Cookies and Ghosts

Well, what do you know. I managed to come up with something for both prompts this week. Not only that, I had fun doing it. How about you? Anything you’d like to share?

And just so you know . . . these pieces are un-edited. So don’t expect any deathless prose. :-D

Prompt 1: One day you come into work and find a cookie mysteriously place on your desk. Grateful to whoever left this anonymous cookie, you eat it. The next morning you come in and find another cookie. This continues for months until one day a different object is left – and this time there’s a note.

Julia hurried into work, late again, with the words of last night’s argument still ringing in her ears. Maybe she’d been a little hasty, giving Geoffrey the heave-ho, but what was the point in staying in a relationship if it wasn’t going anywhere? She was tired of being someone’s “plus one.”

The cookie, centered carefully on the blotter on her desk, was a surprise – a welcome one. She loved cookies and this one was a rich, dark chocolate. Just what she needed to start her day off right.

The next day there was another one, this time a pecan cookie with buttercream frosting. It melted in her mouth and put a smile on her face for the whole day.

Julia never thought to question where these mysterious cookies came from. Perhaps everyone in the office received one for a job well done, or maybe it was just her. She didn’t really care, she’d just enjoy them while they lasted.

Every day it was a different cookie – shortbread, chocolate chip, macaroon – she never realized there were so many different kinds. She looked forward to going to work, just to see what cookie was waiting for her.

After several weeks of this she arrived at work one morning and instead of a cookie there was a flat, white bakery box. Opening it slowly she let out a gasp.

Nestled in a layer of tissue paper was a large, heart shaped sugar cookie. There was a diamond ring embedded in the point of the heart and the words, “Will you marry me?” written across it in pink icing. Smiling, Julia reached for her phone.

Prompt 2:Writing as yourself or a character, tell the following tale: A ghost appears before you one night and tells you to expect a visitation by three spirits who will each transport you to significant moments from your past, present, and future. However, you soon discover that the three spirits aren’t quite like the ones who visited Ebenezer Scrooge . . .

The first spirit that came to her was a shock. “Buttons!” Gracie exclaimed.

The grey and white tabby wove around her feet, rubbing up against her legs before jumping up on the counter.

“Okay, so here’s the deal,” the cat told her in a no-nonsense tone of voice.

“But you died when I was just a little kid.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

“And you can talk!”

Buttons puffed out her fur and hissed. “Yes. I’m dead and I can talk. Get over it.”

“The Buttons I knew was never so rude,” Gracie muttered

“Pay attention. We don’t have all night. I’m here to take you into the past, to where your problems all started.”

“What problems? I—”

“Pfft!” The cat cut her off and suddenly they were in her grandmother’s kitchen.

Four year old Gracie was sitting at the table with a plate of cookies in front of her while her grandmother poured her a glass of milk.

“Wow, I forgot how stern grandma always looked,” Gracie said.

“Shh!” said Buttons. “Listen.”

“Always remember the golden rule Gracie,” her grandmother was saying as she set the glass of milk in front of her.

“What’s that grandma?”

“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” her grandma said solemnly.

“I’ll remember,” little Gracie said.

“Only you never quite got it right, did you?” Buttons said.

“I don’t know what you mean,” big Gracie protested.

“You took the rule at face value. You thought that all you had to do was be nice to people and they’d be nice back. But it didn’t work out that way, did it?”

“Well, I—”

“How many times did people disappoint you?”

Gracie was silent. Suddenly she was back in her own kitchen again. There was no sign of Buttons.

“That was just weird,” Gracie said.

“It’s about to get weirder,” a voice behind her said.


And that’s as far as I got before I ran out of time. Looks like it’s going to turn into a short story and I’m going to have to finish it because I wrote it out long hand in my journal and I don’t know how much of a gap to leave, so I’ll have to finish it before I can move on.

But that’ll be a story for another day. LOL