I put down my book and reach into the ice bucket for another beer.
Intense sunlight beats onto the porch. I can’t look up, even with sunglasses on, but no matter.
I’ve already seen enough.
The portents were there. Just no one noticed.
Too distracted. As usual.
I noticed. I know what’s coming. And, it’s fine.
Rocky kicks out in his sleep. His black fur glistening in the golden light as he lies at my feet.
I gently clap him, and hope he continues dozing. Better that way.
The brightness and heat crescendo.
A noise like thunder.
I am content.
So, this story was based on yet another prompt by the wonderful :-
The story had to include the word, or a variation of the word, “portent” and be about either contentment or envy. I went for the former and came up with this little tale. I hope you enjoyed it and thanks very much for the prompt Caro.
Just as an aside, this is my 100th post on Substack, which is hard to believe, but there we are. Not bad going for just over 12 months I suppose, when I hadn’t written anything for 25 years prior to that. At this current moment, I am sitting in a random hotel room, on the outskirts of nowhere, on the ring road to somewhere, so not really the right time to celebrate. However, I’m sure I’ll have a few beers at some point down the line. It’s been a blast. Will I get to 200? Doubtful. But, I said that about 100 when I got to 50 so you never know. All that being said, one thing I know for certain is, I’ll never stop writing again. When I did before, part of me stopped, and I won’t let that happen this time.
Anyway, thanks to you all for coming along for the ride. I always imagine story telling to be like sitting around a campfire, spinning a tale to a crowd that has gathered to hear what you’ve got to say. Amazingly, I’ve got over 180 subscribers in my crowd now, so that’s quite the campfire we’ve built, but I’m not done yet. Hopefully I can find some more firewood that’ll keep us warm through the long dark night as the shadows grow longer, and our imaginations run wild.
Thanks for continually reading. Until next time.
Brilliant! And congrats on 100 posts!
Of course, you will get to 200, raising a glass to the first 100, cheers! And here's to many more to come.