This week, November 5, 2020, the prompt from Carrot Ranch is to: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about lost time. You can write a realistic scenario or something speculative. How does lost time impact the character of your story? Bonus points if you include a 1982 brown rubber watch. Go where the prompt leads! My first take is just playing with the ennead syllabic form that Colleen Chesebro concocted for the 2nd Rodeo event at Carrot Ranch, except I went beyond 99 syllables until I also got to 99 words. The second take is a 99 word story that uses a setting and a character first seen in a Six Sentence Story not too long ago.
Lost Time
Give my watch back to me
Lost since ‘83
Relic of time— brown rubber band, hands that wind,
Never thought I would see
its face again; Sea
scratched, sand-blasted; etched, lined
not so unlike mine
Time-keeper losing faith; time come back to me
Covering sands march blind
measuring marked time
Not for the watch these tears
Thirty-seven years!
It’s the time that went (foolishly spent) I want
In a flash, disappeared!
Suddenly I’m Here.
Another flash, lost time
No reason, low rhyme
Give me my watch, give me back the time it’s seen
Worn trails, tracked storied lines
—99!
The Present
“Welcome to the What-You-Seek Boutique.”
She said she was just browsing, not really seeking anything.
“No?” The shopkeeper proffered a brown rubber banded watch.
“I had a watch like that once, but haven’t missed it. I don’t need it.”
“It’s still ticking. Look.”
She looked. The path around the watch face showed all she’d ever done, places she had been. The watch’s one hand pointed to Home, not a written word but a feeling of what Home meant to her and her alone.
“Home… but— what next?”
The shopkeeper smiled. “There’s time. Take it. A present for you.”
ShiftnShake 
You used Colleen’s form so well! Both responses take nostalgia and turn it into something deeper and real.
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Thank you. This was a tough prompt, so I appreciate your kind comments.
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I like the way you combined the theme of these two pieces – desiring the time lost in the first ennead (well done, it’s a tough syllabic form) and finding it in the second. It’s very clever. If only we could relive (some of) those times (at least). They fly by too fast and we often don’t appreciate them until they’re gone.
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The good news is that neither piece applies to me. I am sometimes surprised to recall where I am but don’t desire to go back or have a redo. I don’t know why I felt like playing with ennead again, but there it is, and the watch of the prompt led me back to the setting of that shop, that’s where I really wanted to play. So there it is. Another week another flash another week.
Thanks for your visit, Norah.
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Who knows where we will be taken when write? We just go along for the journey and enjoy the exploration.
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Very clever, what you did there, connecting one flash to annother.
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I like that shop.
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‘Lost Time’ can be an amazing song! Wonderful :))
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Thank you. I wouldn’t have thought of that, bing unable to carry a tune.
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You have such a way with sea-lost words. And watches. 🙂
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