I had just finished my coffee and was looking at an enormous weed that had grown overnight on the lawn. All of a sudden, a  little shadow was starting to spread around the weed. Looking up, I could see a still small square getting larger by the second. My brain finally clicked and realized it was an object descending from on high toward the Earth. Taking a glance around, I could see the shadow growing exponentially in four directions with me at the center.  I willed my feet to move just as the large ACME fireworks box embedded itself into the ground. When the dust and scraps of lawn settled, I realized that I could have been squashed by the substantial box. The good part was I realized the weed could not have survived the landing.

Gently I removed the cover, and among the rockets and pouches of explosives, I found this:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “contains ‘igh.’” Find a word that contains the letters “igh” in that order and use it in your post. Enjoy!

Clearly, Linda Hill has found a new delivery service. I did call Wil E. Coyote to come to pick up his stuff. If you would like to have fun like this, visit Linda’s blog and find out how easy it is. Here is the link. https://lindaghill.com/2021/07/02/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-3-2021/

IGH by John W. Howell © 2021

“Why so glum—”

“Don’t say, chum.”

“Okay. What’s the problem as if I couldn’t guess?”

“It’s this prompt. It has me buffaloed.”

“Not a hard thing to do.”

“Come on.”

“Okay, sorry. Why are you buffaloed?”

“Words with igh? Someone is pulling my leg.”

“I can think of high. You could do a diary of our pub work.”

“Nobody is going to be interested in that.”

“I think they would be delighted.”

“Hey, you got one.”

“See, not so hard.”

“Do another.”

“Light bulb, but it doesn’t have anything to do with anything.”

“The rules don’t say it has to mean something.”

“Well, then you and I might be in the right place.”

“We have four so far, right?”

“Five.”

“I want to tighten up and win this.”

“You now have six. Why not stop now before you become bigheaded.”

“I would really like to have eight words with igh. That would be swell.”

“You made it. There are eight.”

“Let’s hit the highway then. Our job is done here and the pub calleth.”

“People might think we are shallow. All we do is prompts and beer.”

“Have a highball then.  At least you’ll look sophisticated.”

“Forget it. Who needs to go to greater heights anyway?”

“I agree. Certainly not us. Let’s go.”

I just got up and went to the window to see what all the chirping was about. I looked out on the back lawn, and there was a box sitting in the middle of the yard. There must have been a hundred birds all jumping up and down and all around the box. I quickly went outside to see what was causing all the commotion. The birds parted, and I see that the box is from the ACME seed company. That certainly explains the excitement. What is not explained is how the box got there in the first place. Deciding to ignore the mystery, I opened the box and found a note from Linda Hill with the following message:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “up/down.” Use one, use them both, but try to put one in your first sentence. Bonus points if you use the other in your last sentence. Have fun!

I let the birds have the seed and thought I heard a “beep, beep” as I walked back into the house.

I had to check back to my first sentence and was pleased to see I had used “up.” So I’m on the road to bonus points and one step closer to the Turbo Bentley Convertable.

Up/Down by John W. Howell © 2021

“What are all these birds doing around your house?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Involves the prompt for today, I’ll bet.”

“Yeah, it does but only in a transcendental way.”

“Okay I’ll take you word for that. What’s the prompt?”

“Up/Down. Bonus points for using one in the first sentence and the other in the last sentence.”

“Oh, too bad. You missed the first sentence opportunity.”

“Au contraire mon frère. I nailed it. It was before you arrived.”

“I’ll take your word. So what else is up?”

“Oh please, that is as trite as all get out.”

“Just trying to help.”

“Next you are going to say you are down with something like beer drinking.”

“Had crossed my mind.”

“We need to think of some way to use up/down in an original way.”

“How about up/down exercise.”

“Common.”

“Uptown/downtown.”

“Not really the pure form of up/down.”

“Okay, I give up.”

“That’s a start.”

“No I mean I quit. Give up. Surrender.”

“Yeah, I get it. You’ve had it up to there.”

“Now you are doing dumb. What do you say about packing up.”

“I like it. Where should we go?”

“Down to the pub.”

“Now I can say anything since that could have been the last sentence.”

“You could say you were down with going to the pub.”

“And lay down all my principles?”

“It’s only down the street.”

“I’m down with it.”

“You are a good man.”

“Don’t say any more. I need to end this with down in the last sentence.”

“Okay then.”

“Grrr, I may have to come down hard on you.”

“Not saying a word.”

“I’m down with that too.”