The Word Worker

Tag: Disasters

  • I Remember

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    wordworkerrussell
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    I remember.The stunned faces of teenagers watching horrific history play out in real time on classroom tvs. I remember.Teachers calling relatives in New York and crying for missing loved ones and the inevitable death toll. I remember. The face of a president in a room full of children when the news was whispered in his…

  • Blog Thursday Prompt: The Kettle

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    wordworkerrussell
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    “It’s not my fault! The kettle began it!” “Please, do go on. How exactly did the kettle begin it?” “Weelll… it just sat there so… so… sitty!” “I see. It was ‘sitty.’ And the problem with that is what, exactly?” “Sitting is just so boring! How could it just not do anything?” “So, you decided…

  • Cursed City

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    wordworkerrussell
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    Fifteen years since she had fled the city, a child in a handful of refugees with nothing to feel but pain. Child or not, that last view of the city had been burned into her memory as surely as the real fires had marked her face. She frowned, old scars pulling tight; surely it should…

  • Footprints

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    wordworkerrussell
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    The old ones called these valleys the footprints of the gods. Impossibly pressed between rocky conifer peaks, the rich dark soil harbored fertile fields and close-knit villages. The only paths in led through crevices and over streams accessible only by foot, cutting us off from all but the most adventurous outsiders. Few even of those…

  • The Bell

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    wordworkerrussell
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    For generations the bell had rung morning and night, its peals joining the crashing waves in a symphony of sound. The five peaks of the landside bore the code for its messages. Fair weather, foul, days of worship, and days of mourning. The fifth mark, on the center peak, had long been ignored by the…

  • Network

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    wordworkerrussell
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    The storm clouds rolled in to compete with the afternoon’s brilliant blue sky. Right on schedule, Lije thought with satisfaction. He settled onto the bench beneath the metal pergola to watch the show. It was a particularly fine one today. He had put the finishing touches on it himself only this morning, and rather regretted…

  • Book Review: The Christmas Crocodile

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    wordworkerrussell
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    A most unusual present shows up under the tree on Christmas Eve and begins to wreak havoc! Presents get eaten, the feast gets stolen, even the decorations are shredded. No one knows what to do! Even Alice Jayne finally locks that croc in the cellar where he can’t destroy anything else. But no one should…

  • The Gates

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    wordworkerrussell
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    Sasha loved the Gates. They were older than memory or record, if the old ones could be believed, though they showed no sign of age. Unlike the longhouse built around them, the burnished wood of which had grayed and rotted several times even in her short lifespan. She ran a hand over the stone, soaking…

  • Empty

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    wordworkerrussell
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    The blast zone was eerily quiet. Sophie walked slowly over the dead ground, footfalls crunchy in the charcoaled remains of the world she had known. Her heart thudded, as loud as the sobbing breath heaving in and out of her lungs. Already long shadows fingered the valley, shades of glory made barren. The time between…

  • Mama’s Terrible, Horrible, No-good, Very Bad Day

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    wordworkerrussell
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    We all have them. The days that you know you should have just stayed in bed. Instead you dragged yourself out of the comfy covers and made your sleepy, grumpy kids follow suit. The day that your morning prayer with the kids is an exercise in desperation because in the ten minutes you’ve been awake…