Wednesday's Words on a Friday

On Wednesday’s, Delores, from Under The Porch Light, has a meme which she calls

“Words for Wednesday”.

She puts up a selection of six words which we then use in a short story, or a poem.

I’m hopeless at poetry so I always do a story.

It’s a fun challenge…why not join in?

This week's words are:

1. crow

2. evening

3. mist

4. rapid

5. blazing

6. emerge

Here is my story:

It had been a long evening and Emma was just about to climb into bed, when the crow living in the big gum tree began cawing and clattering his beak, then flew down onto her window sill and continued his racket. 

Emma got out of bed to close her window, then noticed the blazing red of what she thought was a full moon rising through the mist. She watched it for a moment as the crow continued cawing and clattering at her. It seemed unusually large and red....wait, what was that smell?

Smoke? Yes, it was. What Emma thought was mist was in fact smoke and it was thickening quite alarmingly. 

The crow was becoming quite frantic trying to attract her attention, then rapped his beak sharply against the window frame. Again and again he rapped and cawed.

Emma began to feel frightened. The news reports had said the fires were contained and under control. She'd thought she wouldn't have to leave after all. But here was the smoke again and the red emerging from it was definitely no full moon.

She waved at the crow to thank him for alerting her, then dressed as quickly as she could, although taking the time to lace her boots properly. Wouldn't do her any good at all to trip on a lace and fall down the stairs now, would it?

Emma raced down the stairs, suddenly thankful that she'd been too tired to bother with unpacking the van. All the important papers and her most precious treasures were still in boxes packed tightly behind the seat along with the suitcases containing her clothes. 

In the kitchen, Emma grabbed her mobile phone and it's charger, emptied the bowl of fruit on the counter into her carry bag and added a couple of bottles of water. 

In case any fire fighters came looking to evacuate her, she taped a note to the glass in the door, saying that she was gone and safe and there were bottles of water in the fridge they could help themselves to. 

Once in the car and making her rapid escape, Emma felt glad that she hadn't yet bought that flock of chickens, imagine trying to get them in the van! As she sped through the gate to her property and headed down the highway, Emma heard the crow cawing above her. He was following the van! 

"Probably making sure I get safely away", she thought, and mentally thanked him again for alerting her to the danger. If he stayed with her all the way, she'd make sure to get him some good mince from the butcher in the morning.