There is a very good reason when my mother calls us to eat and we respond immediately. We would take however much we want and the last one would have to finish up whatever that is left over to prevent food waste.
My mother would cook enough for 6 people; there are only 4 of us. So naturally, my father is the one to finish everything. Because he is always getting distracted by his phone.
Thank god for mobile phone addiction.
photo by Ryan Hafey via Unsplash
He absentmindedly gazed at the truck as he rummaged around the workshop, looking for parts to fix it.
His dream will not be denied.
Of travelling out the mountains into civilisation – or what is left of it after the Great Annihilation.
If you are interested, the prompt is linked below.
You’ll find full guidelines on the TLT page – here’s the tl;dr:
Happy three-lining!
Prompt: Three Line Tales, Week 222
Let hear the roars!
I am sharing this here too. If any young ones here are active users on Medium or want to be, this could be the challenge for you:
Photo by Alec Favale via Unsplash
This is a call for submissions and your second challenge of this year. Young Minds of Medium — this is it!Submissions will be reviewed and posted on Mondays and Fridays during the first two weeks of May. I want to hear from you. I want to feel, connect with, and fall in love with the words you would like to share with the world. Currently, we are dealing with Coronavirus COVID-19, a global pandemic affecting hundreds of countries.
To say that a change is recognizable in everyone I know and love is an understatement. This particular challenge centers around what you’ve lost or…
View original post 426 more words
Circuit breaker in Singapore demands that we have to wear masks the moment we step out the door. Not that we have many places to go since only the essential services such as supermarkets and bakeries are open.
This leads to interesting conversations, when I go grocery shopping and come home with bags of groceries and my mother goes “How goes the robbery?” And I replied, “Not bad. It’s quite a steal on Ben and Jerry’s, two tubs for the price of one.”
Or when my father wears a mask and goes for a walk in our neighbourhood park early in the morning (that is still allowed) and I would ask him, “Where are you sneaking off to without Ma knowing?” and he replied, “Doing all the illegal things while we are still allowed to wear masks and the police cameras can’t see our faces.”
No one can fault my family for humour…
I have finally mastered an important skill during the circuit breaker in Singapore. The skill known as “facepalming”. I mean, I have always been an “eye-rolling” kind of guy, but then, I have lots of practice in facepalming as I received one exasperating work message after another.
I guess adding another skill to my repertoire of showing contempt does not hurt.
I can’t wait to go back to office to show off this new skill to my supervisor after the circuit breaker.
Photo by Jonathan Wheeler on Unsplash
“Well, well, well. This is new. But I guess there’s a first for everything.”
Startled, Damian spun around to face the owner of the voice.
Just a little further down the river where he stood, a lady was meticulously arranging her shawl so her bare shoulders would be covered; she was wearing a bare-shouldered dress. Raising her head, she gazed directly into his soul. “It doesn’t work that way.”
Damian frowned. “What doesn’t work that way?”
“Your wish. Unwittingly or not, you have found me to grant your wish. But I don’t have the power to rewrite the past, for I have a limit of interference.”
Damian’s frown only deepened before his eyes widened into realisation. “You are who everyone calls ‘The Witch’! The one who grants wishes.”
The corner of her mouth twitched in suppressed mirth. “Legend in living flesh. Although there are some who would call me by less flattering names.”
“If you can’t change the past, then what about the present?” he hedged, his mind already working on a different version of his wish.
“Oh?” The Witch drawled. “Are you sure you won’t regret your wish?”
The resolute look on Damian’s youthful face was enough an answer, but the Witch, with wisdom beyond anyone, let the silence hung between them to affirm his determination.
“No, I won’t! I want to relive that last day I saw my wife! Forever!” Unable to bear the silence, he finally roared.
Unfazed, the Witch lazily raised her hand to point across the river. “There, once you enter the waterwheel house, there’s no turning back,” The Witch warned.
Damian whipped his head in the direction she pointed and saw, for the first time, a waterwheel house. All that time he was there, he had never noticed it before. And he realised that somehow, they were across the river, standing in front of the house. The waterwheel was stationary.
The door creaked open, as if to welcome its owner. It was dark inside.
“As long as the waterwheel of that house spins, you’ll repeat that same day when you last saw your wife. And everything, I mean everything, remains unchanged,” she explained.
“I see.”
“Yet you still wish to go through with it,” the Witch raised her eyebrow. “Aren’t you casting a net into water to fish not for the moon but its reflection?” It was an observation, not a question.
Damian shrugged. “At least I’ll be happy,” he replied with a faraway look in his eyes. “If there is heaven, it will be reliving that same day. Exactly how I want it to be. That’s my wish”
Again, the Witch gazed thoughtfully at Damian. “What you think of as heaven is actually hell.”
Damian did not answer. The Witch seemed to stress on something during their exchange but Damian could not put his fingers on it; he was also too pre-occupied with his thoughts. Before the Witch could say anything else, Damian walked through the doorway of the waterwheel house, into the darkness.
The door swung close and the wheel, without warning, started to rotate. It had begun.
But the Witch shook her head sadly. “I tried to warn you. Time has corrupted you and twisted you in unimaginable ways. You shouldn’t have made that wish.”
It was too late. Damian could not hear her words; he was already experiencing the seventh loop of that day, when he walked into the house only to find his wife with the town’s sheriff.
They were both naked on the sofa in the living room.
In blind rage, Damian grabbed the fireplace poker and started to go after the sheriff, with every intention of killing him. Then he intended to claim his wife as his again, never to be apart. But that day always ended in the same way three hundred years ago - his wife, in sheer panic, grabbed the sheriff’s gun and shot Damian. Twice.
And because he wished to relive that day all over again, he could only watch helplessly from his body as they mutilated him in an attempt to cover their murder and their affair, dumping his body parts into the river.
The very spot where Damian’s spirit and the Witch met.
“You’re indeed still young and hot-headed when you died. That man you wanted to kill so much with your bare hands has been dead for a long time. Even their grandchildren are dead,” the Witch only shook her head before she raised her face to the sky.
“In a world as vast as ours, there bound to be many inexplicable events. They are what we call supernatural events. You could have made a wish to leave behind your anger and be reborn. Instead, your irrational fixation has cost you your chance at redemption,” she muttered to herself.
The Witch then lowered her head to stare at the waterwheel house again before waving her hands, turning it invisible so no one could intrude upon Damian’s space.
Damian’s wish to repeat that fateful day would be honoured.
Today is day 15 of the circuit breaker. The last time I went to office was 12 days ago for a necessary duty.
I fear for my sanity.
Because Singapore has extended the circuit breaker period to 1st June.
And I discovered I forgot to put my socks to wash after my last day in the office.
To which my mother replied, “It is still serving its mandatory 14-day quarantine period.”
Oh, how am I to survive my mother’s never-ending puns…
Image by Bikurgurl
“The moon is up, you go,” he insisted.
“But it’s not night yet, you idiot! We’ll get caught!” his accomplice retorted.
“But they’re not home yet, you idiot! This is the best time!” he insisted again.
“You never know. They might have dogs. Dogs!” his accomplice spat that word like it was an epithet.
“It’s either now or we starved,” he gave his accomplice a knowing look.
“Fine, I’ll go in. You watch my back,” his accomplice finally relented.
The two badgers slowly made their way out of the forest toward the house.
If you are interested, the prompt is linked below.
How to participate? A few guidelines as we begin….
Prompt: 100 Word Wednesday: Week 133
CCC#74
They were not supposed to tear down the towers – for reasons lost in dim history.
“But they’re useless!” the developer exclaimed.
“Those were the instructions left behind,” the mayor insisted.
“But they’re useless!”
“We’re not tearing these towers down. You’re welcome to look at other potential sites for your project, but those towers are off-limits.” The mayor’s tone was decisive and brooked no nonsense.
“Fine, we’ll look at other sites. But none will be as perfect as that site,” the developer acquiesced.
There was no point talking to the mayor – it would be much easier to rid that useless fool and installed someone of his own.
Those accursed towers! the developer glowered at the eyesore pinning his master. After years of searching, he finally discovered the sealing chamber of his master.
All he had to do was to rid the sealing towers and his master would walk again!
If you are interested, the prompt is linked below.
Welcome to my weekly challenge—open to all—just for FUN, FUN, FUN
Here’s how it works:
Every Wednesday I post a photo (this week it’s that one above.)
You respond with something CREATIVE
Here are some suggestions:
You have plenty of scope and only two criteria:
If you post a link in the comments section of this post I’ll be able to find it
If you include Crimson’s Creative Challenge as a heading, WP Search will find it (theory)
by ‘Searching’ in the WP Reader (fingers crossed)
Here’s wishing you inspirational explosions. And FUN.
Prompt: Crimson’s Creative Challenge #74
Hiding in the shadows is good – it is safe and no one will find him, not even his enemies.
He misjudged his enemy’s tenacity.
Just the light of from neon signage is enough for the sharpshooter.
If you are interested, the prompt is linked below.
You’ll find full guidelines on the TLT page – here’s the tl;dr:
Happy three-lining!
Prompt: Three Line Tales, Week 219
From the Window Seat 