The Unicorn Challenge.
A magical new weekly writing opportunity from her – Jenne Gray – and me.
Visit her blog every Friday to see the photo prompt, and post your amazing story in her comments section.
Or on your own blog, and stick the link down in her comments.
The rules are:
Maximum of 250 words.
Based on photo prompt.
That’s it.
To hear me read my story, just click here:
Spy vs Spy
I sit outside the ice cream shop, vanilla and caramel cone in hand, and gaze out across Loch Carron towards the Applecross Peninsula.
I am disguised as a spy, wearing a belted raincoat and broad-brimmed hat – think Spy vs Spy in Mad Magazine – which I suspect might confuse them.
I know I am being watched.
I wonder how close they are, and if I have any realistic chance of escape.
People stroll by, eating ice cream or fish and chips, some pausing with phones held high to take shots of the spectacular view.
A young couple linger hand in hand as he gallantly lights her cigarette.
The packet is tossed too casually at the bin, falls to the ground.
The young man ignores it, slips his arm around her slim waist, leads her away.
I scowl at his back, he is oblivious to my annoyance.
As I stand to leave, I stoop and, with obvious irritation, lift the pack and thrust it into the bin.
An easy sleight of hand, and I now have in my palm the last piece of the puzzle.
I walk towards the water, blowing into my cold hands.
I now have everything I need, and they can do nothing.
They are suddenly everywhere, dark-suited with bulges under jackets, moving towards me, and I smile.
They are already too late.
Pingback: Rules – Tales from Glasgow
Pingback: At the Butcher’s Van – Tales from Glasgow
Pingback: Just an Ordinary Afternoon – Tales from Glasgow
Ooh, excellent – sleight of hand.. and now?
And now, Ms Hall, I take over the world!
Oh, how we loved Spy vs Spy!
Masterful slip of the cigarette pack; clever touch, CE.
A good one!
It was terrific, wasn’t it, and sadly missed.
Thanks, Nancy
Hiding in plain site. I hope your confidence isn’t misplaced, if anything happened to you I’d miss your weekly words.
Cheers, Keith, and always remember that I’m indéchirable!
Pingback: TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine- | the Wakefield Doctrine
…of course we’re familiar with Spy-vs-Spy, happening as it did in the decade that marked the fall of the Empire(ette).
hey, c, do a brother a solid and delete out my effort to insert an exponent, if your comments rejects my very suave and clever filigree?
(be back with some a little more aggravating)
You didn’t come back, bud, so I remain unaggravated
Could this be the first Spaghetti Spy Story?
Oh no, wait – a Fish and Chips Spy Special?
I re-read and look for the clue to the importance of this cigarette packet – and there it nestles innocently: ‘tossed too casually…’
And what I always appreciate in your stories is the richness of the descriptions that balances but never overpowers the action.
These folk, ‘dark-suited with bulges under jackets’, deserve all that’s coming to them.
Laughing.
Nothing is incidental except, perhaps, a purple parakeet.
Thank you for the kind words.
Pingback: The Postcard – Tales from Glasgow