#99Word Stories; Impossibly Blue

The March 27, 2023 99-word story challenge from Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch is to:  In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about something impossibly blue. You can go with sky or any other object. What impact does the color have on the setting or characters? Does it lead to action or create a pause? Go where the prompt leads! I was led back to little Penelope, aka, Peanut and her new friend Gloria.

In addition to what I post here for the Carrot Ranch challenges, there’s always the Ranch Yarns with Kid and Pal’s responses HERE.

Getting It Right by D. Avery

Come to find out Gloria isn’t crazy. She’s an artist.

She said I am too, and I guess she’s right. I do make a lot of pictures but I don’t always like them.

“What do you mean?” Gloria asked me. “I love this landscape with the lake in the foreground.”

“It’s not right,” I insisted. “That’s an impossible blue for a lake and a sky. But it’s the only colors I have.”

Gloria taught me to make any color I wanted from just red, yellow, blue and white!

“I want blue like… Bob’s eyes.”

We smiled at Bob’s laughter.

XXX

“Tell me again about the princess,” I told Gloria. “Why she refused to marry the prince.”

“The princess, as her wedding day approached, felt improbably blue. She realized the prince really wasn’t so charming, and being with him would not bring her happiness. She didn’t want to fall under a lifelong spell of pretense and pretending; so, she committed to herself and her art and has been living happily ever since. Of course, the villagers thought she was soft-headed for leaving family fortunes behind.”

The crown on the princess I’d drawn looked more like a halo. It looked right.

Be sure to go to Carrot Ranch to read the complete “Shots Fired” collection from last week‘s challenge.