At the first Writer's Ink meeting, we played a writing game called "Pass the Buck." This game is a classic and produces some very interesting short stories. Every person is given a paper with a story starter, and they have five minutes to write the beginning. Every five minutes, the papers are rotated until each story has parts written by all of the participants. The end result is a mishmash of everyone's writing styles! Anyway, here is one of the stories:
Jade has fallen asleep, and lays deep inside her dreams, not even realizing her surroundings. Jade sees her mom running after her and reaches for her, only to find her gone. Disappointment seeps into her eyes and she starts to cry.
Jade hears a faint sound in the distance, a voice calling…calling what? Her name. The voice calls her name. But who is it? Who is calling her? The voice sounds familiar, warm and kind. The soothing lull of it fills her with calm and happiness, and feels like home. Jade’s tears dry as she loses herself in the voice. She becomes filled with determination. That voice must be her mother. But she must know for sure, she must find her mother.
She begins to follow the sound of the voice, until she reaches a door. The door is very ornate, with intricate patterns lined in gold. Jade touches the door, hoping her mother is behind it. But instead, she finds a very little man jumping up and down.
“Who are you? Why are you so tall?” he asks in a squeaky voice that sounds like a dying crow.
“I am not that tall. Why are you so…little” Jade asks, confused. She has never seen someone that short in her life. Then she sees other people behind him, all the same minute height. They all gaze up at her in wonder, whispering to each other in astonishment.
“She’s real big, Mommy!” exclaims a nearby child, infinitesimal next to the already tiny adults. The child’s mother grabs her hand, hushing her, staring up in total terror and amazement at Jade. Jade feels like she is going to cry again. She is always self-conscious, and being the odd ball in this situation wasn’t helping.
“I-I’m looking for a voice,” she tells them. Her speech sounds distant and muffled.
“How can you look for a voice when you cannot see a voice?” It is the little man who first harassed her about her height. She realizes that not one of them has opened their mouths once to speak.
This is trippy, Jade thinks to herself. She looks down at the man and speaks softly. She thinks maybe if her voice seems kinder, then someone will want to help her. “Well, I know that you can’t see a voice, but I heard it. It was warm, kind, and had this soft lull to it that would make me sway from side to side. It was a lady’s voice. It was my mother.”
The petite man roars with laughter that cracks Jade’s eardrums. “That’s not nice sounding. It sounds like a monster.”
“My mother is not a monster! How dare you say that! My mother is kind and loving, unlike you!” Jade can’t keep the tears back. She cries and runs away from all of them. The little people stand and stare as she runs off. Jade begins to think she might be going mad. Could she be in Wonderland?
Suddenly, Jade is startled by the sound of a knock on the door. She looks up through half-open eyes to see her mother! Still crying, Jade gives her confused mother a very big hug.
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