July 2019 AWC Furious Fiction Entry
Today’s story was my first entry into the Australia Writer’s Center Furious Fiction competition, a free competition that runs the first weekend of every month. Stories can be up to 500 words and the prompts are published Friday afternoon and the competition closes Sunday at midnight (Sydney, Australia time).
The prompt for July was:
- The story take place on a TRAIN
- The story must include something FROZEN
- The story must include three 3-word sentences in a row.
I misunderstood the last criteria at first, thinking it was 3 3-letter, 3-word sentences in a row (it was late Friday night). I thought of a lot of lines including ‘Gin, rye, rum? Why not all? And the ice.’ without a shadow of a story coming to mind. It wasn’t until Sunday I realized my mistake, which got my creativity going with the pressure of the ticking clock.
Overall, I enjoyed the challenge of writing within the limitations, and I’m looking forward to the next Furious Fiction at the start of August. This was my entry for July, I hope you enjoy it:
The First Skate
The bells rang out across the rural, winter landscape. Everyone was smiling and feeling warm despite the cold. The day was sunny without wind and the snow sparkled, giving everything a fairy tale feel. The wedding had been perfect and now everyone was lacing up to skate the afternoon away before the reception and dancing. Some of the older, less well balanced members were bundled up onto small sleds with metal runners to be pushed by the more energetic members of the crowd.
The grooms were both hockey players and it was a fitting way to spend the afternoon before the feast of a dinner reception. It guaranteed some very candid photos. Everyone was already outside, eagerly awaiting the newlyweds to emerge from the church and have the first lap of the rink. There were already hockey sticks leaning along the sideboards of the rink, just in case the urge for a quick pickup game came over the happy crowd.
Bob and Matt donned matching ‘Groom’ jerseys and had a private kiss before leaving the small stone church to walk with skates hanging off their shoulders to the rink in the church yard. The gathered crowd went wild, cheering, hooting, and whooping as if Bob and Matt had just won the Stanley Cup. They both felt like they had.
They sat on the fallen tree log bench to trade shoe soles for skate blades. They were lucky; Matt’s family had accepted their romance immediately, and in time, Bob’s family had too. The only issue raised about the wedding itself was that Bob’s mother, Betty, wouldn’t get to pass on her elegant wedding dress and accessories to a bride-to-be because Bob was an only child.
They laced up their skates and took the first few strides across the rink ice. Hand in hand. Moving as one. Dancing on ice. Happy together.
The ice was smooth as glass, prepared with love, routine flooding and sweeping over the previous few days with by the fathers-in-law, brothers, uncles and cousins. The ice was crystal clear, but uniformly patterned. Which ice rarely is when this much care has gone into making it. Bob and Matt looked down, looked at each other, back at the ice, and then to their mothers.
Their mothers were right at the entrance, laced up in skates, holding hands. They nodded to their sons, and smiled proudly, warmly, encouragingly.
Betty’s bridal train was frozen in the ice. In fact, both their bridal trains were frozen in the ice, making the ice a work of art; a lacework rink.
The next Furious Fiction opens this Friday! It’s open to anyone over 17 anywhere in the world. Give it a try, there’s nothing to lose!
