Something New

Despite the name change, this site is still going to be housing original writing by yours truly. I've been challenged by my parents to write a short story a week. It can be no longer than three pages, and it will be based on a prompt supplied by said parental units. I hope you enjoy the fruits of my labor, raw as they are.

The first story, which is untitled, was based on the following prompt: a message in a bottle.


Sally and I used to pretend that we were pirates. Together we sailed to the farthest corners of the Earth, robbed the rich and gave to the poor, and were the greatest explorers that the world had ever known.
While everyone was looking the other way, Sally and I would sneak off to the lake house. We learned how to row, and we would spend all day on the lake with an old spyglass and a map that we drew. Sally made us hats and eye patches out of newspaper. I was continually lifting mine up so that I could see out of my glasses.
“Stop that.” Sally admonished, swatting at my hand so that the patch would drop down into place.
“But I can’t see, Sally!” I said.
“David, that doesn’t matter. When the pirates wore them, they didn’t lift them up all the time.”
“Yeah, but they weren’t eight years old with glasses either…”
“That doesn’t matter, David. All that matters are our spirit and our courage and that our map is accurate,” she said as she turned the paper side to side, and then upside down. “Which way does this thing go again?”
I turned the map for her, and she instructed me to row onward.
When we finally got back to the boathouse, our mothers were waiting for us with bottles of Coke.
“You must be thirsty,” my mother said as she handed them to us. They dusted off imaginary dirt from their hands onto their Bermuda shorts and headed back off to the adults, laughing as they went.
Sally drank hers quickly, only pausing for air a couple times. She dipped the empty bottle in the water and scooped some up. Placing her hand over the mouth, she shook the Coke bottle vigorously and then dumped the water back into the lake. She tossed some dark brown hairs out of her face.
“This will be perfect!” she said.
“For what?” I asked.
“For the messages of course. I’ll put a message in the bottle, and float it out to sea. That’s what the pirates did when they got marooned on an island,” she said knowingly.
“How exactly did they get the bottles?”
“The captains gave him a bottle of rum before they put him in the row boat.”
“Oh,” I said, “but what if I never get the message? What if the bottle just sinks and never finds me?”
“Don’t be such a spoil sport, David”
So just like that, Sally got her way. Sometimes we wouldn’t find the messages for months. Other times only an hour would go by before we scooped the bottle out of the lake. A few times a friend would find it and deliver it. This went on and on.
But one day, we ran out of things to say, and she never answered my last message.
I’d see Sally at school with the other girls, whispering and giggling. Her hair had this way of bouncing over her shoulder every time she walked past me. Her lips were painted, and her hazel eyes sparkled.
Then someone tapped me on the shoulder and my attention turned to a pretty blonde girl, with bright blue eyes. “I’m Annie,” she said.


Years later, my mother was hosting a dinner party. “Now, now,” she said, rising to her feet, “I have an announcement to make. It is my pleasure to tell you that we are about to welcome another member to the family.”
Several people looked at her stomach expectantly. “Oh what nonsense,” she said blushing. “My boy, David, has finally proposed to Annie!”
Annie smiled, and David kissed her on the cheek. “We couldn’t be happier to welcome you home, Annie,” mother said.
“Let me see the ring, Annie,” the crowd was clamoring. She held out her hand, letting people ooh and ahh over it. David’s father popped a few bottles of champagne open.
“David, help me pour, would ya sport?”
“Sure,” I said.
“I’m sure glad you did it, son. I thought you might let that girl get away.”
“There wasn’t much chance of that, sir.” I finished pouring and took a glass over to Annie.
“Thank you, dear,” Annie said.
“How’d he do it? How did he pop the question?” a neighbor asked. I left Annie talking and went outside by the lake.
Sally was outside by the water’s edge. She turned around and looked at me, her hand flying to her hair to smooth it down. “Hi, David,” she said.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Sally, I didn’t know you were out here. I’ll just leave you to it.” I started to turn away.
“Don’t go, David. Please.”
I walked over to where she was sitting and sat down. I looked across the lake, up at the sky, and back to the lake. I couldn’t quite meet her gaze.
“Annie’s a wonderful girl,” she said.
“I know.”
“I hope you two will be very happy together.”
“Are you and Jake happy?” I asked.
She shook her head, “We’re not together anymore,” she looked down at her shoes, which were sitting a few inches away from her. “I’m sorry I stopped coming down to the lake, it was just time to grow up.”
“I guess you can’t stay young forever,” I said, finally looking at her.
“When I was eight, I would have smacked you for saying that, but now I…” she trailed off. “We had fun, didn’t we?”
“We were the feared pirates of the lake. Nothing could stop us.”
“I loved you,” she said suddenly. Shock pulsed through me.
“I thought you didn’t like me anymore,” I said.
“No, I loved you. And a pirate captain has no right to fall in love with her first mate.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did tell you. It was in the last bottle I sent.”
“But, Sally, I sent the last bottle.”
“No, you didn’t,” she said simply. She pushed herself up off the grass, and patted down her skirt. She slipped into her heels and walked back towards the lights.
“Bye, David.”
I didn’t follow her. Instead, I sat by the lake and watched the sun go down.
“There you are,” someone said, I turned and saw Annie walking towards me, “Everyone’s been looking for you.”
“I’ve just been watching the lake.”
“You and this lake,” she said, shaking her head. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Sally just told me the strangest thing,” I said, ignoring her last words.
“Really? I saw her walking back up there…so what did she say?”
“It’s not important,” I said.
“Sweetheart, I have to tell you something,” Annie said in a rush. Her cheeks were flushed from the champagne.
“What?”
“It’s just that- I mean we’re going to be married, and I don’t want any secrets between us.”
“I didn’t think we had any.”
“Well, I do. I did a terrible thing, and I feel incredibly guilty.” She finally had my undivided attention.
“Well, what is it?” I said, shrinking back from her a little.
She sniffled. Damn, she was going to cry, I thought. “It’s just that I knew you liked her, and I knew you’d never even look my way if I didn’t….” She looked up at me with tears in her eyes, “I wasn’t trying to be awful.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
“I took it.”
“Took what exactly?”
“The Coca Cola bottle. I’d seen it floating around all over the lake. It was taunting me, David. I just had to read what was inside. And when I saw it, I decided I couldn’t let you see it.”
I stared at her. “I just loved you too much, David,” she said.
The words washed over me.
“When you thought she wasn’t your friend anymore, you started to pay attention to me. And aren’t we happy together, David?”
“You lied to me.”
“Aren’t we happy together?” she said desperately.
I turned to face her. “Are you happy?” At this, she burst into tears. I tried to comfort her; I couldn’t stand seeing her cry. I gave her my handkerchief. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose.
“Here,” she said. I took a piece of paper from her.
“Thanks,” I said. She nodded and ran back up to the house.
I looked down at the note, which said: David, I can’t play pirates with you anymore until I tell you something. I love you, and I’ll always love you. –Yours, Sally.
I looked up at the sky. “Thank God for happy endings,” I said as I pocketed the note.