Hello!

It’s time for me to reveal what I came up with for the final part of this short story that I’ve been writing over 5 days, using the words that I roll with my Haikubes!

(Here are parts one, two, three and four that I ‘prepared earlier’, so you know what I’m talking about here!!)

Again I generated nine words that I had to use:

But I must make a small confession and admit that I took a total of 21.5 mins instead of 20 mins to write the part in blue (I managed to include 8 out of the 9 words in 20 mins though), then wrote the bit in purple in a further 3 mins (as I thought that particualr loose end needed to be addressed!). 

Hope you like it anyway!

Desperate   Love   But   Those   My   Tangle   Under   He   Shelter

Myla was suddenly some sort of aquatic acrobat.  Barely holding the pool noodle, she went back and forward in the water with a big smile on her face, eagerly heeding every command her instructor gave her – and gaining praise from all her little classmates into the bargain.

She was also beaming up at me at every opportunity, as if I was her best friend or something.  Her instructor kept giving me the thumbs up too, however, so I just decided to enjoy it all.

This tactic was going really well, until Myla decided to let go of her noodle, and slip like a seal under the water…

I stood up immediately, heart in my throat.  I could see her glide towards the bottom and turn around, but then she seemed to just stop.  The seconds ticked by, and I began waving both my hands above my head, pointing in an increasingly desperate way to her [seemingly] wiggly pink form at the bottom of the pool.

My feet started to move as I saw the instructor dive off the side…

Sarah and I charged down the steps, through the changing room and out onto the poolside; at a sprint I wasn’t even aware I was capable of.  Love is a powerful motivator.  We rounded the pillar by the foot-baths just in time to see Myla being hauled out of the water as if she weighed no more than a backpack, and some more of the complex staff running to take care of the other kids standing wide-eyed in the shallows.

I’m not sure, but I think I screamed as Myla was turned over onto her side, and I could see her eyes were closed.  Those memories that everyone says flash in their mind’s eye were definitely slide-showing through mine as I finally sank to my knees beside my child.

The instructor was moving the tangle of her ponytail from her cheek, and I instinctively started rubbing her back the way I had done when she’d had wind as a baby.  As I did so, she started coughing up a load of chlorine water, and I could see her eyeballs move under her lids.

Later, I managed to get her to our doctor as his last appointment of the day.  As he’d looked over her, the instructor had tried to reassure me that he thought Myla’s banged bonce was not too serious, but I just wanted to be sure.

I did have something to smile about, however, after the shock abated a little: out of concern, Myla’s instructor had slipped me his number (through the general emotion and panic I’d displayed).  It had taken shelter in my purse and, later that night, I was going to make that call…

A further bit of good news, on the Myla front, is that she has decided she wants to be a swimming instructor! Marco (isn’t that just a dreamy name?!) has totally proved my point to her: that swimming gives you superpowers, apparently!

So I’ll have to find some way to repay him for that little gem, too…

Annnd…that’s a wrap!! 

Was that noodle-y enough for you all?!  Did it display ‘a desire for’ something  enough…?

Let me know what you think in the comments, or by visiting one of my social media pages linked below. 

As is so often the case, I enjoyed writing this wee story; and I’m already devising how to tweak the method for the next one…thanks to Jane for the inspo!

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Copyright © 2018  Montaffera All Rights Reserved

Please do not use any of my content (posts, pictures, poetry etc) without my permission, but feel free to link back to my blog if something catches your eye. Thank you!

Hello 🙂

I again rolled nine kubes, this time to give me some direction for this penultimate instalment:

(Here are the links to parts one, two and three).

Sucker   Along   Return  Happy   Gorgeous   Brother   Water   Villain   Grace

Feeling like a complete sucker, I took Myla along to her third weekly lesson; wondering if this would be the last time she would semi-agree to return to the swimming baths…

Sarah again looked impossibly happy as she ushered me to my seat – but I had to concede that today she had a very good reason.

Kneeling by the pool was the most gorgeous man I have ever seen.  Somehow his beauty was able to transcend the ridiculously bright hooded top the complex made all of the instructors wear, and he didn’t look unnaturally pale, like the other guy had.

“He’s Franchie’s brother,” Sarah breathed into my ear, “quite a sight to behold, isn’t he?!”

“Yeah!” I managed to sigh.

“Must be all that Italian blood coursing through his veins.” Sarah went on, “If I wasn’t married…!” She giggled.  “I hear he’s single…”

Her nudge was forceful enough to make me thump into the glass of the balcony.  The Adonis looked up and actually waved at me.  It took me a second to realise that he was tending to Myla, and she had waved first, so he was just following her lead.

At least that meant my loony grin and big wave back was ok.

Myla also didn’t have her water wings on, I noticed with a jolt.  The lovely man was holding them!  How had he managed that?! (I suppose it is hard to see someone so beautiful as a villain who is trying to do you harm…?)

Myla was handed a pool noodle and seemed to take it willingly: returning to the water with a smile, and astounding good grace.

“I have to meet him” I whispered to Sarah; “he’s definitely some sort of god.”

Oooo, how will the kubes help me to wrap up this story tomorrow?!  Come visit then, and find out…!

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Copyright © 2018  Montaffera All Rights Reserved

Please do not use any of my content (posts, pictures, poetry etc) without my permission, but feel free to link back to my blog if something catches your eye. Thank you!

Hey There!! 

I am onto my third instalment of this story about Myla and her hated swimming lessons, already!  The first instalment is here, and the second is here; should you need to catch up 😉

I decided to elevate the ante a little today: as I have been rolling some easy joining words with my kubes, I thought I’d make my chances of getting harder-to-incorporate stuff greater by using nine instead of five kubes (that is also the number of words I use for my random word poetry)

I did, indeed, get a better mix today:

Bust  Flesh  Science  Etc.  Licks  Or  Flock  Home  Gentle

The next week was even worse. 

This time Myla hurt the knuckles on her left hand, apparently having had a bust up with a rough tile while she was trying to “hold on and push off” the way the instructor had told her to.

I joined her in the changing rooms as she gingerly touched the broken flesh and exclaimed about how sore it was.  This, she said, meant that swimming was definitely not for her.  Her argument went along the lines of there being an invisible force in the water that clearly didn’t like her: “a wave or sumfin, like at the beach…” either that or Rachel’s brother was working some Voodoo science on her “cos he knows I don’t like him”.

I helped her dress, and gathered up the obnoxious amount of paraphanalia her agreeing to step into the water seemed to demand (Peppa goggles, spare ‘wings’, the two towels “in case one dwops on the flo-wa”, etc…).

Back in the car, I tried to persuade her that doing ‘dog-licks’ every two seconds was not going to heal her hand very well, and that a plaster would be a better idea.  Or at least more hygienic.

I watched the startled flock of Starlings nearby take off home as Myla’s less than gentle reply reverberated through the open windows.

Why was I doing this to myself?!

I hoped she’d go to bed early (and her third lesson would pan out much better).

Two more instalments to go…what will the kubes do with Myla and her lesson loathing?! Hit me up tomorrow to find out!

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Copyright © 2018  Montaffera All Rights Reserved

Please do not use any of my content (posts, pictures, poetry etc) without my permission, but feel free to link back to my blog if something catches your eye. Thank you!

Hiya 😉

I continued with yesterday’s story.  Again I rolled 5 kubes to get words that I had to include in today’s instalment, then set my 20 mins and got to work:

Words I rolled:  Finger    A    Realize   Torture   For

The ice cream wasn’t remedy enough for a sore finger, apparently.

“It’s weely sore!”  Myla complained “you’re a bad mummy for makin’ me do sumfin so dane-ja-wus!  I am NOT going ANY MORE!!”  The arms got crossed and everything.

“C’mon baby!” I said, in my sing-song voice, “you liked splashing your feet and getting to meet the other kids.”

“Didn’t!!” Myla frowned “I alwedy know Amy, she can show me the udder peetles.  That man was stoopid.”

I hadn’t stopped and thought about all of this properly.  If I’d begun to realize how much she’d torture me for making her learn to swim, I’d have probably just let her be a couch potato.  Like me. But I’d paid for the lesson-block now…

“You know that learning to swim gives you a superpower though, yeah?”

Myla sighed, and gave me a long-suffering look. (Do they teach them that at nursery?!)

“I’m not joking, Myla.  You can save people’s life if you know how to swim!”

“Shhhh, I’m trying to eat, Mummy.I know superheroes don’t swim with babies.  It’s not NICE to lie.  I’m NOT going ANY more.”

I sighed.  “There were no babies in that pool today!”

“Yes there was!  Rachel’s little bruva was there.  He has a nappy on!”

“He’s three…”

Myla gave me ‘the face’ again.  “I KNOW that!  But he only dust GOT three!  He was two the udder day!”

“His birthday was…” I thought back “4 months ago, Myla.”

“I KNOW, so he’s a BABY!”

I gave up and cleared away her (now empty) bowl.  “You’ll learn to swim and start loving it. You’ll soon be the best there”

“I’m going away now” said Myla “you hurt my finger super lots when you lie, mummy.”

She’s a handful, isn’t she?!

Be sure to come back tomorrow and see if I’ll roll tantrums or tranquillity for these characters with my kubes 😉

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Copyright © 2018  Montaffera All Rights Reserved

Please do not use any of my content (posts, pictures, poetry etc) without my permission, but feel free to link back to my blog if something catches your eye. Thank you!

Hello!

Jane put a comment on this post yesterday, and suggested using random words to dictate the direction of a story.  I decided to do this by first rolling one of the Haikubes that gives a theme, and also five word-kubes to try and assemble a title:

Theme: ‘A Desire For’ Kubes: the, noodle, not so, marvel, went.

I then thought I would roll 5 kubes to start the story off, write for 20 minutes using what I’d rolled, and pick up with some Haikubes tomorrow to continue the story 😉

So my first roll had provided a theme of ‘a desire for’ with a title of The Noodle Marvel and I had thought all about food and China (and Kung Fu Panda)…then I was gifted the roll below (I re-rolled any blanks til I got words) and was suddenly heading in a different direction…!

Words I rolled: Left   I   Swimming    Baby    For

Then I left.

Scrambling up the stairs to the gallery to watch her, I was wondering whether a swan-dive from there would just crack my head on the tiles, or actually see me slicing through the water, on my heroic way to save my child’s life…

I’d been lugging her to those swimming baths since she was a baby, but for some reason Myla had not taken to it very well.

The look of panic that came over her wee face if I even SUGGESTED ditching the arm bands was almost comical, but the almighty tantrum that ensued the first time I tried to gently remove them in the water…?  Not so funny.

Myla had always had a strong will, and a great work ethic when it came to things she was interested in; but swimming seemed to be a complete road-block for her.  I’d even had a few people suggest to me that she’d had a bad experience with water in a past life, and that I should get her ‘regressed’ at some practitioner in town.  A more helpful suggestion came from Sarah, whose daughter had just started at this swimming class, and we hoped Myla’s competitive streak might be engaged.

I could see Sarah waving to me as I rounded the stairs to the gallery.  She looked happy and calm.  “I saved you a seat!” she trilled from the middle row “I love Myla’s swimsuit, and you’ve plaited her hair so nicely.  You’ll have to teach me how to do that!”

I tried to look like I was happy to have a conversation like a normal person, but gave it up in a nanosecond, gripping the rail and almost launching myself over it [for real] in an attempt to spot my girl.

Myla was looking up with a mournful expression on her beautiful face.  As soon as she saw me, her bottom lip started to jut out and I could see the anger rising.

I said a little prayer, then, that the whole line of 3 and 4 year olds wouldn’t suddenly be prematurely dunked by my upset little whirlwind…

So there we go: a 350-word start to our little tale!  Come back tomorrow and we’ll see what way the Haikubes decide the story should progress 😉

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Copyright © 2018  Montaffera All Rights Reserved

Please do not use any of my content (posts, pictures, poetry etc) without my permission, but feel free to link back to my blog if something catches your eye. Thank you!