Prompt 1: A bad smell and where it came from
"Keep up, and please don't touch the plants, it's for your benefit, not theirs."
Ugh, is all I can think. Maybe they just spread manure or something. I look around for the guilty source, but there's no likely culprit in a humid greenhouse full of flowering tropical plants.
The guide, a fifty something gentleman in stereotypical khakis, leads us to the source of the pungent smell.
I give in and call out, "What is that ghastly smell? Did something die in here?"
He chuckles stately and points to the largest and possibly ugliest flower I've ever seen. Kind of like a Venus fly trap that ate a corn husk.
"Amorphophallus titanium, also known as the corpse flower, my friend. Very rare. We're extremely lucky to have it and it is a privilege to view - and smell - it."
The young mother with her younger child sniffed.
"Yeah," she mumbled, "real pleasure this is."
Prompt 2: The last thing you'd want to do
"You're fifty, go do something crazy!"
"It's the best feeling every, complete weightlessness. You'll love it."
"It's super safe, promise! I did it tons of times. All the accidents are people who couldn't follow instructions."
"It's a mandatory bucket list item."
The multicoloured spectrum of parachutes spread open below me. And the scenery is beautiful up here. Long winding rivers glitter white and weave their way through lush green fields.
But hell no. Who in their right mind wants to jump out of a perfectly functioning plane? I'll stay right up here, thanks so much.
"Your turn!"
God damn it, fuck fuck fuck fuck.
I peek over the edge of the plane to see the land racing below me. At this moment, it doesn't look so lush.
"Go!"
Christ, it's cold up here.
Prompt 3: The nape of her husband's neck
She rubs her husband's shoulders gently, trying to lull him into some peacefulness. She even trails light kisses down behind his ear, and brushes her lips over his neck.
"Calm down, sweetheart. It'll all be over soon." Her breathy whisper in his ear does nothing. He strains and whimpers. She strokes his strapped down head gently. She wonders what his expression is right now. The sense of impending doom perhaps.
Careful but firm fingers grip his neck. He feels a sharp pain, then an eerie coolness spreads through his nerves. Death...?
She watches as the sharp needle pierces skin just below the nape of his neck, and the liquid disappear from within the syringe.
"He shouldn't have any more pains now."
"Thank you Dr. Sunnyhill."
She smiles at the doctor, the nudges her husband who is still moaning into the seat.
"Stop being a drama queen. The cervical epidural's done, you big cry baby. How's your back feeling now?"
Prompt 4: Your most treasured photograph
So I'm not known for keeping photos in the best condition. They don't brown or fade like classic and nostalgic movie moments. They just sort of crease and somehow accumulate sticky residue all over them. I do keep one photo in prime condition, though. Not for any extra attention paid to it, I just like to look at it so often that it hasn't been squished under the bed or something.
We're not even best friends any more. In fact we haven't spoken in years. But we were then.
I still wore pink long sleeve shirts from Siblings, and blue pants with pink flowers on them. Eech. My friend there has the bowl-shaped hair cut and boy clothing. She's got trendy Dior glasses and the latest Lululemon yoga pants now.
The park is almost empty, too. Almost fake looking pink cherry blossoms are in the background. We're kneeling under one. My friend is trying to put rabbit years behind my head. Didn't that use to be a thing? These days the park, when the trees bloom for that elusive Canadian spring, is flooded with people.
We're happy. Laughing so hard our faces and squished. I'm pretty sure a moment after we were rolling on the grass from laughing.
It's nice to look back on these moments. They're so easily lost.
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