Elma is a serial #freewrite story I started Sunday before last. In #Freewrite Land, Saturday is the end of the week, marked by the #WeekendFreewrite, so I thought I would celebrate by bringing together all this weeks Elma story and do a reading too. The next instalment of Elma will be Sunday.
You can find the readings for the first 6 episodes here: https://steemit.com/freewrite/@felt.buzz/elma-week-one-felt-buzz-reads-the-first-6-freewrite-instalments-of-his-new-freewrite-series
Note: 50% of the SBD payout of this post will go to the
The reading:
If you prefer to read them here they are, all in one place:
"a big burning ball of elephant turd and rabbit droppings" (prompt: bamboo)
That night, in the tiny hotel bedroom - that stank of stale cigerette smoke and old socks - on the bed with the woven bamboo headboard, that had so freaked her out when she first saw it, Elma had her first dream that was to come true.
She dreamed that she was on a plane. Sitting next to her was an old man, dressed smartly but not quite right, as if someone else had dressed him. As the flight took off the old man mumbled to himself about rabbits and elephants and how they needed to learn to get along, otherwise the world was going to explode in a big burning ball of elephant turd and rabbit droppings. And then, just as Elma was beginning to wonder if she should call the steward, the man slumped forward in his seat. It was at this point that Elma did call the steward, as she realised that the man was having some form of stroke.
When she woke up, Elma dismissed the dream, and thought nothing of it until she was in the queue to passport control on the way home. And there in front of her was the man in her dreams...
…
"a sudden loud silence" (prompt: hook)
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@felt.buzz/a-sudden-loud-silence-a-five-minute-freewrite
Elma was shaken from her memories by a sudden loud silence.
She looked around her. The rain had stopped. Cautiously she looked out from the bus shelter. The road looked worse than it normally did, broken bits of it lay all around, but strangely everything else seemed okay.
The trees, she noticed, seemed unharmed.
Putting the basket over her head (just in case the rain started again) Elma ventured forth from the bus shelter. Undecided whether to go back to the safety of her home, or forward to the shops she dithered for a moment. She heard a noise, from across the street.
"Elma!"
It was Old Bill! Elma liked Old Bill. The kids were scared of him because he only had one hand and refused the new prosthesis, preferring to wear a hook, instead. Sometimes he would wear a patch over one eye and walk down the street shouting "ahoy me hearties".
Old Bill was a bit of a card...
…
"Weather chat" (prompt: sweater)
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@felt.buzz/weather-chat-a-five-minute-freewrite
Old Bill beckoned Elma over with his hook.
"Hey Elma!" he called. "I need some help!"
Elma, conscious she must look a bit of an idiot with her basket on her head, took it off and tried to walk with at least some dignity towards her friend. He was wearing a purple and yellow sweater, one that Elma recognised immediately, because she had knitted it for him last winter. Bill smiled as she approached.
"What about that storm!" he said. "My house hasn't got any windows left. What about yours?" Elma shrugged.
"I'm just grateful to be alive, Bill," she said. "I took shelter when the rain started, luckily, otherwise I'd have more than just a hole in my beehive!" She pointed at the crater that ran through to her cranium. Bill looked at it and whistled.
"My! That is nasty! I'd say you were lucky you have that hairstyle, Elma!"
They chatted about the possibility that the end of the world may have just started, and then Bill remembered what it was he wanted help with...
…
"hoarder" (prompt: the entryway)
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@felt.buzz/hoarder-a-five-minute-freewrite
"I need your help," Old Bill said, waving his hook in the general direction of his house.
Elma nodded. "Anything I can do, I'd be glad to, you know that, Bill."
Old Bill smiled. "It's a bit awkward," he said. "You'd better come and look."
Curious, Elma followed Bill into his house. The entryway was crowded with boxes and old newspapers. Bill was a bit of a hoarder. Elma had helped him clear some stuff last year, but it didn't go very well. Bill didn't like to let go of things.
"That's how I lost my hand!" he laughed, when Elma challenged him. "In the war. I didn't let go of the grenade quick enough!"
Elma wasn't sure if he was joking, or not, and didn't like to press it.
"Mind how you go," Bill said, squeezing past a particularly large box. "It's up here." He started up the steps and Elma followed. Once up, he pointed to the bathroom. "Can you have a look in the shower and tell me if you see what I see?"
Elma looked at him, and gulped. "It's not a spider, is it Bill?" she asked. "You know I don't do spiders."
"No," Bill said, looking slighted perturbed. "It's not a spider..."
…
"off yer trolley!" (prompt: trolley)
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@felt.buzz/off-yer-trolley-a-five-minute-freewrite
With her heart in her mouth (not literally, you understand: she would be dead) Elma pulled back the shower curtain. Under the shower, was a full size shopping trolley.
Elma looked at Bill.
"What?" she said.
"I know," Bill said. "Weird isn't it?"
Elma thought it was very weird.
"You didn't put it there then?" she asked.
"No," Bill said, expertly scratching his head with his hook. "I had a shower, and it wasn't there, then I got out dried myself off, and then the rain started, so I looked out the window for a bit until the rain started breaking windows and then I thought, better move away from the breaking glass. Then I heard a sound like a massive bang, from the bathroom, and when I looked there it was. A shopping trolley in the shower."
Elma took another look. Yep, still there. She looked at the ceiling. It seemed intact, nothing broken. There was no way anyone could have got it in the front door, not with all those newspapers and boxes. Let alone trying to get it up the stairs.
Very odd.
"Very odd," Elma said, voicing her thoughts.
"That was what I thought," Bill said.
…
"Shower Pest" (prompt: flea)
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@felt.buzz/shower-pest-a-five-minute-freewrite
"Do you think it has something to do with the storm?" Elma asked. "I mean, it seems unlikely. But the rain was very odd."
Bill nodded. "I wondered that," he said. "It certainly did seem a little aggressive."
Elma thought she would just have one more look at the shopping trolley. Make sure it definitely was there, and she wasn't just sharing some kind of hallucination, like that time her and Margot had done a bunch of mushrooms and gone to the Women's Institute meeting. She peeked around the shower curtain.
The trolley had vanished.
However, something else sat in the shower instead. It looked very much like a giant flea. But it wore a top hat and carried a cane under one of it's legs.
"Good evening!" said the flea, lifting its hat in greeting.
Which was very odd, Elma thought. Firstly, because fleas weren't known for their communication skills; secondly, they weren't usually very polite; and thirdly - and most importantly, as far as Elma was concerned - because it was the morning...
