Well, here I am again! Starting out trying to write a story a day in May. Of course, I couldn’t just write some short, simple, easy story for this first day in May. Oh, no. I had to write another of my long stories. 5442 words, to be exact.
This one’s dark science fiction. The random situation I got for a prompt was ‘An evil teacher is opposed by a parched time traveler who uses a jar of pickles during a famine at an opera.’ I didn’t use the famine or the jar of pickles. The character I got was ‘half-naked, smirking old woman.’ I decided she was the evil teacher. I actually didn’t have it at an opera, either–although it was in an opera house.
Here’s a snippet:
Ms. Grigham was no doubt over ninety years old–a dried-up, skeletal old woman with improbable red hair and black lipstick. She wore electric-blue shorts that covered only half her withered thighs, and a tight shirt that showed off her non-existent assets. Zenna wished she could block the sight of the expanse of liver-spotted chest and arms the shirt left uncovered.
“I trust you have read your assignment,” Ms. Grigham began, with no introduction whatsoever. “You have all downloaded your text and listening files?”
The class, most of them staring open-mouthed at the apparition, could do no more than nod.
“We shall begin with pre-atomic Earth, and the beginnings of human-created music.” She switched on the blackboard, and the students all took out their slates.