Story Prompts:
- Cemetery at 5 in the morning
- Pressured to skinny dip
- Person who wants respect
- Person who doesn't get the hint
Story 1 by Rich Colon
He was a lone figure in the cemetery at 5:00 in the morning, staring at the slightly weathered headstone. Cracks of thunder and flashes of lighting were above him. But he doesn't move, he doesn't get the hint that he should take cover.
Lost in thought, he is transported back 30 years to the day. That fateful day. His friend, his best friend just wanted some respect. But he was pressured into skinny-dipping with the gang. They all knew that he was not a strong swimmer, but no one tried to stop him.
Everyone was laughing, having fun, splashing, and jumping from large boulders into the deep part of the lake. So, no one noticed the small still boy face down in the water, not moving, and never to move again.
Now, every year on this day, at 5:00 in the morning, the lone figure stands at the grave site. To say a prayer, to repent, and to cry. It is a deep, deep soulful cry, that without words is asking for the ground to open up and swallow him whole. But it never does, it never does.
Story 2 by Dave Gregory
There is no set way to grow up. Each person does it their own way and at their own pace. Some lead, some follow, and being a part of a group sometimes furthers the experience one way or another.
The end result, we hope, will be a maturity that will bring us love and respect from our peers and our loved ones.
My growing up was helped along by a small group of guys and gals all about the same age. We were growing up in a not big town and I remember them most when we were in High School. We weren’t a gang, we just hung out together. Some of us went to Grammar School together, some lived near one another, there were ties and bonds of friendship, a thread through our relationship.
Harry, I remember was a strange member of the group, he never seemed to get the hint that we weren’t just out to create mischief or get in trouble – we were just growing up with all its adventures and lessons, good and bad.
In the summer between our junior and senior year, we got together on a Friday night. I think there were about eight of us that night 5 boys, 3 girls, we would get away from houses, and civilization – this night we didn’t feel like hanging out at McDonalds, or the Mall, we didn’t like the movie – we decided to go over to O’Conner’s Woods – on the outskirts of town – a sort of mini wilderness, left alone – a few walking trails, but still a sort of a mini world of nature.
We ended up at Wilder Pond – an undeveloped body of water with a small dirt, not sandy beach and a lot of trees surrounding it, next to the beach was a small formation of rocks, with one overhanging the pond. Here is where we settled in – talking about everything, not talking about other things – A group of teenagers has different dynamics – sometimes those hormones get all riled up and you just don’t know where things will go.
This night it was Pete who suggested we go swimming. It was hot, not much of a breeze – He suggested we “canon ball” off the overhang, the water was deep enough – “We don’t have our suits” came a shy voice in the crowd – “Oh, come on don’t be a prude”.
“It’s dark, nobody will see us come on” – Well 3 of the boys and one of the girls started to climb up on the rocks, another boy and another girl finally shrugged and joined the crowd – Alice and I were left alone – Alice was my best friend – we dated, we made out once in a while but it was a private thing. We could hear the taunting and giggling, wolf whistles and splashes.
I looked at Alice, “you want to?” “No, you?” “No – want to go for a walk?” “Sure” – we called to the others and struck out on our own. We had a wonderful night talking volumes about everything – and long silences that sometimes said more – it all ended up in the town cemetery, which is next to O’Conners Woods – it's 5 in the morning, I had a sleepy head on my shoulder and I was in love.
Story 3 by Rosanne Hoagland
Nikki was tired of living in the shadows of her family. Respect was hard to come by in this house. Everything is earned or bought (literally), but never given. She was always trying to get some kind of recognition from her family, but she just was not good enough. So, she no longer tries and will soon be leaving them all behind. Nikki will be moving out and moving to the state of Washington, to begin her life as a naturalist and researcher. She has been hinting at this for months, but no one has taken the hints. If they are, they’re ignoring them.
Packing the last of her bag with her clothes and a few personal items; then closing it with a solid thump. She placed it on the floor to take it to her truck. Quietly, she went to her bedroom door and listened to the rest of the house. She can hear her family getting ready to head out to a party at a neighbor’s house. Her mother and siblings are having a good laugh at her expense. Then she heard something disturbing.
“MOM, is Nikki coming with us?” That was her younger sister Mary. “I don’t want to carry all of this stuff!”
“Too bad, you’re the one who came up with this prank to pull on your sister,” Mom replied. “So, you can just carry all of this.”
“No worries, sis, I’ll help you,” that was Brad her brother. “it will be worth it to see her crying in embarrassment.”
Nikki could hear them all laughing, her sister the loudest. “Yes, finding out about her crush on Todd Hamilton, was a stroke of luck. He is so out of her league.”
They all laughed again, “He was so into helping us. He is going to trick her into going swimming with him and then talk her into skinny dipping.”
“Yeah,” Brad laughed. “And we’ll be there to take pictures to post everywhere. She will die of embarrassment."
Their laughter faded as they left the house, soon it was all quiet. Tears ran down her face and onto her shirt. She shook it off, no more tears, it was time to move. She grabbed two of her bags and went down the back stairs to the garage and loaded her truck. Then went back up for another load and in twenty minutes she had all her meager belonging packed into her truck. Nikki made one more look around the house for anything she may have missed, then left and locked the doors. Closed the dome lid on the back of her truck and locked it. Got in and drove off, past the neighbor’s house where the party was going on. They were going to have a long wait for her to show up.
Before leaving town for good Nikki went to the cemetery to visit her father’s grave for one last time and to say goodbye. He passed away several months ago, he was her only support. Once he was gone, she had no protection from her mother, brother, and sister. He passed away at five in the morning, it was the last time she visited him, and was holding his hands. His last words of advice were to leave home and not look back.
She stayed vigil by his grave for a very long time, staring at his name, etching it into her memory. She had no fear of her family finding her here, as they never visited his grave. Saying a small prayer as she placed a purple rose on his grave and then said her goodbyes. Just as she did that, the church bell knelled five AM. A cool breeze kissed her cheeks and Nikki swore she heard “I love you always!”
NOTE:
Using the same 4 prompts, different stories were generated by these writers. Now, what would you write given these same prompts? Give it a try yourself!