough!" Susan said, "I won't promise not to yell at you."

"Yell away," mum said, "but keep still."

Mom scrubbed the wounds with soap, as aunt Iris had taught her, and she even had to use a small brush on Susan's elbow. Susan whimpered and yelled a couple of times. Mom dried the wounds carefully with a clean towel, and put a band aid over the worst of them. "Now they're all clean at least, and you will mend. Luckily none of those need stitches."

"Phew!" Susan said, "I feel lucky after all."

When they came downstairs again, Dad had made coffee, and asked Susan to please tell what happened.

"I had been to the woods, as I told you this morning," Susan began.

What she did not tell was that she had been practising growing and plant mending spells in the woods - it was homework, and Thora had told that these spells would be allowed during the week.

"I was on my way home on my bike, when I saw a giant viper on the road just in front of me. It had that zig-zag pattern down its back and it was poised to strike. I could no way avoid it so I pulled up my legs as fast and far as I could. The wheels must have been hot from my hurrying home, because it went for my front tyre. It bit into it so violently that the tube tore, almost exploding, and having my legs up and all and running over the viper ... it threw me and the bike and the viper all together in one big mess.The viper was quite limp, I suppose it died. The bike was punctured and broken, and I was bleeding all over. I sat down and cried."

Susan took a sip of her coffee and continued: "But then I realised that I could not just sit there. Crying would not mend my bike or revive the viper. I don't know which made me more sad ... and I was growing sore and stiff. I tried walking with my bike, but it was too heavy, my arm and leg hurt, and the tube and tyre grated against the mudguard all the time. I could not walk it home."

Susan was again not telling the whole truth. She had pored on mending the bike and herself with magic, but she dared not run the risk of being expelled from Unicorn Farm.

"So in the end I stood my bike against a fence and locked it, then I walked home and discovered that I had lost my key out there too."

"What a luck the viper did not get you," mum said, "and are you sure it was a viper? They are not normally found here. Now at the place where you werre born, there were many vipers, and mice and one day a mouse even ... "

"Drink up your coffee and get into the van," dad interrupted. It was an old story. Mom had told it many times. "There's room for a bike and more in there, and I think that's a job for the mechanic. If we're lucky we can get there before he closes down for today."

"Sounds like a grand plan," mom said. "Susan, when do you need your bike again?"

"Need it," Susan said, "not until Thursday, when we have tennis lessons in the old sports place, but I'd like to have it back Wednesday after school, as we - me and some of the girls from school - planned a trip to the beach."

"That should be doable," dad said. "I know a  mechanic, who's good and fast. Get aboard!"

Susan climbed into the van, not without some moaning, the band aids stuck, and she had turned even more stiff and sore.

Susan told dad the way, and they found the bike still standing against the fence in its sad state. Dad searched for Susan's keys, but all he found was the viper, it really was a viper and a huge one for a viper 75 cm from snout to tail, and it's neck was broken. Dad loaded it, and the bike, in the behind of the car and drove very fast until they were again back in town.

"Just stay here, Susan," dad said. "I'll hand in your bike and be back in no time."

"Thanks, dad," Susan said and happily stayed in the warm van, not savouring the climb up and down once again, and dozed until dad returned and they headed for home.