Tuesday – Anything Possible – Finger Point Prompt – “Wringer”

~ John W. Howell

Today, I randomly opened Eternal Road – The final stop to page 111. With eyes closed, I pointed to the page. The word nearest my finger is “Wringer,” which is our prompt.

Wringer © 2026 by John W. Howell

“Nice to have you visit.”

“I have really enjoyed myself. This hotel is the best.”

“I agree. I think it’s time for us to check out, though.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Well, they have cleaned our room.”

“I guess that’s a hint that we have to move on.”

“You said it. It’s too bad cause I like this place. The food is great.”

“I agree. Everything is so clean. Not like some other places we’ve been.”

“Yeah, talk about overcrowding and the lack of regular cleaning.”

“I have never visited a laundry before.”

“Well, if we hadn’t slept in, we wouldn’t be here now”

“What do we do?”

“We have to avoid being caught up in the washing machine and then the wringer.”

“What is a wringer”

“I don’t know exactly how it works, but I know whatever goes in comes out flat.”

“Have you seen it work before?”

“Oh yeah, plenty of times. I was just lucky to be able to avoid it.”

“So what’s our next move?”

“When they grab these sheets, jump over to the clean pile.”

“Won’t they see us?”

“Nah. We are too small for them to see us.”

“And so we will go to another room?”

“Yup. We can stay. But this time we have to be alert, and when they come to clean the room, we need to go onto the mattress.”

“Got it. I’ll tell you, being a bedbug is not easy.”

“You said it.”

81 thoughts on “Tuesday – Anything Possible – Finger Point Prompt – “Wringer””

  15. EWWWWW … as I read I felt my skin prickle at the thought that it was bedbugs! That said, your story reminded me of when I was little and I “helped” our nextdoor neighbor (my surrogate grandfather) with his laundry. He had one of those old barrel-like tubs that had a wringer attached to it. He’d feed his wet clothes through the wringer and I’d catch them on the other side, mindful not to get my fingers caught. For a kid like me, it was fun 🙂

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      1. Yes! Well, our basement was mud so my mom still hung wet clothes on the clothesline if it was sunny. Then we had to bring in our “frozen” clothes and break them over the clothes rack which was placed on the floor furnace. Took FOREVER to get our clothes dry in the winter 😹

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