PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook
Nancy loved pottering about with Mum. Today they were planting flowers. Or they would once Mum found her garden tools.
“It’s as if they crawl off on their own.” she muttered to herself digging through piles of junk in their garden shed.
“Maybe the gnomes came to borrow them.” mused Nancy.
Mum mumbled something about gnomes and arses.
Cinnamon sticks poked out off one shelf, catching Nancy’s eye.
“See! The gnomes replace what they borrow with cinnamon sticks.”
“Flip! so this is where I stuffed these bloody cinnamon sticks. Maybe I should check the spice cupboard for my garden tools.”
100 words
My very first instinct was to write some grisly murder / thriller. Images of leaves, dried twigs and wintry scenes has this effect on me. I pushed myself to find something different, stretch my creative muscles a bit. Get the rusty cogwheels turning. There’s a bundle of twigs on the makeshift shelving that look like cinnamon sticks. (Left on image). And I went with that!
Hope you enjoy the break from my dark side. Anyone who is a busy parent juggling work (housework or career or both), fitness habits, hobbies, child-rearing will know that feeling of confusion upon discovering misplaced items. And I doubt that Mum will find her tools in the spice cupboard. That would be too easy.
Write a story in 100 words or less, and join Friday Fictioneers. Hosted by our friend Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. Click the icon to read more flash fiction in different genres.
Fajr, Books & That First Cuppa 
That brought a wry smile to my face, Fatima
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Could you stretch that wry smile into a grin 😉 Glad it made you smile, Neil! Thank you.
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Tell me another joke next week and I’ll try
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I can certainly relate to this – amazing what keeps turning up in the garden shed 🙂
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Ha ha! Thank you, Iain.
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Yes, I can see the link with cinnamon sticks. Nicely done.
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Thank you, Sandra. I had no idea about bug hotels till today. Thanks for the photo, turned out to be quite educational.
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LOL! That could happen to me all too easily.
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Do you also look for keys that you’re holding in your hand? Sometimes I do. Lol, thanks for commenting Audrey.
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I generally know what’s in my hand, but have been known to leave my keys in the freezer.
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Hahaha!
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Ha ha – this was fun to read. (And who hasn’t put things in the wrong place?)
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
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Glad it provided some fun for you, Susan! Thank you.
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I can totally relate to misplacing things. Just the other day I was frantically looking for my car keys…I looked and looked, only to find them in the same drawer I already looked several times before! 🙂
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Amazing how we have selective sight at times! I do that too. Thank you for commenting:)
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Lovely story, pretty relatable too. Nice story, Fatima.
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I like the realistic way you’ve had Mum censor her bad language for the sake of her daughter. And I love the gentle humour. It’s an excellent take on the prompt.
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Nice mother daughter bonding I wasnt aware that mothers could cuss until i was well into college ( that is, beyond the obligatory D*** word that accompanied getting burnt while ironing).
Its sweet how comfortable they are together, friends through the generations. Now youre going to make me cry!😢
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Yup, I can relate, too. This gave me a good chuckle. A lovely, fun story.
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I am heading toward the dark and grisly but I liked your take on the prompt. Maybe I will give mine more thought. Nicely done
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Dear Fatima,
I got a chuckle out of this one. Who amongst us don’t occasionally misplace something? We all need to write a happy story once in a while. 😉
Shalom,
Rochelle
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I did like this very much. I think it’s nice to go with the light side every once in a while. I especially like the fact that mum thinks her garden tools might be in the spice cabinet! 🙂
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Small tools definitely grow invisible legs and wander off round here. Or maybe the gnomes take them. An imaginative take.
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Such great voices in this piece! ‘Gnomes and arses’ made me laugh. I understand this feeling well!
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It is good to stretch the boundaries, I enjoyed this very much,
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I love the dialogue–so much personality and relationship shown in so few words!
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We’re all getting there, or will get there eventually, so nothing to laugh about 🙂
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Oh dear! The things we keep finding in our fridge.
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Ha … love the conclusion, there is a logic to every mess, you just have to know how to decode it.
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I love this, Fatima. Nothing wrong with avoiding the macabre… And we have all, at one time or another misplaced stuff…
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Entirely plausible. You captured the mum’s confusion and the child’s imagination so well. Maybe the tools are in the car 😀
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Very fun read.
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