Twittering Tales #156 – 1 October 2019

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. This is important as I have noticed that some of the ping backs have not been working. If you would prefer to post your tale in the comments (some people have very specific blog themes but still want to participate), I am happy to post a link to your site when I post your tale in the Round Up.

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!

Twittering Tales #156 – The Photo Prompt

Photo by David Cardinez@pixabay.com

Don’t Feed The Bears…

Where are the keys?!

I thought you had them.

Why would I have them? It’s your car!

Because you said you were driving when the bear showed up. Oh god! They’re in my purse…out there! Now what?!

I guess we wait.

Do you think he knows we’re here?

Don’t look behind you! He knows!

~kat

275 Characters

Now it’s your turn! Tell your own twittering tale in 280 characters or less, using the photo above by David Cardinez@pixabay.com as inspiration, and be included in next week’s roundup! And speaking of roundups, be sure to check out last week’s fantastic tales! Thank you to everyone who participated! Have a great week! 😊

Twittering Tales #155 – The Roundup

Photo by MarkusmitK@pixabay.com

Starting us off…

A Beginning
“Who’d ever wanna come here?” he thought. But this would be the last day he watched the trains come and go. Tomorrow he’d be on the morning express, seat 34a, a window view. He ran his fingers over the ticket in his hand and smiled. Life begins tomorrow. No looking back.
~kat
271 Characters

By Reena at ReInventions:
Audience
“This shot is an absolute masterpiece. Shall we use it as the opening or closing shot in the movie? Let the actor slowly turn around to face the audience or turn away.”
“I guess both…”
“Why?”
“The story in between will happen below. The audience will identify more with that.”
(273 characters)

By Graham at Graham is Just My Name:
The Age of Steam
As a kid he’d stand on the bridge as the express trains approached.
Then run to the other side as wagons thundered by.
Acrid smoke would billow around his trembling body and invade his nostrils.
Pure excitement.
Now only boring trains chug past here.
More rails than locomotives.
(277 chars)

By Mike at The Bookish Recovering Know-It-All:
It Goes On
Looking out over tomorrow, Seeing himself with her just last week, Daniel didn’t know if he could do it anymore without seeing her again. The memories would always be stronger than reality alone. She was gone but he knew every day would be another choice for him to stay. “Live”.
(270 characters)

By Di at Pensitivity101:
How ironic, he mused as he sat atop the girders looking down on the tracks.
The proud boast had been that it was built to last….. and it had.
Nothing would come or go now,  it was the only thing left intact after the Millennium War.
232 characters

By Fandango at This, That, and the Other:
Hither and Yon
Hither and yon, he thought to himself as he looked down at the myriad tracks from his perch on the bridge.
Where is hither and where is yon, he wondered.
What might he find if he goes? Will hither and yon be different than here and now? Or will it be the same thing somewhere else?
(280 characters)

By Tien at From the Window Seat:
Suicide Wish
Too early, the train stops.
Too late, he misses the train.
The timing must be right.
After ages of planning, he knows exactly when the train passes under the bridge.
“Train’s delayed, problem with tracks up ahead,” a policeman calls out. “A sign, I’d say. You’re not destined to die.”
(280 characters)

By Suzette at Suzette B’s Blog:
Iron retreat
The tracks meet below my metal perch. The city will come alive soon. But for a brief moment, this is my place of quiet retreat. A reminder of the movement of life. For whether sitting, walking, driving or being transported, we are all carried in the womb of life.
Word count: 274

By Larry at East Elmhurst A Go Go:
Right Said Fred
Fred’s parents have taken him shopping. His mother has gotten engrossed in the ladies’ unmentionables department. Boring! Soon he’ll pig out at the food court, but for now he fantasizes about things yet to come, knowing that all goes well in his world.
(254 Characters)

By Joe at Does Writing Excuse Watching?:
so long. trainyard. so long my friends, you diesel engines. loud and strong. as of tomorrow i’ll work only on electric locomotives. not diesel electrics, either. pure electric, clean and quiet. i love you but this railyard should become a boneyard.

By Bear at Jellico’s Writing Nook:
The Era
It was the era of annihilation.
Gone are the rails,
the buildings,
the bridges.
It was the era of annihilation.
Gone are the trees,
the plants,
the animals,
It was the era of annihilation.
Gone are the people,
the politicians,
the activists,
the human race.
It was the era of annihilation.
CC: 279 (281 with title) – Note from Kat…Title’s don’t count;)

By Tessa at Tessa Can Do It!:
Trusting a Bum Out of Desperation
“Grab costumes for you and Joey. I will take my clothes out and find a bum to wear them and walk down as far as the train tracks. That should draw anyone following away if there is someone and I will signal you guys to come and we will go quickly as far as we can,” Ron said.
275 characters

By Lisa at Tao Talk:
Before After/After Before
In 1999, when he was an infant, Zil and his family migrated backwards in time, to 1963. Now 20, he was ready to visit the time he was really from. As he surveyed what, only moments before, had been open fields and woodlands, in 2019 not a blade of grass was visible. Zil wept.
[279 characters]

By Pratibha at Prat’s Corner:
The Shot
“You are being crazy.”
“Maybe. And you are starting to irritate me”
“How dare you, I have been posing here and there and everywhere ..”
“Because you like your pictures”
“My face deserves your camera. Why should I scale this bridge for a back shot?”
“Because that’s the prompt, Love”

By Hayley at The Story Files:
The View
He liked coming up to the roof of the abandoned hotel. It was the tallest building in the little city and he could see for miles around. He liked the space being up there give him. He keep breath, think and wait for his people to come back.

By Melanie at Sparks from a Combustible Mind:
Jason sat on the rail of the bridge overlooking the train tracks.  He’d gotten the latest rejection letter from the publisher and it was, for him, the final straw.  Nobody understood nor cared.   He thought perhaps this time he’d really jump.  That would show them all!
(character count: 270)

By Peter at Peter’s Pondering:
Lucky
He’d been a loser all his life.
At school they gave him the nickname “lucky” because anything that could go wrong, always did.
He decided he’d had enough.  He would end it all by jumping under a train.
His phoned pinged with the latest news headline.
“Rail strike halts all trains!”
(278 characters)

By Sadje at Keep It Alive:
Before starting training, he sat there surveying the tracks. Tomorrow! He would train hard and train well. It was going to be the best race he would ever run. If he won this marathon, he had a chance to get into the university of his choice and realize his dreams.
Character count: 265

By Deb at Twenty Four:
His stillness was concerning. To sit above the train lines and stare wasn’t the normal behaviour of anyone, least of all a young kid.
She thought to call out, she thought to find someone, anyone.
Instead she did nothing.
Five minutes later he jumped.
She never told anyone.
(270 characters)

By Kristian at Tales from the Mind of Kristian:
The Serenity That Comes Before
He sat on the railway bridge and felt a moment of serenity.
And smiled as he considered that Life was so full of vapid worthlessness; an entity of nothingness; a rotting fungus living parasitically on time.
He took a deep breath, nothing drastic, then fell under the 8:29 train.
[277 Characters]

By Chaotically Yours at Dreaming Through the Haze:
The First Step
Tonight, he’s hidden. In his pocket, the amulet hums against his fingers. On the horizon, the southbound 7:15 hums back, chugging closer.
Slipping from the rail, he lights on the carapace of the train.
His back to warm metal, he watches the sky, tracks his movement by the stars.
Characters: 278

By Kitty at Kitty’s Verses:
Bam
There again!They dared me to get atop the railing and now they are nowhere to be seen.
These friends of mine call me a fibber. Let me take a selfie to prove it to them.
Bam!
Time to consult Dr. Google for dream analysis, been dreaming about this for a while now.
259 characters.

By John at Broadsides:
All you need to be a trainspotter is an anorak and a good spot to watch the trains go by. And dreams. The 9.10 to Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. The 10 am to Potters Bar. The Gatwick Express and the Brighton Belle, Virgins and Stage coaches, the Great Western Rail, Electric and Diesel and occasionally steam, all from here, on my bridge of dreams