FUN AND GAMES

Crossing State Borders

May/June Contest Writers’ Prompt #7

This prompt was sparked by a recent conversation I had with my son, the Zen Master. You may remember him from my series.

Yes, I know, I’ve fallen behind in publishing the series. I do have a new story in draft. The conversations have in no way ended. I’ve just been a bit busy.

We were talking about this dilemma over the whole staying home thing. He, being in his state of Massachusetts, and me, here in New York.

He told me, “you know mom, you can’t come here to visit. Having a New York license plate in Massachusetts is really looking for trouble right now.”

Okay, his language wasn’t all that flowery. It was really more direct and edging toward vulgarity.

“Oh….. right. They are afraid of Covid, and don’t want those virus infested New Yorker’s hanging around their state, right?”

So, I suggested he come here for a visit. We’ve both been quarantined for 3 months, with no symptoms, and we miss each other. I miss playing card games with him, eating dinner and laughing. We decided we’d do just that. He’s been working from home. Here with me in New York has always been his home — and his employer doesn’t know where he’s sitting to work, so he might as well sit here!

But in the meantime, I asked him if he knew anything about what it was like to cross the state borders. Especially since we’d just gotten done discussing a possible road trip to the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, and planning it for whenever the Canadian border might open — who knows when that might be! We imagined states closing borders, having check points, and demanding temperature checks and having secret passwords.

For instance, you are waiting in a long line of cars to cross over into Vermont. And the state police stop each car and ask you, “What’s the state motto?” And they MUST ask because you might have rented a car from Hertz or Enterprise with a New Hampshire license plate — but how do they know you are REALLY from New Hampshire? And you shout out of the window — “Live Free or Die!” as the police fist pump at you in joyous recognition. Yeah, okay. That seemed funnier while we were talking on the phone.

This writers’ challenge is to imagine crossing a state border from one state to another, and then weave a clever funny tale that uses state mottos. Warning — you’ll be surprised how many of them require translation.

Have fun with this. I have NO IDEA where this is going to go. Good luck.

Here’s a web site that can help.

This is another prompt in service to the May-June contest.