Writing Prompt 32: Arrow
Take the Next Exit
This week, try to describe in your story a sense of time and place. If you were to stand here in this photograph looking at the back of the sign, what would you feel or hear? Are you in this time or another? And where are you? A place you know or one that is unfamiliar? Is there a memory there being poked that you need to wrestle into words?
Make sure to write with intention. What do you want this writing to be? A short story, a journal post, something on social media? Try not to write aimlessly. Have fun!
"Those people don’t belong around here, selling their stuff, taking our money, taking our jobs.”
“Melvin, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Tracy’s brother couldn’t work on account of the accident and they replaced him quicker than you can say ‘boo’.”
“Just people. We’re all just people trying to make our way in the world. You should feel lucky having what you have despite your pig-headedness.”
"Tracy's daughter called him a racist. Tracy's no racist. And anyway, so what if he is."
"Melvin, you watch your mouth. I didn't marry a man who'd hate people because of the colour of their skin. Who are you now?"
Lily picked up the last of the washing, pegging a large linen sheet out along the line looping it up to make a large bag that swelled and billowed in the wind. Melvin ground a small pebble into the grass with the toe of his boot.
"Do you think they'll take my job?" he said.
"You'll be replaced because of your big mouth and your age. Be kind to the new people. The world is changing. We were safe here. Comfortable. But at someone else's expense. That can't be good."
Melvin squinted down the hill.
"Tracy tells me you've made friends with his wife."
"I have and I'm glad of it. I wish someone had made friends with me when I moved here with you. You don't know how it is to feel watched."
Lily dropped the bag of pegs into the basket letting the damp washing blow across her.
Story first posted in August 2020 // Photo: Tanya Clarke 2020
