Story Cubes Story

All righty then. It took a little longer than I counted on, but I finally finished my Story Cubes story. The problem wasn’t the cubes, it was me. I was putting way too much pressure on myself. But Monday, when I was writing with a friend at the library, I had an epiphany. Empires were not going to rise or fall on the basis of this story. It was just an exercise, it was supposed to be for fun.

So I changed the name of my main character to Rainbow, who liked sunflowers, and turned the ghost back into my first impression, which was it was the person’s anger. After that I did a little free writing and everything fell into place. Easy peasy. LOL

Just a quick reminder of the cubes I was working with . . . for the character it was a sunflower, a rainbow, and an angry shadow. For the story I had an apple, water flowing under a bridge, tree, balance scales, fish, an L in a box, an arrow pointing down to the left, a worried face, and an open hand

And now, here’s the story:

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Rainbow Reid had a scowl on her face as she stomped between the rows of the trees in the apple orchard. Someone had been into her sunflowers. Again!

But this time, the culprit had left tracks. They were headed towards to stone bridge over the river. She didn’t know what she was going to do to the culprit when she found them, but it would be something dire, that she promised.

There! Right beside the step onto the bridge, the evidence. Two of her precious sunflowers. And there were tracks leading down the bank to under the bridge. They might as well have put an arrow pointing down for her to follow.

“You,” she called angrily. “Under the bridge. I know you’re down there, you might as well come out.”

There was the sound of movement, then a small, worried face appeared around the edge of the bridge. Rainbow took one look at the small boy and her anger was gone, like a shadow vanishing.

“C’mon,” Rainbow said, extending an open hand. “It’s not safe to play under there. You might fall in.”

“I wasn’t playing,” the boy said, taking her hand. “I was fishing.” He held up the bucket in his other hand, a small fishing rod sticking up out of it.

“What’s your name?” Rainbow asked when he was safely on the path.

“I’m Liam,” he said, pointing to the letter L someone had embroidered on his jacket.

“Are you the one who’s been picking my flowers?” Rainbow asked gently.

“Yes, ma’am,” he admitted, looking down at the ground.

“You know it’s wrong to take things that don’t belong to you, right Liam?”

“Yes, ma’am. But they weren’t for me, honest!” he said, looking at her earnestly. “They were for my gram. She’s feeling poorly and I thought they’d cheer her up.”

“I see,” Rainbow said. “And did they?”

“Oh, yes, ma’am! That’s why I come back for more. But I know you sell them for money down at the market, but I don’t have any money. But I can fish, so I thought if I caught you some fish it would kind of balance the scale.”

He said it all in one breath, and Rainbow was hard-pressed not to grin. Instead, she peered into the bucket, spying three fat trout.

“Well, Liam. It just so happens that I love trout almost as much as I love trout almost as much as I love my sunflowers. So I’d say it’s a fair trade.”

“Really?” Liam’s face lit up.

“Really. And if the flowers help your gram feel better, I give you permission to pick them again. But not too many, mind you. I’ll still need a few to take to market.”

“Oh, thank you, ma’am. Thank you!” He took his fishing rod and passed the bucket over to her, then picked up the flowers.

“If you come back tomorrow,” she told him, “You can pick up your bucket at my house.” She pointed to the cottage on the other side of the orchard. “I might even have a glass of milk and a cookie or two to spare.”

Liam grinned from ear to ear. “You can count on seeing me tomorrow,” he told her. “Thank you!”

Rainbow watched him with a smile as he hurried across the bridge on his way home. Making a new friend was definitely worth the price of a couple of sunflowers.