As you may know, I have become enamored by the talent of Keith Channing. He has a weekly prompt named Kreative Kue, which runs on Mondays. Here are the instructions from Keith for the prompt. “Using this photo as inspiration, write a short story, flash fiction, scene, poem; anything, really; and either put it (or a link to it) in a comment or email it to me at keithkreates@channing.fr before 6pm on Sunday (if you aren’t sure what the time is where I live, this link will tell you). If you post it on your blog or site, a link to this page would be appreciated.”
His advice. “Go on. You know you want to. Let your creativity and imagination soar. I shall display the entries, with links to your blog or website, next Monday.” Here is the photo.
The Thing by John W. Howell © 2015
“Alright, I’m here now tell me what you did Ray.”
“Nothing. I just squeezed the trigger on this thing.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“Look at the street. There’s nobody around.”
“Whoa, you are right there’s no one here.”
“I just love it when you state the obvious.”
“So why did you call me?”
“To help me figure out how to get the people back.”
“What is that thing anyway?”
“I don’t know. I found it on the sidewalk over there.”
“Why did you pull the trigger?”
“I didn’t know it was a trigger. It looks more like a button to me. See?”
“Yeah, a red button. Don’t you know red buttons mean trouble.”
“Well, I do now for sure.”
“Any other dials or buttons on that thing?”
“Look there’s this green one.”
“There you go. The green one probably puts everything back. Go ahead push it.”
“Okay. I hope you’re right.”
“Man. Did you see that?”
“All the buildings are gone.”
“No kidding. I’m right here with you. Push the green again maybe it’s a cycle thing.”
“There.”
“Nice. The buildings are back.”
“I think I should push the red one again. It looks like red is for people and green for stuff. If I push the red again, I believe the people will come back.”
“Okay, but point that thing towards the buildings.”
“Here I go.”
“Nothing happened Ray. Where the hell are you? Oh, Ray if you can hear me don’t push the red again.”





