Word prompt flash fiction
He Wasn’t Standing Where He Was Supposed To Be
…but Billy was
This piece of fiction was written using word prompts. See below for more details.
He Wasn’t Standing Where He Was Supposed To Be
I rushed to the door and darted out from beneath the shop canopy into the street. Behind me, in hot pursuit, was the cashier. Despite his age, he was almost as fast as me, thanks to my gimpy gait. Minutes earlier, he watched me sneak a chocolate bar from the candy aisle into my pocket.
Like a well-oiled machine, this was all working out just as I’d planned. Earlier this morning, I stomped down hard on a rose stem from my mother’s garden, making sure a thorn punctured the ball of my foot. This made me limp, causing soreness with every step. It was so important that I be viewed as a bit of a charity case. Nothing, not even pain, was too much to endure for the end result.
The cashier caught up to me, grabbed my arm, and shouted, “Show me what’s in your pocket. I saw you take that chocolate bar. You can’t steal stuff and expect to get away with it.”
I hopped two steps and leaned against the wall of a nearby building, holding my injured foot pitifully off the ground. It throbbed intensely after running on it, so my grimace was sincere. Opening my eyes wide, I gave him a mournful look.
“I’m sorry, Mister. I started thinking about all that candy and it seemed like a good way to help me forget how much my foot hurts,” I said. “I was just daydreaming about the taste of this chocolate bar, and I pocketed it without thinking.”
I sobbed for a minute to emphasize my point, and then continued, “I knew right away you saw me do it and that you probably thought I was stealing, so I — I ran. Or hobbled, anyway.” I gave a loud sniff. “I don’t want to go to pp-prison.”
Just as expected, the cranky old man’s expression softened.
Convinced that I had drawn things out long enough, I seized the moment. I reached into my pockets and pulled out the chocolate bar from one and a few dollars from the other. I offered it all to the cashier.
“Here,” I said, “I really did mean to pay for it. You can have my money, and I’ll give you the candy bar back, too.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” said the cashier. “This one’s on me. But, be more careful from here on out. This sort of mistake doesn’t often work out so well.”
“No, sir, it certainly doesn’t.”
I grinned inwardly and pictured my friend and shoplifting partner, Billy. By now, he’d be waiting for me in the back alley with bags full of candy and other stuff for each of us, stolen while I’d lured the unsuspecting cashier out of the otherwise unattended shop.
We were so good at this.
Word prompt writing sometimes practically writes itself
I used all of the words provided by the writing challenge to write this story but there was also an image supplied, which I decided not to use. After I finished writing, however, I realized my plot had been influenced subconsciously by the photo which then helped to write my title.
Do you see how, although completely unintentionally, the image (see list below) influenced my story?
By the way, despite having concocted a rather elaborate shoplifting plan, I have never (ever) stolen anything! I’m a little nonplussed by how easily I came up with such a devious plot. 😳
This story was written in response to the Words for Wednesday Challenge on 4/4/21. The prompts are provided this month by Wisewebwoman on her blog. I encourage you to go to the comments there and read the other stories writers have posted.
This week, there were two lists of words and an image with a caption, all of which were taken from The Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen. Here are the prompts:
Canopy, Thorn, Machine, Charity and/or Limp, Aisle, Nothing, Sneak and/or a photo of artwork (click here to view) by Leonard Cohen, described in this book review as “A very loose self-portrait sketch is accompanied by the words, “I believe that you are standing in the place where I am supposed to be standing.”
A version of this story first appeared on my blog, The Most–– of Every Moment.