Returning after a week-end break!

I wasn’t sure if WordPress were going to take the week-end off, so to speak, but it does look as though they did.

Thus the last theme idea that was posted from WordPress was on the 9th and was:

Day Five: Be Brief

Today’s Prompt: You stumble upon a random letter on the path. You read it. It affects you deeply, and you wish it could be returned to the person to which it’s addressed. Write a story about this encounter.

Today’s twist: Approach this post in as few words as possible.

“None of us will ever know the whole story in other words. We can only collect a bag full of shards that each seem perfect.”

— From 100 Word Story‘s About page

Brevity is the goal of this task, although “brief” can mean five words or five-hundred words. You might write a fifty-word story, as writer Vincent Mars publishes on his blog, Boy in the Hat. Or you might tell your tale in precisely one-hundred words, like the folks at 100 Word Story — an approach that forces you to question every word.

For writers who tend to write more, a longer word count may be considered concise, too. At Brevity, writers publish nonfiction of seven-hundred-fifty words or less: there is space to develop a piece, yet a focus on succinctness.

For inspiration, browse two fifty-word stories — on the silence between a husband and wife, or a story on time and a missed connection — or these one-hundred words by H. Edwards to see how others write clever concise tales.

H’mm, they don’t get any easier!

Here goes ….

oooo

Unfinished love?

It was so nearly missed.

The corner of an envelope. Lost for years under the hallway carpet. Maybe lost for ever if we hadn’t decided to replace this old, worn carpet.

Pharaoh was first to it but I quickly lifted it clear of his nose.

A handwritten address across an envelope bearing an old postage stamp. Why had it never been mailed?

Addressed to Miss Susan Reynolds in New Hampshire. Should I open it?

I did.

I read: “Dear Sue, I love you and, yes, I will marry you, love Jim“

Dated Valentine’s Day forty years ago – to the day!

oooo

Exactly one-hundred words! (And it was tough to write!)

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