Wednesday's Words on a Friday

 

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles. Sadly, Delores has now closed her blog forever due to other problems.

The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind.

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along to read it and add a few encouraging words.

This month the words/prompts are supplied by Alex J. Cavanaugh and can be found here

This week's words/prompts are: 

1. sword 2. hogwash 3. cactus 4. ghost 5. silver 6. rivers 

and/or: 

1. spirits 2. potato 3. nincompoop 4. indigo 5. gemstones 6. learning

Also including Charlotte's colour of the month: mint green

Here is my story:

Almost the entire family was at the reunion to celebrate great-grandpa Claude’s one hundredth birthday. The old man was pretty spry for his age, though his mind did tend to wander back in time now and again. He had been a teacher in his younger days and still reminded everyone under the age of fifty that “learning is important!” Whenever someone said they didn’t know or weren’t sure he would bellow, “Find out! Learn!” He seemed to be in good spirits despite the overly warm day and he smiled as his pale indigo eyes would settle on one or the other of the younger kids running around. 

As an older teenager I had been put in charge of the youngest five, one just turned nine, three eight year-olds and Harriet who had just turned four. I knew the boys well, and true to their age they were all nincompoops. I had lost track of them momentarily while eyeing the buffet table with my stomach rumbling, the potato salad was looking a bit sweaty and I turned to look for Aunt Edna, to suggest it shouldn’t be out in this heat, imagining well over seventy people with food poisoning the next day. 

To my surprise I saw Harriet instead, running towards me as fast as her little legs could go, rivers of silver tears coursing down from her mint green eyes. ‘Whatever is the matter?” I asked squatting down to her height. “Eddie and Simon finded a sword in the bushes and they won’t stop waving it around and scaring me.” “Are they waving it at you?” I wiped her face with my bandanna, (it was a costume party and I was a cowboy) and asked her to please take me to them. “They are waving it at each other and cutting the bushes.” 

Surely it can’t be a real sword, I thought as we neared the scrubby patch of shrubbery and heard “I am the ghost of the castle!” from Simon followed by the swish of a heavy blade, then “Hogwash!” from Eddie and I stepped through to see them with not a sword but a machete, heavier, but equally dangerous. Simon dropped it when he spotted me. I reached to pick it up and merely pointed in the direction of the party to send them back to it. 

“Where are Robert and Kyle?” I asked them. “Over by the cactus patch,” said Simon, “They found a box of coloured glass and say they are gemstones and we will be rich.” I sent Harriet back to the party with the boys and instructed Simon to tell Aunt Edna about the potato salad, then set off to find Robert, Kyle and the 'gemstones'. I found them playing on a square of bare ground, an open jewellers case in front of them as they sorted the stones into colours. 

They were real! He shouted, “Look what we found Will, gemstones, we can all be rich now.” “No Robbie,” I said, “these are real, but probably stolen and hidden here by the thieves. If they come back for them they might hurt you. Let’s take them back to the party and have Uncle James call the police. Come along now Kyle.” I picked up the box of stones and tucked it under my arm.