A Gift

Twenty years passed since she met a tall, shadowy man for the first time. His name was ancient almost like the Universe itself. Laura was playing with a ball in the courtyard when he appeared. The man approached to her:”Fasten the laces of your pretty shoes or you'll fall down, Laura”. Something shining appeared in his hand. “This is a gift for you. Take care of it”. That was the beginning.


--Rosa
(for the March 20/April 12 prompt.

ONE MORE THING

No more supernatural talk, Toots, you never knew what hit you.

More than the weight, it was its bottom edge that killed her.
More than the bucket, my anger. Yoho and a bucket of zen.

She, elegant yet limp in her robe, dragon flame from the mouth of death.

Confess, reader: you made me do it.

--by eric

Prompt: Deadline April 12

Given the character of a tall and shadowy man, write a story in the genre magical realism, using the subject shoes and the theme man versus the supernatural.
Word limit: 72
Time Limit: 13 days



*Don't forget about Madame Butterfly!

The Bucket

She passed by him in the hall. Her handbag flailing confidently at her side. What made him think of her as a little girl, arms flailing her bucket on the beach? "Unaware," he thinks to himself, like the innocent child in the sand. How can she possibly know her fate? That he would be her death.

Photography by, Diane Powers.

Detective Maddie

I was nervously running to the crime scene.
It was my first detective assignment.
She was passing by, serene,
carrying a bucket.

I thought:
"She is too pretty for a cleaning lady".
I feared:
"You are too stupid for a detective, Maddie".

My confidence won.
Elegantly dressed Dragon Butterfly
Will be in the jail for long.

The Last Case

Here is zoe's offering for the March 9th microfiction prompt:

The end was there in the beginning, in that accidental glimpse of a green shimmer peeking out from what she was calling a neckline. The green shimmer held me so I never saw what hit me. And then the old man with the gold-filled bucket was painting someone else’s name on my door.

--zoe



"The Last Stand"
by Patrick Richardson

The Mystery

Here is Rosa's hard-boiled story in response to the microfiction prompt....

She felt His presence before seeing Him. The red-bright eyes of the Evil were pointed on the black gowned young lady. The waiter poured some champagne from an iced bucket into two glasses. “I feel, he is here”. Firstly,the lights lowered, the detective shivered. In the darkness, a scream. ”This is the end”. Silence.

-Rosa

56 ladies boiling in a bucket

--Migue's 56-word noir tale, in response to March 9th's prompt:

“56 ladies boiling in a bucket”

The detective takes a glance to the bucket and back to him.
“ What do you mean?”
“Stupid”- he sniggers.
…
“Why 56 ladies… in a bucket?” - she notices the doctor’s looking at her legs.
“When he came here” – he looks up again - “he brought that bucket with 54 rings inside.”
“And?”
“A nurse was killed two days later.”

--Migue

Glowing Review, and a Prompt

I think that was the best sentence yet!

So, we have created the character of Madame Butterfly:

Madame Butterfly, a disturbingly womanly dragon, seemed mystified by sudden changes and fleeting ghosts from Nowhere. Her Nowhere was communicating telepathically with a primal Entity deep within metaphysical meaning, wordless. Then little distortions started interfering with the flow, and thus sad feelings overwhelmed Madame's soul. Bright orbs showed visions emerging from mirrors surrounding her ever more.

(PLEASE CONTINUE to explore the life of Madame Butterfly in the comments section!)

PART II:
I am curious, given the limit of 56 words, which is how many we used to create her character, if we could make an entire story, a microfiction piece. If you've read Migue's latest post, you can see where several writers created entire stories in 6 words, so it should be possible! This time, each person is responsible for his/her own entire 56 words. I am giving a prompt below. POST YOUR STORY wherever you like, but also post it here in Continuum! If you do not have access to create posts, hit the "contact me" button to the right, and we will fix the situation.
Have fun!

**Given the character of an elegantly-gowned young lady, write a story in the hard-boiled detective genre, using the subject a bucket and the theme man versus the supernatural.

Word limit: 56
Time limit: 2 weeks (deadline is March 23).**


I got this microfiction prompt template from:
http://www.wgz.org/chromatic/projects/microfiction/

Save Madame Butterfly!

photograph by, Sarah Moon

Madame Butterfly, a disturbingly womanly dragon, seemed mystified by sudden changes and fleeting ghosts from Nowhere. Her Nowhere was communicating telepathically with a primal Entity deep within metaphysical meaning, wordless. Then little distortions started interfering with the flow, and thus sad feelings overwhelmed Madame's soul.