Penny was our captain, the only girl among the four of us, but where she led we followed. We built castles in the sandpit with water fetched in bottles from Penny’s kitchen. We built a lean-to of sticks round the climbing-frame, camped there till sunset when our parents fetched us home.
Inspired by her cousin’s forthcoming high-school prom, Penny decided we should have our own. She commanded: wear ball-gowns! And after a fashion we did. Jim wrapped himself in a sheet, Peter found an old dress of his mother’s, I wore my sister’s ballet-skirt.
Penny “borrowed” her cousin’s dress.
A pride of princesses in the playground.
The uproar when we were discovered!
The above was written for the Friday Fictioneers flash fiction forum. The prompt: a brightly coloured ball-gown hung to air on an American-style fire escape on the facade of a monochrome old tenement.
The flash fiction target for the Friday Fictioneers is to keep the text to 100 words. I haven’t quite managed it yet and not this week either, the above is 112 words. There’s a Pride Week going on in my town at present. That might have influenced me too. 🙂
I published this originally on my Articulations sub-domain. Transferred it here (with comments) during the https overhaul 4 February 2019 and added a featured image and some more words for the sake of SEO.
Love it!
Thanks, Lena! Appreciated 🙂
Great slice of childhood, and I would have worn a dress too though I may have stopped short of ballet. Always like the illustrations as well, wish I had some damn talent!
Very realistic-sounding, John. I really enjoyed this. Your title fits well, too.
janet
Love the idea of them all dressing up like that! And Penny sounds great! 🙂
These illustrations are excellent! I was about to ask if you did them yourself, when I saw a comment that you do indeed do them. I look forward to reading more of your work! The story and picture are wonderful together.
Thank you, the illos are an extra pleasure to me. Glad readers seem to like them too.
Thank you! Penny does sound great, doesn’t she? I wonder whether her charisma held out to adulthood. 🙂
John, that’s just a brilliant and sweet story. The illustrations are soo good. Penny sound resourceful 😉
Well done! What a leader of a girl to get boys to wear dresses. With that kind charisma I’m sure she’d be able to carry it into adulthood.
I’d like to think so too.
Well done! What a leader of a girl to get boys to wear dresses. With that kind charisma I’m sure she’d be able to carry it into adulthood.
Dear John,
Wonderfully visual story. I find myself looking forward to your illustrations. They add so much. (I love the boy in the tutu!)
Shalom,
Rochelle
A great story flash.
Thank you, Björn!
Thank you, Rochelle. The boy in the tutu was the easiest to draw. To my surprise, the boy in the sheet was the most difficult. (There’s simply not enough distinction about a sheet, but I didn’t think of that in time.)
Great story, and as always, your illustrations are a wonderful bonus. This sounds exactly like the kind of trouble kids would get into.
Thanks for your comment, David. Cheers!
Such talent to write and illustrate. how I wish I could draw well wnough to illustrate my own. A girl with plans can get the men around her to do just about anything.
Hi Joe. Thank you so much for your comments.
🙂