Writing Prompt 43: Pumpkins
Carved
I found it. If you follow along with my weekly prompts, you’ll know that last week, I mentioned a photograph I couldn’t find yet wanted to post. After a good, digital dig around, I discovered it buried in my photographic memories of 2012. I still can't believe I took this picture eleven years ago.
On the radio this morning, listeners were encouraged to phone in with stories about Halloween, family traditions around this event, memories from childhood as well as the history of All Hallows' Eve.
Do you have stories and traditions around Halloween? Do you enjoy dressing up and partying or do you shut the door and turn off the lights to trick or treaters? No judgement here.
A few years ago we had a party at our house and I dressed up as Ripley, Sigourney Weaver’s character from the Alien movies. I wore a second-hand pilot’s suit and a brown curly wig. It’s probably my best costume ever.
Who have you dressed up as? Was it fun or a disaster? Write it down. Write it down.
Until next time.
The tip of the knife pierced the skin of the pumpkin and a thin trickle of juice running down the side of the swollen vegetable.
Thomas used the blade with care, carving a shape of the face he held in his mind's eye. The sun shone through the large window, heating his back and a small patch of sweat grew slowly through his t-shirt up between his shoulder blades. The table groaned with the weight of several more squash and other vegetables he planned to carve for the annual harvest festival.
After a while, Thomas’s mind wandered and his hand slipped, the blade catching the flesh of his left thumb. Clean, sharp and deep, the cut oozed bright red blood. Thomas dropped the knife and grabbed the nearest tea towel from the kitchen table. He wrapped it firmly around his hand, pressing the fabric hard into his thumb and hand. He sat for a moment. Blood began to seep through the weave of the farbic, filling the eyes of a printed forest animal and spreading around its body.
He tried to wrap the towel further around his hand before slipping from his chair in a faint, pulling the knife and pumpkin down on top of him.
Story first posted in November 2019 // Photo: Tanya Clarke 2012
