Free Write - The Piggy Bank

Maybe this prompt wasn't as fair. Two of us own the piggy bank and the owners are in a different country from the third Free Writer.  Yet each week the one who selects the prompt has an advantage of seeing it in advance, although this time only the prompter saw a photo before the other two. Our Free Writes are not contests. The idea is to trigger the imagination to write for 10 minutes on anything that comes into one's head. We love seeing what we come up with.

D-L's Free Write

"It's time," Anne said to Kai. "Our annual emptying of the piggy bank. "I wonder how much this year."

In past years they had collected 1002, 765.20, 798.11, 999.99 Euros in pocket change.

They had used the money for rent, car repairs, and a two-day skiing trip in Liechtenstein.  

As tradition had it, Kai had to struggle to turn the heavy pig over. When they'd spied the pig in a charity shop, the owner made them promise to not break her.

The month before, they'd been in Stuttgart, Germany and visited a pig museum www.stuttgart-tourist.de/en/a-pig-museum with 50,000 pig figurines and drawings.

"Whew! Got it," Kai said. The pig, named Patricia, was on her side. He opened the plug keeping the money inside. 

Kai stuck his fingers in the hole and pulled out a torrent of coins.

"That's obscene," Anne laughed.

"It'll take a couple of trips to the bank," Kai said. The bank was around the corner, closer to walk than park in their parking lot. "At least they have the automatic coin deposit. Remember when we had to wrap the coins?"

Anne did. It took most of a Saturday morning. "She'd enjoyed it for a while, then it grew tiresome.

Kai put the coins in two cloth bags. "You coming with me?"

"We can go to lunch after, "Anne said. "Celebrate our annual pig ritual."

D-L has had 17 fiction and non fiction books published. Check out her website at:. https://dlnelsonwriter.com  

Rick's Free Write

Piggy bank.

Pigskin.

Pig in a poke.

Pigs in a blanket.

Piggish.

Pork face.

Eat like a pig.

Like a pig in slop.

Piglet.

Porky Pig.

Pigs don’t have the best of reputations. They are portrayed as fat, lazy, dirty.

Maybe they are quite happy. Except, of course, when they get packed off to the abattoir.

Peppa Pig.

Boss Hogg.

We have a pig in the spare bedroom. At some point a sorcerer turned him into ceramic and put a slot for coins in the middle of his back. He’s got a hairline crack on one side, not our doing.

The antiques dealer who sold him to us made us promise not to smash him (the pig) to get at the coins. More than once I thought about breaking that promise as I shook at the coins and the last few wouldn’t fall through the hole in the bottom. It felt almost obscene to be reaching into the hole with my finger in search of the final centimes.

Managed to get them all after several minutes of fingering and shaking.

Put the coins in a sack and walked to the bank, where they have a coin counter. My arm almost fell off from the weight.

More than a thousand euros, collected over many months.

The pig now has an empty belly. He’s lucky my hammer was in the other room.

Petunia.

Note: Rick thought afterward he could have added when pigs fly to his free write. If he ever did a second draft he could add it then.

Rick Adams is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices.

Julia's Free Write 

Sniff, sniff, sniff – my nose is to the ground.

I am not exactly the right color, but covered in mud, it doesn’t much matter.

I root and search throughout the field, looking for just the perfect tidbit: perhaps a bit of carrot, leek or potato. Oh, wouldn’t it be great to find a bit of apple.

Surrounded by family and friends, a great field and sunny weather: it’s a wonderful life.

My mother just gave birth to some more (8 to be exact) siblings, but they’re way too young to be introduced to my life.

My father seems to have disappeared – I heard rumors of the ever-feared “butcher” whispered by some of our older family members.

 Oh, but what is this? My tummy feels funny; heavier and heavier – not a pleasant feeling at all, but one that foretells of liberation, a time when I will be emptied and become a “real” pig, for now you see I’m only a ceramic piggy-bank and it was all a dream.

Julia has written and taken photos all and loves syncing up with friends.  Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/