10 Word Exercise

Recently in a writing forum we were given a ten word exercise. We had to pick ten words, then write a story start to finish using those ten words. 

Once the confusion many of us had - how to possibly use only ten words and tell a complete story - was cleared up, that the story could contain as many words as we wanted, as long as those ten words were in it, I got down to work.

Our forum leader was quite impressed with the story I wrote, sorry that I'm unable to post it here, and suggested expanding it into a children's book. Maybe I will, maybe I won't, I'm undecided at the moment on that particular avenue, but I truly loved the exercise. So much, that I've decided to do it once a week here on my blog. 

So here are this week's ten words, and story. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Bottle, Picture, River, Philodendron, Thimble, Water-skiing, Birthday, Woman, Boat, Picnic  

Sleep was elusive as the picture of the four year old child, and tears of a distraught woman pleading with them – owners of The Philodendron Detective Agency - to find her daughter, Lacey, kept running through their heads.

One minute the child had been sitting at the picnic table with the other birthday party attendees, holding her bottle of pop, in the next she was gone. A thimble found at the edge of the nearby woods the only possible clue.

The couple hoped, in taking their boat out on the river to do some water-skiing, to see their way clearer to solving the case they’d been working on round the clock when they spotted something bright red under some brush along the riverbank.

Drawing closer, they saw the girl, huddled, hugging a knitted doll, spilling tears quicker than she could tell her story.

“I saw Mrs. Kinsey walking up the path, carrying an armful of dolls. She gave me one as I ran to her. She forgot some cookies she’d made and had to go back, and asked me to help her. But when we walked through her door, she got scary. Her eyes got real big as she slapped at her chest and fell over,” Lacey explained. “I’m sorry I hid in the corner; I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t understand what she was saying so when she stopped talking to me I ran out, but I didn’t know which way to go. I want my mommy.”

This case had a happy ending – many don’t – as Mrs. Kinsey, having suffered a mild heart attack, was now recovering nicely in the hospital, while Lacey, a daily visitor, read stories to her about her adventures in the woods.