Free Write - Muddy Boots

 

We are getting closer to when the Free Writers will be in Geneva in the same café. Despite the separation we still managed to share the prompt and our ten minutes work thanks to the internet. Sometimes the writing gets done at a different time on Tuesdays, but that is unimportant. What is important is that there are people writing together in their heads and sharing. 

D-L's Free Write 

Frank carried his muddy boots in his left hand. In his right was his cane, an improvement over his crutches and a definite improvements over his wheelchair and sling over his hospital bed holding his broken leg.

The boots had been with him since high school, through uni and two jobs. They had hiked in the mountains and along river paths.

He has almost thought of them as buddies until that rainy day when he'd slipped and rolled down that steep hill. He was found the next day unconscious.

All he wanted to do now with the boots was to get rid of them. 

"Why not give them to someone?" his sister asked.

He was going to give them to the dumpster behind the supermarket. Placing them on the top he turned his back without a goodbye,

Less than a half hour later, a homeless man spied them. "Just my size," he mumbled. He knew just where to wash them.

Rick's Free Write

It had been a long, exceedingly hot day working in the ditches in the village, laying new fiber optic cable so people could have faster internet and brighter television images. Irony – he didn’t have a computer or a TV.

He’d taken off the muddy boots and changed into sneakers, then he and Jake and Bluto had walked to a nearby bar for a couple of cold brews that tasted really good.

Jake had given him a ride home, and dropped him off to his eager retriever, Digger.

It wasn’t until he was cleaning up and climbing out of his filthy overalls that he realized he’d left his boots behind. He could picture them sitting on the stone in front of the iron fence. But it was much too far to walk. If he was lucky, the boots would still be there in the morning.

He sat down to another solitary supper. Some cereal. Half of a leftover banana. Tap water. Digger got kibble, and was glad of it. It had been a long time since either had had meat.

He started to read a Reacher novel, and had almost fallen asleep in the ragged recliner when he heard a truck drive up.

Jake walked through the door without knocking and set the boots, cleaned, next to the chair. “Found these in town. Thought you might need them. See you at 7.”

 Julia's Free Write 

 "These boots are made for walking, and that's what they're gonna do". Shades of my teenage years. And the more famous song probably by, hmm Nancy Sinatra, I believe. I can't remember though who wrote this.

That was the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the prompt for today.
Then I thought no get serious.

They were worn, they were used: they looked like just recently, although the mud had had time to dry.

There had been no rain for days. So, when it first finally did rain, one had to take advantage of it by all means possible.

He had always loved working outside and in the garden, but as he aged, it became more and more a necessity.

 Recently, the advent of grandchildren in his life had made him rethink gardening, and all of its’ fun.

His grandsons could literally dig in a patch of dirt for hours on end. Sometimes they made hillocks, sometimes they just strew the dust and the dirt, and it landed where it would. Other times they thought about building something with the dust, but they had yet to learn that one must mix it with water.

So somehow what was very satisfying to be able to put on his boots again. Go out and make a new patch for those beloved grandsons. As the old patch would soon be holding a huge sun umbrella to protect the winter garden. 

Rick Adams is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices.com, a weekly newsletter reporting the airline industry  top stories . He is the author of The Robot in the Simulator. AI in Aviation Training.  

Visit D-L.'s website  https://dlnelsonwriter.com, She is the author of 15 fiction and three non fiction books. Her 300 Unsung Women, bios of women who battled gender limitations, can be purchased  at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/300-unsung-women-d-l-nelson/1147305797?ean=9798990385504 

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