I swear never to eat another Belle Brownie until the next time I do.
Joined: Sept 2006 Gender: Female Posts: 128 Location: Staying out of Spork's booze. Karma: 4
First attempt at short story writing. Here goes! « Thread Started on Jan 26, 2008, 9:52pm »
The Missing Apple
Jessie rubbed her hands over her shorts. She always got clammy hands when she was nervous. The bell had just rung for lunch. All the children jumped and cheered as they ran to their bags in the cloak room to bring out their packed lunches. Little Lauren skipped in through the door holding her plastic lunch box close to her chest. She smiled proudly as she lay it down on the table for the other children to see. It was brand new. It had pictures of glittery fairies printed all over the plastic cover. Rebecca sat next to Lauren and admired her lunch box along with all the other girls in the year one class. Very soon, all the children were inside, unwrapping and munching on their delicious food. Jessie stayed seated, still and silent in the puzzle corner. She tried very hard not to stare at her feasting class mates, but the smell of pizza nibbles, fruit bars and sandwiches made her mouth water. Once the girls were done complimenting Lauren on her new lunchbox, she gracefully opened it to see what her Mother had packed inside for lunch: Tuna salad and a tub of yoghurt. “Yuck.” She said, scrunching up her nose. She didn’t like tuna, and the yoghurt had apricots in it. She only liked boysenberry. Rebecca giggled. Taking a big bite out of her water melon slice, she slurped loudly and carefully wiped the juice that ran down her chin. Jessie bit her lip. She saw Lauren put her tuna salad in the bin. Slowly peeling her hungry eyes from the red rubbish tin, Jessie rubbed her hands over her shorts and swallowed. She stared helplessly at her puzzle. There were ten pieces altogether. A beautiful picture of an apple tree, but the tenth piece was missing. Jessie remembered there was supposed to be an apple on that missing piece. Giving a small sigh of defeat, Jessie shot a quick look to where the other children were sitting. Rebecca was staring at her. For a moment, Jessie thought she saw Rebecca smile. Blinking back nervous tears, she quickly busied herself with the puzzle of the apple tree. Rebecca frowned. Why didn’t Jessie ever eat with the rest of the class? Wasn’t she hungry?
* * *
The next day, Jessie found her usual spot in the puzzle corner and quietly sat down. Pulling out her apple tree puzzle, she sighed and pursed her lips. The piece was still missing. “A tree,” said a voice from behind. Jessie quickly turned. Rebecca was standing behind her, looking at the unfinished puzzle. Jessie froze. She could feel her hands warming up. She looked at Rebecca, opened her mouth, then closed it again. “Can I help?” Rebecca asked, sitting down on the carpet. She ran her fingers over the puzzle, quietly counting in a hushed whisper the number of pieces the puzzle had. Her eyes became narrow in concentration. Jessie had no idea what was going on. Nobody ever played with her. She sat quietly and stared at Rebecca. Her palms were now hot and sticky, as if they were coated with melted sugar. She shivered. Rebecca looked at her, and frowned. “Jessie, this puzzle is missing a piece. Where is it? Maybe if we find it, we could finish off the puzzle for you.” Rebecca’s lips curled into a hopeful smile. Jessie blinked, and then looked away. She had looked all over for the missing puzzle piece the day before. It was nowhere to be found. “There is supposed to be an apple… but there’s… there’s nothing.” Jessie spoke slowly and quietly. Rebecca looked at the puzzle, then at Jessie, then back at the puzzle. Jessie gulped. Reaching out with her fevered hands, she pulled the puzzle towards her. “It’s okay. I’ll find the piece. You don’t have to worry.” Jessie kept her eyes on the puzzle, her long hair falling over her face.
* * *
The lunch bell clanged. Children laughed as they crunched on their muesli bars and munched on their filled rolls. Rebecca crept quietly towards the puzzle corner. “I found it.” She murmured. Jessie looked up, and saw Rebecca standing tall, her hands neatly tucked behind her back. She was smiling. Rebecca brought her hands forward. Inside, she was holding something. It was small, round and a deep ruby colour. Jessie leaned forward to have a closer look. It was an apple. She looked up at Rebecca, who was still smiling. “Take it. Go on.” She gently pushed the piece of fruit closer to Jessie’s face. Jessie’s eyes were round. She took the apple into her warm hands. It was surprisingly cool.
Joined: Jan 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 224 Location: Australia Karma: 12
Re: First attempt at short story writing. Here goe « Reply #1 on Jan 26, 2008, 10:15pm »
Aww, that was a really sweet story, as sweet as a crunchy, juicy apple I say. Your characters are so vivid and real, they were instantly in my mind's eyes and all those little idiosyncracies of little kids were well described and wonderfully brought to life. You're really good at this writing game, I'd love to see more from you ^_^
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