Today’s writing prompt and my response.
The second prompt for this week. Use the prompts however you like, one at a time, or pen a short story over several of them.
Human and dolphin: picture prompt
I can tell he is very bored. He spends his hours peering out through the bars of his cage, hands in pockets, coffee cooling on the shelf. I try to cheer him up, swimming past each day to smile, say hello. But humans are strange creatures. It’s hard to communicate with them. He stares past me as if I’m hardly here. Who knows what’s going on in his brain? I have better luck with the sharks, who at least circle and give you the time of water in their own, primitive way.
Yet, despite his lack of interest, I can’t help but fantasise about setting this poor, tired captive human free. I visit the beaches where others of his kind stroll the sands, or swim with us, or surf alongside us.
That always makes us giggle, the way they use those clumsy boards, although they do it skilfully. Their trainers have done well with such little inherent talent.
Yes, this human might smile, laugh, skip and run if set free on a beach. Could I break this glass between us? Snatch him through the bars, nudge and cajole him to the sunlit surface – not far above us – and lead him into the vastness where sky, sand and ocean meet?
He would thank me. Wouldn’t he?
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Find Cheryl’s flash fiction and short stories here!