Envision Whirled Peas

Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch can always be counted on to give a well written, thought provoking post and an intriguing prompt, always reminding us to go where the prompt leads. Charli’s world wide writing community continue to surprise her and themselves with where prompts take them. I am predictable in that I often respond first at Carrot Ranch with a “ranch yarn”, a response or summary of Charli’s post and prompt as interpreted by fictional ranch hands Kid and Pal. As I disclaim on the Ranch Yarn page here at ShiftnShake, these characters and their banter might not make sense anywhere but the Ranch, so they are seldom seen in my posts.

Writing Kid and Pal first usually gets my pen loosened up, helps me process the prompt so that I can eventually respond with a 99 word story or stories that are often quite different. This week the prompt led me to continuing with a bad pun that I used in the Ranch Yarn, though in a different setting. I am letting these two characters out here today to introduce my flash and to spread their message of peas, love, and Flash Fiction Rodeo.

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All We Are Sayin’

“Yee haw!”

“Kid, what the tarnation you so wound up about?”

“All the Carrot Ranch celebrations! I was already gittin’ all excited ‘bout the Rodeo. An’ now there’s ta be a parade! I cain’t wait ta see all the flags from all over the world.”

“Flash, Kid, not flags.”

“And the food, Pal! Multicultural culinary curiosities from countless countries.”

“Uhhuh… Folks’ll likely serve food fer thought and fer the soul, Kid, but it cain’t fill yer belly. Don’t s’pect Shorty ta cook bacon either.”

“I’m hopin’ fer peas.”

“Peas?”

“Yep.”

“Why in the world?”

“Zactly. Let’s have world peas.”

***

  Good Fences?

Complaining about the bordering gardens, the new neighbor did an un-neighborly thing. He enclosed his property behind a fence, a veritable wall, really.

Thing is, the surrounding peas the others were tending throve. Whorls of tendrils covered the fencing; vibrant blossoms cascaded over the fence, their sweet fragrance carried on the soft breeze. There were many colors and hues, for the neighbors grew all sorts of peas. The new neighbor looked up from watering his monochrome crew cut patch of ground. Awed by the parade of color, he had a change of heart. He would give peas a chance.

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September 20, 2018, prompt:

In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about a parade  of nations. It can be literal, or it can be a phrase that you use to describe a situation. Explore what it could be. Go where the prompt leads.