My Story A Day in May challenge is going strong.
I have really enjoyed writing a short story each day. I follow the day’s prompt more often then I thought I would, although I often tweak the idea that becomes my story. My longest story so far was over 2000 words, and my shortest was 53 words. The one I want to share today came to about 230 words.
The prompt for this story was to have a group of people go on a trip and write it using “we.” That didn’t sound interesting to me. I’ve never written a story in a collective voice, and I thought I was going to choose my own topic. But when I sat down to write, the first line just came to me, and the rest of the story flowed from it. Enjoy!
Again
“We can’t do it.”
Coach looked at us and shook his head. “Again.”
“No,” we insisted. “We’ve tried a dozen times. We’re bruised and filthy. We can’t do it.”
Coach said nothing else. He simply stared at us, disapproving and disbelieving.
“Fine!” We rolled our eyes. “We’ll try again.”
One by one, we stacked our tired and sore teenage bodies, four on the bottom, three above them, two next, and with great effort, one of us on top. We weaved, we tipped – and we straightened. In sheer delight, we raised our arms over our heads and shouted our cheer. Just before the final chant, we toppled over and fell onto the churned-up field.
Discouraged and angry that we had grabbed defeat out of the jaws of victory, we leaned on each other as we sat in the muck, our blue and white workout uniforms dingy and torn.
Coach leaned over us. “Again.”
We wanted to quit. We wanted to rebel. We wanted to cry that it couldn’t be done. But instead, we did it again – and this time, we didn’t fall. This time we didn’t get dirty. This time we held the pyramid until Coach told us to lower ourselves to the ground.
With joy and pride, we hugged and high-fived, all of us ready for an ice-cold soda and a shower.
Coach nodded with approval. “Again.”