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. Wait….WHAT?! YES! You read that correctly. Recently, the sages at Twitter announced that they were doubling the character limit. So, of course, I am passing this gift on to you! 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 now have 280 characters (spaces and punctuation included), to tell your tales. I can’t wait to see what you do this week.

Twittering Tale #62 – The Roundup

Photo from the Commons at Pixabay

Start us off…

The Message:
milk
bread
red wine
brussel sprouts
toilet paper
soap
peanut butter
eggs
coffee
sugar
toothpaste
floss
spaghetti
tomato sauce
cheese
soup
strawberries

From Michael at Morpethroad:
Washed clean after years at sea, the bottle and message remain a mystery as it can’t be opened.
Speculation is rife. What if someone is desperate? What if its the map to secret treasure?
All we know is the bottle was made in 1735.
Its historical significance outweighs its contents.
(280 characters)

From Reena at ReInventions:
Too lazy to break the bottle and release the djinn?
No wonder jellyfish have survived without brains. They do not create Frankensteins.
(135 characters)

From Lady Lee at Lady Lee Manila:
I meander in my thought
Message I hope he finds
To my secret love
Things got to be released
Emotion I come to stir
Answering all the whys
Waiting for something to happen
Don’t make me stop
Perhaps one day we’ll be together
Seize the day or carpe diem
(242 characters)

From Martin at Martin Cororan:
…Terribly sorry to impose upon you old chap, but might I beg a brief audience to articulate the pickle in which I find myself. Time is short (as is paper) so allow me to harness the power of brevity and proceed forthwith to the kernel of my concern. I am stranded on a des…
[END OF MESSAGE]
277 Characters

From Di at Pensitivity101:
“To Whoever is reading this:
My name is Bryan Harley and I’m on holiday in Spain.
The date is June 20th 2004, so sorry, no hidden treasure.”
‘Hey! Bryan! You’re never going to believe this………………’
204 characters

From Lorraine at Lorraine’s Frilly Freudian Slip:
Flashback to lady of delight.
Once upon a daydream, she was the shape of my heart.
Left a message in a bottle: “Be my girl”.
Why don’t you answer?
Whispering voices, voices in my head.
Made me the madman running through the fields.
Now, every breath you take, I’ll be watching you.
(280)

From Fandango at This, That, and the Other:
We couldn’t believe it when we saw the bottle in the sand just beyond the reach of the surf. She dared me to open it up and read the message and I quickly obliged. We both laughed when I unfolded the message and read it aloud. It read, “NICKEL BOTTLE DEPOSIT OVERDUE.”
(268 characters)

From  D. Avery at ShiftnShake:
Cliché Clipper
She felt her ship had come in. She wondered at such fortune, finding a love to treasure, their fates cast together.
Their lives did not follow the course she had mapped, but she kept her disappointment corked. Her ship did not sail, but ran aground in a bottle.

From Hayley at The Story Files:
Dear Santa,
I’ve been really good this year. Please can I have the pink sparkly ponies play set, Girl’s Adventure books, Craft making box and a ton of chocolate!
Also, if you can make it snow that’d be great.
Love, Megan.

From Edwin at Edwin’s Journal:
The bottle, once thrown out
To the far edges of the ocean
Now came bound on the lone sands
All hopes to be found, totally lost

From Kathryn at Another Foodie Blogger:
Suzy was so excited when she launched her “message in a bottle” project for school. She spent days on the beach, looking out into the horizon, wondering where her bottle went and what country she’d hear back from. Imagine her dismay when she looked down at her feet 2 weeks later.
280 Characters

From Francine at Woman Walking Dog:
STRANDED
I signed up to be a sole castaway on this island. Tropical, nice.
My agent said: pick up after 7 days. It’s 2 weeks now – toe rags!
How dare they? I’m scared of spiders. Got this bottle, pen, paper
Here’s my story
       Help me
       Eating insects
       Wheres my fee
       I want to go home

From Jan at Strange Goings on in the Shed:
Dear love, feel my heartbeat
Brush your fingers across my lips
Whisper words of unbridled love
Come to me bare of all fear and insecurity
Feel my heartbeat
For I would walk across the oceans
To find you and only you
I speak your name, will you answer me?
I am your Soul, I am your Heart.
(279 characters)

From Anju at My Life..My Thoughts:
The message read,
“Hey! You, the most wonderful person on earth to find me!
Please do me 2 favours.
   i)Do at least 1 good deed per day.
   ii)When you are ready to do (i) throw me back to water!”
Immediately she packed it in the bottle and threw it into the ocean.
(261 Characters)

From Peter at Peter’s Pondering:
The last thing she needed, another bloody message in a bottle!
She’d come to this deserted island to finish her novel and it appeared to be on a major message in a bottle route. This was the 17th so far!
However, this one may perhaps prove useful, it was from a stranded publisher!
(280 characters)

From Jannat at Be Happy:
Totally alone and depressed, Jay walked along the beach; here she finds tranquillity and peace.
While walking she discovered a bottle with a letter which says, ‘You’re allowed to scream and cry but do not give up.’ She sticks to what it says and it completely changes her life.
(278 characters)

From Leena at Soul Connection:
Hey Look Wht I Found
Wooo Message Bottle.Open It Quickly
UNBELIEVABLE
What
I Had Thrown This Bottle Couple Of Years Back From Another Country.
And Your Msg?
Fulfill Every Wish Of D Reader
And Your Wish
To Meet True Love Of My Life
I LOVE YOU.. (He Kneels Down And Proposes Her With A Ring)

Wonderful Tales this week! For this week, a photograph I took of the candle in the window of the curved stairwell of my century-old home. It’s a favorite roost of my cats by day. There is an old tree just outside in my neighbor’s yard that is often teeming with squirrels and birds. It is a lovely tradition to have a candle in the window. Where I live, people have candles in their windows year-round. Not just during the holidays. But whatever the tradition, there is something about a candle in the darkness. There is always a story to be told. I’m looking forward to reading your tales. It is the perfect way, I think, to pass the time over a cup of tea on a long mid-winter night. Happy Yule.

 Twittering Tale #63 – 19 December 2017

Photo by Kat Myrman

From the inside, looking
out, there is nothing but
darkness, but from the
outside looking in, there
is a golden flush of
flickering light dancing
on the walls of a place
someone calls home.

~kat

(188 Characters)