Last week’s prompt was It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye and write a story, poem, whatever you chose on that topic.
Nthato on A-Scribe To Describe wrote a great short based on saying goodbye:
Dog-Gone
One always remembers something in particular about a memorable day and for me it was the sun. For a July afternoon mid-winter, the sun was rather bright and the warmth welcome. Of course it was not merely the sun that made the day memorable, this was South Africa after all. It was, rather, the incident that occurred at the corner of Rae Frankel and Hennie Alberts somewhere in Albertsdal or Alberview… it could be Alberton. That detail is fuzzy. The smell of MacDonalds however is still clear and to this day, the smell reminds me of this incident. This… accident.
I won’t go into details, it was a pretty gory scene but in short the dog was hit by a car. Although the driver sped off, we were able to pull up his information through the security system that had been installed within the animal. I guess 30 years ago this would be a weird thing to say or expect any animal to be fitted with but robotics have advanced far enough now that this is a regular occurrence.
A number of people had piled out of the McDonalds, and we all huddled around the whimpering animal who was now clearly more machine than he was flesh. He whimpered mechanically, blue eyes flickering on and off as though it was attempting to stave off its imminent shut down. There was no talk of helping the animal or saving its memory chip for the owner, instead the main question was asking how far the ‘Cycle Bin was. What I remember far clearer was not the animal itself, but the lack of apathy from the people around me, as though the fact that the dog was a machine changes the fact that someone out there loved this dog.
I bent towards the animal, watching it struggle to tilt its head towards me. Being a machine I knew it would not bite as a regular hurt dog might, it was not in its programming, but I wondered if it would still respond to touch as my hand gingerly swept over the fur. It let out a soft whimper then a loud whirring noise rose from within the head. A few seconds later its eyes lit up bright: the projection of a young boy appeared, pouting .
“Sam boy,” the boy spoke to his dog, whose ears had perked up, “I hope you’ve been a good boy. I want you to know I love you boy, and you can shut down now. If anyone is watching this, don’t worry about Sam’s memory chip…we have a copy of it. I hope you tried to comfort him for me, and, and said…” the boy sniffled. His shoulders slumped. The projection switched off.
Here’s mine, a prose poem:
We had been friends for eight years. Secrets were shared, memories were made. We laughed, we cried, we even argued sometimes. We were always there for each other up until high school.
She wanted a new image, I was happy with my old one. She was in the high classes and I was in the low classes. She made new friends, I kept my old ones. She became popular, I became a target.
We have not been friends for five years. I left without saying goodbye and she never understood why. I still remember the memories of our happier times.
Thanks, Nthato! I hope you all enjoyed our stories. Now onto this week’s prompt…
Make your characters talk the talk and not walk the walk.
Tell a story using only dialogue and the occasional quick tag. Let your characters speak enough to tell the readers the who, what, when, where, why, and how.
Tell, don’t show.
If you choose to participate, post your work in the comments. I’d love to see what you come up with.
Next Friday, before revealing the next prompt, I’ll post my version of the prompt along with anyone else who participates with a link back to their blog.
Happy writing!
