Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Prompt – Tree

~ John W. Howell

A picture of a string with drops of water- the logo for SoCS

 

When the lid popped open on the chest, admittingly, my first thought was to run behind the magnolia tree. But, of course, the better part of Valor made me freeze in position. Also, having seen several Sci-Fi shows, I knew not to approach the chest too quickly. How many people have you seen incinerated by some kind of death ray all because they rushed to an opening in a spacecraft?

Mrs. Howell didn’t raise no dummy, so taking my time to slowly inch up to the chest. As I got closer, there was no noise coming from the inside. This led me to believe that this chest did not come from a different planet in all probability. If it had, I’m sure there would be some kind of disturbance by now. Gaining confidence, I approached the chest and appeared over the edge.

“Sign here,” came a voice from behind me. My reaction was to immediately fall into the chest, which by now was the size of a hot tub. Then, quickly standing, I faced the voice. It was the USPS delivery person asking me to sign something on a clipboard. “What’s this?”

“Special delivery. Sign here.” After signing, the delivery person handed me an envelope and left.

Looking around the chest, it appeared empty, so I ripped open the envelope. I’m sure by now you have guessed it was from Linda Hill. There were two messages inside. The first read: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “tree.” Use the word “tree” or write about a tree. Any kind of tree. Enjoy! The second was a bit more cryptic. It read: Watch your feet.

If you want to join in and enjoy, visit Linda’s blog and read how easy it is. Here is the link https://lindaghill.com/2021/12/10/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-11-2021/

I think next week we are going to discover what is in the chest.

Tree by John W. Howell © 2021

“Next week?”

“Yup.”

“Why not just do it this week?”

“Ran out of time.”

“You drive me up a tree.”

“Bear chasing you?”

“Very funny. You are supposed to be doing prompts, and here you are fooling around with some dumb chest.”

“There are some out there who would have a good chuckle over that statement.”

“Yeah, I remember them from last week. So what kind of tree are you going to talk about?”

“Hadn’t thought about it. Maybe a hall tree.”

“Hall tree? Never heard of it.”

“It’s a place to hang hats and coats.”

“In what life?”

“Okay, so they are a little bit dated. There is one at the pub, though.”

“Hold on. Did you just sneak in the word pub not expecting me to say something like, ‘You had me at the word pub?'”

“I figured one cast, and you would bite.”

“So, let’s go look at the hall tree.”

“It’ll cost you.”

“What’s new? Let’s go.”

77 thoughts on “Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Prompt – Tree”

  2. Hmmm. Watch your feet? You having landed in something that you described as ‘the size of a hot tub’ and that, the way these things have a nasty habit of going, may well have turned out to be an actual, literal hot tub, albeit one temporarily deprived of the medium that confers on it the attribute ‘hot’, can you be sure the second message wasn’t, in reality, ‘wash your feet’?

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    2. You know when I think about it the fact that the note was in cursive it ell could have been “wash.” Too bad I tore the note up and ate it. We’ll just have to see what happens next Saturday. (I loved this) 🤣

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  10. I was a little lost in the dark when I realized I had not read last werk’s SoCS from you. I rushed back to see what had transpired. Now I am caught up and relieved to know your cliffhanger saved me from missing out on the reveal! I always wanted a hall tree, but no space for it in our house. Great job on the prompt as usual.

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  11. As much as I like “hall trees”, I’ve only known them as coat racks with a bench. This was a fun journey, John. And, as a plus, I learned something new. Have a great weekend and stay warm. It’s in the teens here! ❄ 😊 ❄

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  16. Oh man! We were SO close to finding out what was inside the chest. Love the line, “Mrs. Howell didn’t raise no dummy…” I remember hall trees. They came in handy. Great post, John!

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