The Word Worker

Tag: Modern

  • 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…

  • The House

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    wordworkerrussell
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    She trailed her fingers along the wooden bannister, stepping carefully to avoid tripping over the litter of decay. The air smelled faintly musty, but the open front door lit up the foyer with clear sunlight. She turned and grinned at her companions. Chuck groaned. “I know that look,” he told the real estate agent with…

  • The Row

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    wordworkerrussell
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    The Grand Experiment, the village council called it. Marigold sniffed; Mayor Belfast always did tend toward the dramatic. Bunch of nonsense, in her opinion. What folk were thinking electing that bunch of nincompoops she would never know. Six months they had wasted building the stupid things. A whole row of cottages made entirely of turf.…

  • The Proposal

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    wordworkerrussell
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    “Who’s that trip-trapping over my bridge?” “Connor!” Emily leaned over the rail, her voice hushed but quivering with laughter. “What do you think you’re doing? They’ll kick us out!” “Not if the bridge troll eats them first!” Connor growled, then coughed as his vocal cords protested. He ducked out from under the boards and hopped…

  • A Chicken Story

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    wordworkerrussell
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    Two weeks ago we embarked on a new adventure by adding six chicks to our flock of three. I grew up with chickens; I thought I was prepared. From day one these birds set out to prove me wrong. To begin with, I didn’t realize how small four week old pullets were under all those…

  • The Locker

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    wordworkerrussell
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    Everyone knew Locker 410 was odd. Not even the maintenance man, who had been with the school since it’s founding, remembered it being assigned to anyone. He got a funny look whenever someone asked about it, mumbled about something needing to be cleaned, and shuffled away as fast as his aging feet would carry him.…

  • The Beach

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    wordworkerrussell
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    “Saul, wait!” Lily laughed breathlessly as her bare feet slung sand behind her. “I lost my sandals and the sand is on fire!” “Not as hot as the boardwalk,” her brother yelped, dancing on his toes from sand to board and back again. “Hurry up, it’s too hot to be out of the water!” “Well,…

  • Heir

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    wordworkerrussell
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    It was a strange place for a school, high in the Alps where the crags rose so steeply that the chateau stuck out of the mountainside like a hitchhiker’s thumb. Telian was sure the founders had been goats; no one else would have thought all these stairs would be a good idea. And, on the…

  • The Town

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    wordworkerrussell
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    The hot glue gun sat cooling beside his hand. A quick inspection of the board, a wiggle here or tap there, showed nothing loose or out of place. It was finally finished. How long had it taken him to figure out the right materials for those mossy roofs? He couldn’t even remember. It hadn’t mattered,…

  • Writer’s Block

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    wordworkerrussell
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    Louise tossed her glasses down on the table and massaged her aching head with tense fingers. How long had she been sitting here, trying to make the words come? Long enough for the tea she had made to be cold and bitter, at least. The rain made watching the passage of the sun impossible, and…