Twittering Tales #112 – 27 November 2018

About the challenge: Each Tuesday I will provide a photo prompt. Your mission, if you choose to accept the challenge, is to tell a story in 280 characters or less. When you write your tale, be sure to let me know in the comments with a link to your tale.

A final note: if you need help tracking the number of characters in your story, there is a nifty online tool that will count for you at charactercountonline.com.

I will do a roundup each Tuesday, along with providing a new prompt. And if for some reason I missed your entry in the Roundup, as I have occasionally done, please let me know. I want to be sure to include your tale.

Finally, have fun!

And REMEMBER…you have 280 characters (spaces and punctuation included), to tell your tale…and a week to do it. I can’t wait to see what you create this week.

Twittering Tales #111 – The Roundup

By mh-grafik at pixabay.com

Starting us off…

How We Came to Be
The old well had dried up years ago, but that didn’t stop the stream of dreamers with pockets full of pennies from seeking it out. It was said, if your coin plopped instead of plunked when it hit bottom, your wish would come true. I made a wish one rainy day. My wish was you.
~kat ❤️
278 Characters

By Ron at Read4Fun:
To the Tunnels
My German mom and American dad brought me to the US at four. I grew up, graduated HS, and was drafted. Investigators determined I was an illegal alien. Discharged and living under Trumpocracy, I’ll expand the tunnel and wait, sanity will return to the USA.
(256 characters)

By the Dark Netizen:
WELLS
Most of the water had gone.
The only path left, was to fight for whatever little water was left in the deep-sunk wells. And so started the third world war. Millions perished. However, it was not long before we had to unite once again.
The invaders from the wells, made it happen….
Character Count: 280

By Reena at ReInventions:
New Age
“I wonder how many coins lie at the bottom.”
“People don’t waste pennies anymore. They prefer playing games on Facebook, or take selfies they can manage with filters.”
“Oh, yeah …. And pennies give no information about the owner.”
(228 characters)

By Di at Pensitivity101:
Cyril closed his eyes and tossed in his coin.
The rumble nearly knocked him off his feet and the dot of light from below grew bigger until it was almost blinding.
‘What the hell did you do?’ his wife demanded.
Sheepishly he replied
‘I asked God to help me see the light.’
267 characters.

By Fandango at This, That, and the Other:
He was dangling head first at the rim of what seemed to be a bottomless well, held by the ankles by two thugs.
“This is what we do to guys who don’t pay on time,” the mobster said, motioning to the thugs, who let go of the man’s ankles. “I trust you will pay your debt promptly.”
(279 characters)

By Teresa at The Haunted Wordsmith:
You Grow Old
I hated my job. A job I had held since I was eight years old. You grow old down there, they used to say. When I was a kid, I thought it meant it was an easy job. A job where I would die an old man. I didn’t know there was more than one way to grow old. The tunnelers knew though.
279 Characters

By Shweta at My Random Ramblings:
Holed Up
Earthlings used to worship me.
Over the years, worship morphed into exploitation and contamination.
I used to flow about in abundance, clear as the blue sky.
Now I’m reduced to hiding in the deepest, darkest pits to save myself.
I used to be called water,
Now they call me liquid gold.
(280 characters)

By Ramya at And Miles to Go Before I Sleep:
The Voice
It was a beautiful voice, calling out my name. Unable to resist, I followed the voice.
I was pulled out dead from the dried up well the next day.
Now, it my turn to be the beautiful voice from the well..
Wait, was that voice from the well or in my head?
Character Count – 250

By Michael at Morpethroad:
The old witch looked down the well and mused that it was a while since she’d been down it.
It was she knew a pitiless bottom and one which only brought disappointment.
It was time though she thought to be brave and venture down.
After all, it was her responsibility to keep it clean.

By Hayley at The Story Files:
Stuck
Santa sighed and deeply regretted eating that second mince pie. He wiggled but felt  wedged against the sooty chimney wall.
‘Misty-Bell? Sparkle?’ he called, ‘I’m stuck!’
The elves giggled and white-gold glitter drifted downwards. The chimney expanded with a swoosh noise and Santa fell into the fireplace with a bang.

By Kristian at Tales from the Mind of Kristian:
Tunnel of Fear
Where does this ancient pipeline go? Some say it leads to another world with a population of evil bipeds who wage war on each other and other creatures.
If the legends are true, these so called humans had a lot to answer for.
Quick, let’s block it up before they come through.
[277 characters]

By Jan at Strange Goings On in the Shed:
Abyss
Divine Sparks tumble from Heaven. Incandescent luminaries with destines unfolding. So far from home. So far from home.
The One sheds endless tears, into the Abyss do they fall. A place with no end. Deep is their loss. Where are their children? So far from home. So far from home.
(278 characters)

By Anurag at Jagahdilmein:
Well Actually…
My legs are trembling and heart thumping wildly as I stand upon the well’s edge and look down into infinity.
But I’m out of excuses.
So I take a deep breath and let my body fall, cursing loudly at the idiots who came up with this idea of bungee jumping into an abandoned well.

By Neel at Neel Writes:
Her eyes welled up when she didn’t make it to her dream  B-school___that prized entry ticket to a glittering corporate career.
In a jiffy, her life  plunged to the depths of despair
Ultimately, she decided to call it quits and embraced the  village well.

By John at Broadsides:
You think this is a water well from which we draw aqua, the essence of life, but it is not. It is a missile silo from which erupts the fire and essence of death. Look deep for the missile has risen and your destiny is crossing the stars.

By Indhu at Always!:
The Prestige
Tourists flocked their small village to listen to the “Whispering well”. Villagers worshiped the Well, as tourism was their main livelihood.
The insomniac village head turned on his bed. Memory of pushing his little girl and her lover haunted him. All in the name of honor!
<272 characters>

By Radhika at Radhika’s Reflection:
Water War!
The year 2080.  Our blue planet has turned arid and grey. All life forms perishing across the globe with most sources of water having dried up.
Mr. Sen, now a frail nonagenarian, stood sadly by the well, recalling his prophecy of a Third world war, battling it out for “Water”!
Letter count : 277

By The IndieShe:
“She looked deep inside the well of her mind,the cobblered walls weathered by the turns of life.
All she could see was an endless dark abyss.
And then she spied a shadowed halo of light encircling the dark arid well.
And she smiled undaunted.”
(261 characters)

By Willow at WillowDot21:
Ding ding dell.
“Someone stop those bells. I can’t think straight. This well is so deep. Hey, Puss are you okay.I can’t see you.
Who pushed you was it that Tommy Thin guy, he’s a nasty bloke! Don’t worry I am absailing down as we speak. Got ya! Come on your safe now. My name? It is Jonny Stout.”
(279 Characters)

By Hélène at Willow Poetry:
The Well
Dad managed to get the well flowing again. Several days later we discovered all the people in the village that had mysteriously disappeared over the years. To the top of the well, they floated one after the other. Our water was contaminated.
247 characters

By Peter at Peter’s Pondering:
Just what sort of beast built this tunnel?
The bricks were perfectly shaped pellets of dried shit, you could tell by some of the newly placed cubes.
Poo!!!
He could only assume that the wombat population, hereabouts, had undergone a metamorphosis and were now the size of elephants!
(280 characters)

By Deb at Twenty Four:
He took his time inspecting the workmanship before turning to the young man who stood nervously awaiting his verdict.
“Well, it could have been better, but it will do.”
He hid his smile as the other beamed, aware that building an escape tunnel wasn’t a job for the faint-hearted.
(277 characters)

By Violet at Thru Voilet’s Lentz:
Well
Crude cut stones
spiral end to end
down deep bored holes
tethering life, to
earth’s aqueous womb
93 characters

Thank you to everyone who joined the challenge last week. Some very interesting things happened at the bottom of that well. You all are so creative! This week I mashed up a few photos that I found on Pixabay. One by pasja1000 (Senior Couple) and the other by StockSnap (Children). My first thought for the theme this week is “Bucket List”, so that is what I’m calling it. You can launch your tale from the mashed up photo below, or if you choose write about the concept of a bucket list or someone’s bucket list…maybe your own.  Did they ever do or see the thing they dreamed of? Or did it remain forever on that list. Did they regret it or come to some other realization as a result of not realizing or finally realizing their goal? Anyhow, you get the picture. Have fun…in 280 characters or less…and I see you at the roundup!

Twittering Tales #112 – 27 November 2018 – The Bucket List

Second Chances
Tom and Sally had dreamed of walking those cobbled streets. Finally, they managed to make the long trip together. It was only possible though, after both their spouses had passed away. Tom knew he should have asked Sally to marry him when he had the chance all those years ago.
~kat
278 Characters