PROMPT 1: Imagine you are a ten year old child visiting your city for the first time. What do you see? What would be your favorite thing to do and what was the scariest. Write as if you are ten years old. Use lots of descriptive words and action words. Limit 500-ish words.
They were dragging me on another boring, old lady trip to some God awful town in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully, they were talking with each other and leaving me alone. The worst part, was that I had no bars on my phone. I couldn’t text or call any of my old friends. I needed to talk to someone about anything other than the next funeral, quilt or farm chore. My Aunts, who were really my great Aunts, were taking me to the “big” city. That’s what they called it. I suppose anything with more than one house would be a “big” city to my aunts.
The number of houses grew outside the window. We drove past a row of, I had to admit, beautiful old houses draped in wooden lace. Some were made of bricks, but the wooden ones were painted bright colors like red, green, blue, and one was even the color of salmon. They lined both sides the narrow road. There was just enough room between the front porches and the sidewalks to grow grass and flowers. There were bushes with bunches of pretty pink or white flowers that exploded off the green stems with a confetti of green leaves surrounding them.
The Aunts turned left onto Main Street then turned left again into a bank parking lot where their old Roadmaster could rest. In stereo, they turned their heads to look at me and said, “Rebecca, We’re here.”
Aunt Mabel then added, “I wish we could come on market day. You’d love the market, but schedules won’t allow. Let’s go eat and then we’ll shop.”
I rolled my eyes and got out of the car. The first place we went was a café where we ate breakfast. I thought my grandmother could cook, but wow, the waffles in this place were amazing.
After we ate, we walked across the street to an antique store. Aunt Mary said if I found anything, and it wasn’t too expensive, I could get it. I strolled around ignoring all the old, but sometimes pretty, furniture piled high with glass plates and cups. There were a lot of pictures hanging on the walls. I picked up this heart shaped thing that had two handles. When I pumped the handles, air went in and out. While wondering what it was for, I noticed something glinting on a shelf.
It was a bird made of shiny, blue glass. It wasn’t blue like the sky, but blue like in a six pack of crayons. I picked it up and could see right through it, you know, sort of like one of those church windows. It was smaller than my fist but bigger than a marble. I could see that it was a bird, but it didn’t have any details, like feathers.
Aunt Mabel walked up behind me and asked, “Do you like it? It’s a bluebird of happiness”
“It’s pretty.”
“Shall we buy it?”
“No thank you.” I didn’t add that I didn’t feel very happy.
After we visited the museum that used to be a bank, and walked around some old houses, we had lunch at this place famous for its ham sliders. I ate six of them they were so good.
The day went by quicker than I thought and the sun was falling in the sky when we pulled back on the farmhouse driveway. Before bed that night, Aunt Mabel came in and handed me a pretty bag. In it was the blue bird from the store. I didn’t’ know it then, but that bluebird was the beginning of my new found happiness.
