Free Write-On a String

The deflated horse balloon hung on a tree in the woods in a Swiss village. We three writers sat on the terrace. Sherlock, our dog, delighted at seeing Julia, ate a croissant as we picked up our pens to write for ten minutes. The prompt was the photo above.

Rick's Free Write - On a String

It was Jimmy’s first school-related birthday party, and it didn’t go well. First, he didn’t understand why he should, on a weekend, go somewhere to be with classmates, most of whom he didn’t care to be with Monday through Friday. Second, he had to take more time out of playing video games to go with his mother to buy a present for Johanna, one of the classmates he liked least.

He picked out a balloon of a horse. Not some girly thing. More neutral. He liked horses, except for the steaming piles of shit they left in the road. The balloon wouldn’t do that.

At promptly 2 pm, like a good Swiss, Jimmy and his mother showed up at Johanna’s house, along with seven other classmates, six girls, one other boy, Gunther, Johanna’s favorite. They were all bouncing and shouting when Johanna opened the door. “Felicitations.” “Happy Birthday.” The international group was bilingual from birth.

Jimmy sat by himself on an uncomfortable chair for most of the party. The rest of the group ignored him until it was time for the presents.

“What’s this?!” Johanna asked in a somewhat disgusted tone.

“It’s a unicorn,” Jimmy said.

“No, it’s not. It doesn’t have a horn,” said Gunther.

“He chewed it off,” Jimmy shot back.

When the party broke up, Johanna shoved the balloon string in Jimmy’s hand. “I don’t want it.”

***

I found the balloon in bushes near the fawn forest. Thinking a child had lost it, I tied it to the pole.

D-L's Free Write

"What the hell?" Detective Malone looked at the deflated horse balloon hanging on the tree in the wood.

Underneath was the body of a 30-year-old (more or less) woman. In her hand she held a string attached to the balloon.

This was the third body and balloon found in the past month.

"Another?" Virginie, the Medical Examiner, slipped down the slope to where Malone stood.

Two weeks later Malone had talked to every balloon dealer in the area: wholesale, retail and those that sold balloons at fetes and fairs.

He decided to stake out the balloon sellers at the 4th of July Parade.

A man, well dressed, stopped to buy a balloon. He went behind a tree and released the helium.

He bought two more horse balloons from other sellers.

At his signal, his men moved in an captured the man with three deflated horse balloons.

At the station, the man asked for a lawyer.

Six months later he was sentenced for three murders.

Tied to a tree, upside down on top of it, what an injustice!

Julia's Free Write

How did it come to this? Where did it all go wrong?

After having been created I was shipped off, so far from where I was born. Locked in a box, in the hold of either a ship or an airplane: I couldn’t really tell except for the fact that there was mouvement.

Off loaded and another long journey by either car or truck – and still prisoner of the dark – I again changed positions.

Blinded by the sudden light, I lasted only an hour before I was again shoved into a large sack – off to the countryside.

When I next saw the light of day, I felt my whole being fill, fill and fill with hot air.

Just as I was thinking that my life had improved, I was “strung & hung” upside down to a pole in a field in the middle of nowhere.

What next for the poor balloon in the shape of a horse?

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

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

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