Wednesday, October 20, 2010

3ww: West of the Sun or East

Hello, Three Word Wednesday! I swear I'm going to be brief this week.


West of the Sun or East
Immense, shimmering disks hung over the southern desert. Scorpion and rattlesnake made warnings, rabbit ran for his life. Roadrunner paused, head cocked.

"Hey," he called to the inhabitants of the disks. "You're too late. They made themselves extinct. There's nobody here to abduct anymore."

The disks wavered, mumbling to themselves like low thunder in the clouds. Finally, one belched, a roar that shook the cacti and blew the roadrunner back ten yards across crumbling asphalt. When all had gathered their wits again, they saw on a bed of tumbleweeds a small child, tucked like a baby bird into itself. The disks were gone, sunshine pouring onto the land again. The animals stared.

"He's gonna bake," said roadrunner.

"So?" hissed rattlesnake.

The child turned and drifted among the tumbleweeds, opening gray eyes. It had been three hundred years since the desert had been looked upon by human eyes. It sighed and looked back. The child's soft feet touched earth. It trembled.

The effect was not lost on the citizens of the desert. They crept forward, cautious.

Except for scorpion, who marched up to the child. "Well, I suppose I shall have to feed him then."

"No!" yipped coyote, springing forward. "Me! Me!"

And they gathered around the little desert prince, hope whispering in their hearts: Perhaps this time, it would be different.

*

Thank you for reading, and your comments are always much appreciated. Thanks to ThomG, who does a stellar job of running the community.

And now, a little self-promotion, but only because, to me, it's kinda big: my first chapbook, "Letters From the Egg Carton," drops this week. If you'd like to win a copy, see this post.

17 comments:

  1. Oh, I like that ... poor little guy. And why do I think the animals might wind up being sorry again?

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  2. I love the way you write, just brilliant, wonderful to read :o)

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  3. You really can spin a fable..I love the other-worldly feel of this piece... great post-apocalyptic stuff! Jae

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  4. Wonderful...loved the characters... :)

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  5. I like this very much. Great writing! :-)

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  6. This reminded me of the story, "The Little Prince". Love the image of birth being nothing more than a giant belch. If only it were that simple.

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  7. This took my breath away. Not just the writing, which is stellar, but the very idea. Again, I bow to you.

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  8. Great concept and well delivered, loved the characters and their skeptical approaches... just fantastic throughout!

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  9. Loved loved loved this. Wonderful ending--and fun yet more read

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  10. Love your imagery! And the fact that you tell us so much using so few words. These characters are endearing, I instantly fell in love with the perhaps not so brilliant, but thoroughly enthusiastic coyote =)

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  11. It seems you had your own take on origins this week! Very interesting concept that is ripe for development. Nice work!

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  12. Fantastic; really great story. I see I'm not the only one brought to the desert by those words!

    Kari @ The Best Place By The Fire

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  13. I really loved this and the feeling in it -- beautiful. I also especially loved the line "It had been three hundred years since the desert had been looked upon by human eyes. It sighed and looked back." -- this was really powerful.

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  14. Neat! I really enjoyed it :-D

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  15. Note to the animals of the desert: It will NOT be different THIS time. You will live to regret it. Eat the child instead.

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  16. Fantastic writing! And congrats on your book.

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