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. 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!

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.

Before we get to this week’s roundup there is a missed (sorry JP, your link got lost in my approval folder…wierd) and a late entry (welcome to the challenge Frank!) for week 125 – The Unmade Bed…

By JP at Wide-Eyed Wanderer
Just Another Night
“Passion isn’t love, there are no knights in shining armor, and no happily ever afters,” she whispered to the mirror. A single tear slid down her cheek as she clasped the diamond necklace. She wiped it away, put a smile on her face and walked out to the waiting Mercedes.
character count 273

By Frank at Frank Prem Poetry:
Wrinkles
rumpling
from your body
a shape
you
laid and left
unmade
am I
I bunch
my fists
in doona
close my eyes
against
a weeping
see you dancing there
as little wights
all darting
staying away
beyond my reach
I touch a pillow
follow
with my hand
all your tracks
mapped out
and familiar
as wrinkles

Twittering Tale #126 – The Roundup

Starting us off…
The Sign
“There’s your sign Donna.” 
“No it’s not, Jon. I meant stars aligning. You know, magic.”
“Looks like a sign to me. Go on, have a look.”
Donna stepped inside. The scent of roses filled the candlelit room. She turned to find Jon on one knee. 
“Well? Whadya think?”
“Best sign ever.”
~kat
275 Characters

By MSJadeli at Tao Talk:
Donna’s phone dinged.
Text: “bring pkg to south end of burlingame street at 9”
She texted, “where exactly?”
Return text: “you’ll see”
At 8:50, Donna saw the red neon sign. She parked the car in the shadows and started walking.
Someone grabbed her from behind. Everything went black.
[280 characters]

By Reena at ReInventions:
It Happens
“I like the superimposition of neon signs on the original lettering.”
“It looks disoriented to me.”
“You are right, but that is how expectations and dreams change. It could be a different color pointing in a different direction tomorrow.”
(236 characters)

By The Dark Netizen:
The Sign
The sign reads that. I had asked for a sign from the heavens. I could not see where I was going in life. I needed some divine intervention to help me think. The man on top listened to me, and pointed me in the correct direction. The liquor store….
Character Count: 260

By Amritha at Igniting Hope:
This is It!
Having waited for the right moment, wondering about the if’s and but’s, the realization finally dawned. The reharsing mind took a stand. 
“My life – My way. This is it”. 
People who matter don’t mind and those who mind don’t matter!
When she smiled this time, her soul smiled along. 
(280 characters)

By Kristian at Tales From the Mind of Kristian:
Sign Merchant
The neon sign glowed brightly despite being the middle of the day.
“This is it!” said the sign.
Looking at the dilapidated building he felt a victim of some hoax. The sign clearly had an H missing between the S and the I.
Surely this couldn’t be the merchant’s guild?
[264 Characters]

By Lady Lee at Lady Lee Manila:
This is It!
Springtime splendour
This is it at last
Days are getting warmer
Winter cold has passed
This is it at last
When everything is bright
No more overcast
Perfect day to fly kite
Days are getting warmer
And birds are singing
Watch them bloom the flowers
Time to go biking
(255 characters)

By Fandango at This, That, and the Other:
My New Bar
“So what are you going to call your new bar?” David asked.
“This Is It,” Ben said.
“This is what?” David asked.
“My new bar.”
“You’re calling your new bar ‘My New Bar’?”
“No. This Is It!”
“Fine, if you don’t want to tell me, don’t. I can never get a straight answer out of you, anyway.”
(280 characters)

By Willow at WillowDot21:
This is It
A Sign From Above
Gab returned the tools he had borrowed from Joseph. Mary smiled and offered him a cuppa. Gab enjoyed tea and a chat with the big man’s mum.
Meanwhile Satan was stunned who had dared to put up that dodgy sign at the entrance to his domain. Gab smiled at Mary, was the tide turning?
(280 Characters)

By Jo at A Creative PTSD Gal:
Desert Proof
Deep in the desolate desert, a rumored oasis sits. 
Shawn’s dad swore it was there but warned that it’s a wasteland for society’s failures to quell their thirst.
Ten long days he traveled and at the end of the tenth night, ‘THIS IS IT’ glowed in the darkness.
Now he sits and drinks.
Characters: 280

By Sadje at Keep It Alive:
The Sign
The kids were so excited to be in the treasure hunt. They were given a map each with a set of clues. They reach the derelict barn one after the other but nobody knew where to go from there. Suddenly Maisie looked up and saw the sign, she pointed to it and said, look here is it!
Character count: 279

By CSNelson at Don’t Forget the Half:
This is It!
Anna quickly realized she’d fallen victim to another bad date. There she stood near an excited Sam as he announced choices of eateries, each sounding more absurd than the last.
“This Is It!”
“Might-As-Well”
“Crooks Corner”
Anna thought, could these be signs of the night ahead?
(278 char)

By Di at Pensitivity101:
‘Property Bargain!’ the ad read, so we made a phone call.
‘You can’t miss it’, the agent had said. ‘It’s clearly signed’.
Well, he got that right.
144 characters.

By Melanie at Sparks From a Combustible Mind:
Neon No
John stared at the old building. He remembered the night he took Suzanne dancing at the “IT” Club.  The place was responsible for his situation, tied to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, and the death of Suzanne. They were so young. He should never have taken that last drink.
(Character Count 281).

By Regina from Help from Heaven:
A Safe Place
Hurt badly, she drove. “Lord, I need a safe place. Please, give me a sign!” She nearly missed it. “This is It” flickered on as she came up to the exit! It led her to a hidden women’s shelter. She entered and the sign went dark, awaiting the next desperate soul. God had answered. 
(279 characters)

By Maranda at Maranda Russell:
This is It
“It was meant to be my swan song. I pulled out all the stops…the moonwalk,
the sequins, the white glove, the gangster getup for Smooth Criminal.
It was the only chance my children would ever have to see me live on tour. When I said This Is It, I meant it, but it came too soon…”
(280 characters)

By Teresa at The Haunted Wordsmith:
This Way, Cheryl
Cheryl was not the brightest bulb in the box. She wasn’t even the dullest star in the night sky. Everything in her life had to be spelled out for her in clear, unmistakable terms. Even the Grim Reaper had to spell things out for her.
233-character tale

By Tessa at Tessa Can Do It! Positivity is Catching!:
Donna searched for a sign for the scavenger hunt. She was in an industrial park.
She found a sign that said, “THIS IS IT!” and pointed down to a box.
She heard a yip!
Opening the box, she found a puppy. What can you expect from a scavenger hunt put on by the SPCA?
263 characters

By Deb at Twenty Four:
The sign had said it all, ‘This Is It’ but that had been years ago and now it was all just a decrepit old ruin. Some would have shaken their heads and walked away but not her.
She’d seen opportunity and she’d been right.
Tours of the old nightclub had proven a runaway success.
(276 characters)

By Ennle at Abandoned Amenities:
This Is Our Place

Bored with burgers, pizzaHungry for something newExciting…we drove aroundExploring, found old part of Town, a little scary but weWere young-in-love-adventurersAnd there it was, crazy signLured us into best un-celebratedRestaurant for international cuisineThis is our place now!

By Hayley at The Story Files:
A Sign
Following the directions, Ben arrived outside the building. Taking a deep breath, he hoped this job interview was a success. He knocked on the door and whilst he waited, noticed a sign above. He smiled and agreed with the words.
Yes. This is it, he thought.

By Beatrix at The Pink Seam:
Rock-Bottom
The drugs, the partying, the random men fellated before depraved onlookers—her goal was to find her ‘rock-bottom’ so that she might start over from there.
Standing under that alley sign to take her last hit, had she realized? The police did..when they removed her body.
 (270 characters)

By Peter at Peter’s Pondering:
Detective Mike (Dense) Pence, received the tip from Donald, his C.I.
It’s going to be big, really big, Donald said! A whole lot of bad people will be there, and you’ll catch the lot. They are meeting at the corner of 5th and Main. You can’t miss it!
Mike couldn’t find the place!
(280 characters)

By Kate at Everywhere and Nowhere:
Killer
‘I wonder what it is?”
‘What are you talking about?’
‘That sign we just past on the abandoned building’
‘What did it say’
‘This is it, in a big arrow’
‘Maybe it’s for those annoying characters in horror movies that always go to the creepiest place when there is a killer on the loose.’
Characters: 280

By Deepa at Sync with Deep:
this is it!
aren’t we
lollygagging
within ourselves?
us 
fooling our minds
and 
our minds
fooling us… 

By JP at the Wide-Eyed Wanderer:
Old McDonald
A grim reminder of the days when the McDonalds had run the little side show still glowed neon. The sign’s tip fell. It now pointed at a red stain where Old McDonald had been eaten by the tigers he once held captive. It was a gruesome sight, still it did bring in the tourists.
Character count 278

By John at Broadsides:
The signature dish, at Harold’s café in Hastings is rib eye steak, served rare, with a rich Normandy sauce and small eyeball potatoes pierced on an arrow-shaped kebab stick.. If you ask any local for directions to Harold’s café they will tell you, just follow the arrow.

Well, it’s a wrap! Thank you to everyone who joined the challenge last week. As always, your tales are wonderful! For this week a bit of “noir”. The dictionary states that noir, while being French for the color black, is also the description for crime fiction featuring hard-boiled cynical characters and bleak sleazy settings. I love this photo by Pixel2013 at Pixabay.com. It has that noir quality to it, don’t you think? This week, let’s have a little mystery and intrigue, or whatever strikes your fancy, in 280 chararacters or less, and “just the facts, ma’am” (how many of you are old enough to know that quote? ;)). Have fun and I’ll see you next week at the roundup.

Twittering Tales #127 – 12 March 2019

Red

Murdoch took a drag off his Lucky Strike. Smoke mingled with the steam bellowing from her pistons.

Red was a real beauty, with sleek lines, a classic, but she was stuck; a pile of cold iron and steel, she had all but given up.

Then she whispered, “I think I can…”

And she did.

~kat