Words That Start With 'F'

By **Rowan**. 23/07/09, 04:17 am

This is a strange little story I did in my Creative Writing class. I'll outline the exercise parameters at the end of the story :)

Words That Start With ‘F’

You are tired, frustrated, and frantic. Your stomach grumbles, and your baby boy giggles at the sound. You add ‘famished’ to the list, and know it will be a while before you can sit down to eat. Tired, frustrated, frantic, famished. Is there a word for ‘tired’ that starts with an ‘f’? You are brought out of your increasingly hysterical musings by the jarring sound of the phone ringing, and you flail madly to grab it. Your son claps happily, thinking it a game, before turning back to the legendary water battle between Godzilla and Rubber Ducky taking place in his bath. It’s your husband. As he starts on a list of tasks, you think back to your list. Frustrated and frantic, that about fits it. Your nostrils flare as he asks you to pick up his dry cleaning, and the phone creaks in your grasp as he absentmindedly adds a couple of grocery items that he forgot to buy yesterday. He’ll be home late from work, but don’t forget the neighbours are coming over for dinner! He won’t be there to help set up, so sorry. You’d been up half the previous night with your son’s nightmares, and now your plan to join him in his afternoon nap has been foiled. There’s the ‘tired’ – fatigued! – part of the list coming back with a vengeance. You hang up the phone, turning and tripping over the cat that chooses that moment to twine around your legs. With effort you stifle a curse, remembering your son’s presence at the last second.

‘Toy, toy, gimme toy. I wanna play.’ A childish voice cuts through the noise of the washing machine and the rustling of the clothes you are pulling out of the dryer to fold. You grab another toy off the floor and chuck it into the bath, not even looking away from the washing. But the voice continues to demand to play. This feeling is frustration. You finish rolling up the pair of socks in your hands – your husband’s, you spitefully note – and pick your son out of the bath. You briskly – franticly? – rub him down with one of the towels you had recently folded and set him down next the sock pile.

‘Do you want to help Mummy?’ You say, realising he probably thinks your chores a game. You’ll happily encourage that, although you know you’ll have to redo whatever he does. You ignore the slightly bewildered look on his young, innocent face, and shove two matching socks into his hands. The doorbell rings and this time you give voice to the curse running through your mind – another ‘f’ word, which causes you inordinate amusement. Whilst getting up you glance over to your son, hesitating, but the door bell rings once more. You decide that you can leave him for a second; he’s not in the bath anymore.

You hurry to the front door, tripping over the cat again. As you reach the door the childish voice pipes up again, but you ignore its continuous demands for the moment. Of course it’s only a salesman at the door, adding to your frustration. Your eyes widen as you hear a loud splash, and you slam the door on the indignant salesman. You sprint back to the bathroom, frantic, thinking, ‘Oh God!’ How long does it take for a child to drown? You can’t decide if not knowing is comforting or not in the seconds it takes to get to the room. You see a figure in the bath, and blindly grab it out. You clasp him to your chest before noticing something strange. You see your son on the floor blinking up at you, and realise you are holding a dripping wet cat – ‘feline’ is the hysterical thought you have – in your arms. The cat looks up with wide, luminous eyes, and says, ‘I wanted to play in the bath too.’

By Rowan

The exercise I did this for was called 'Beast Fables' where we basically had to have a human encounter a talking animal. It had to fit onto one A4 page as well, so it didn't have to be a finished story, but I quite like where I finished it nodnod

By Kitten Slave. 23/07/09, 04:30 am

Rofl, I will concede to having read the last line first, and since noticing that it had a cat in a significant role, went back and read the rest!
whee

lul, tiz well done though Razz