Welcome to the Romantic Friday Writing Challenge, where participants share their own 300-400-word text on a given theme. This week's theme for Friday the 26th of August, Challenge No.16, is 'Smooth Sailing'.
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Here is my text:------
There was no bath tub at the new place, only a space that could accommodate a washer-dryer and a floor drain, standard in all Swedish wet-rooms.
The children loved to play with their plastic boats in the bath so Sanna took the plastic inflatable pool with her in the move from the old place. Her ex had bought out her half of their townhouse.
After bathing the children, Sanna succeeded in getting them into bed, and then fed the cats.
Finally 'Smooth Sailing', Sanna thought, as she emptied and refilled the little pool and sat down in the warm water for some moments of relaxation. She thought about Tomas, the charming wood-working teacher at her children's school. He had given her a hug when he saw her again after the summer holiday. He was kind, clean-shaven, short-haired and ruggedly handsome with his well-trained body (from riding his bike between four different schools), intensely blue eyes and eagle-nose that was probably broken at some point in his life. Tomas had kind eyes and Sanna's heart beat faster when she thought of him.
Sanna closed her eyes and dozed off and found herself on the deck of an ancient sailing-ship, far out to sea. The air was gently warm. She looked up and saw a black flag with the skull and bones! Pirates! But they looked more like buccaneers from Peter Pan than dangerous cut-throats.
There was no Captain Hook here; their leader was a good-looking man with long, blond hair and a three-corner hat. He walked toward her and embraced her. At closer range, she could see that it was Tomas! He pulled her face closer to his and was about to kiss her, when a huge, unforeseen wave washed over the ship, drenching everyone on board. Sanna was knocked off her feet and careened on the deck in a foot of water. She noticed that the crew-members were cats dressed in pirate-clothes, tiny swords, three-corner hats and boots like Puss n' Boots'. The water level rose and the cats started to swim. Where was Tomas?
Finally 'Smooth Sailing', Sanna thought, as she emptied and refilled the little pool and sat down in the warm water for some moments of relaxation. She thought about Tomas, the charming wood-working teacher at her children's school. He had given her a hug when he saw her again after the summer holiday. He was kind, clean-shaven, short-haired and ruggedly handsome with his well-trained body (from riding his bike between four different schools), intensely blue eyes and eagle-nose that was probably broken at some point in his life. Tomas had kind eyes and Sanna's heart beat faster when she thought of him.
Sanna closed her eyes and dozed off and found herself on the deck of an ancient sailing-ship, far out to sea. The air was gently warm. She looked up and saw a black flag with the skull and bones! Pirates! But they looked more like buccaneers from Peter Pan than dangerous cut-throats.
There was no Captain Hook here; their leader was a good-looking man with long, blond hair and a three-corner hat. He walked toward her and embraced her. At closer range, she could see that it was Tomas! He pulled her face closer to his and was about to kiss her, when a huge, unforeseen wave washed over the ship, drenching everyone on board. Sanna was knocked off her feet and careened on the deck in a foot of water. She noticed that the crew-members were cats dressed in pirate-clothes, tiny swords, three-corner hats and boots like Puss n' Boots'. The water level rose and the cats started to swim. Where was Tomas?
Sanna opened her eyes and found herself lying on the wet floor of the bathroom. The pool was deflated and the water had run out and down the floor-drain. The cats had clawed holes in the pool.
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Word count according to WordCalc: 382 : FCA (Full Critique Acceptable - Write what you like as long as it is with good intentions)
Best wishes,
Anna
P.S.
This is a piece of fiction. Sanna is not a real person. When I write texts about Sanna Rumsten I am writing purely fictional stories that may or may not borrow content from my own life. I have written many short-texts for Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus using the character, Sanna Rumsten.
This time I am letting Sanna star in a longer text for Romantic Friday Writers.
If you are interested in reading more short-fiction with Sanna, you can go to these posts:
Anna's SC Wk 68 'If I die young'
Sanna's Sunshine SC Wk 66
'John Tell, expert on tourism' Anna's SC wk 65
Books are heavy-Anna's SC wk 63
A Rainy Day in July-Anna's SC wk 61
Anna's SC-56-Sanna visits a grave
Anna's SC-53-Sanna finds her voice
Anna's SC-52-Sanna's novel
Anna's SC-51-Harvey's Place
Thanks for reading!
Anna
This is a piece of fiction. Sanna is not a real person. When I write texts about Sanna Rumsten I am writing purely fictional stories that may or may not borrow content from my own life. I have written many short-texts for Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus using the character, Sanna Rumsten.
This time I am letting Sanna star in a longer text for Romantic Friday Writers.
If you are interested in reading more short-fiction with Sanna, you can go to these posts:
Anna's SC Wk 68 'If I die young'
Sanna's Sunshine SC Wk 66
'John Tell, expert on tourism' Anna's SC wk 65
Books are heavy-Anna's SC wk 63
A Rainy Day in July-Anna's SC wk 61
Anna's SC-56-Sanna visits a grave
Anna's SC-53-Sanna finds her voice
Anna's SC-52-Sanna's novel
Anna's SC-51-Harvey's Place
Thanks for reading!
Anna
First Commenter:
Ruth Madison
To read more texts for 'Smooth Sailing', Romantic Friday Writers Challenge No 16, Friday 26th August, please go to this site or click on the image below:
9 comments:
I love the description of Tomas, the detail of his nose makes it really come to life for me. Very clever use of the theme, too.
I'm glad your MC has a new man in her life. Her attraction for Tomas is evident from your descriptions. I hope the kiss in her dreams comes true without the boat capsizing! :O)
That was a cute ending. Those darn cats!
Edge of Your Seat Romance
I enjoyed your fun, twist ending. You did a great job making Tomas a vivid, realistic character. Nice!
Anna, thank you so much for writing for RFWers and posting these stories that make us smile. Tomas is indeed a character!
Denise
Thank you Ruth, Madeleine, Raquel, Marsha and Denise for your encouraging comments!
Since most of you seem to find Tomas to be a believable character, I have written another story with Sanna and him for next week's theme 'Heart-Stoppers'. Yes, I've made Tomas a 'heart-stopper'!
So welcome back next week for a continuation of this story about Sanna, whose heart beats faster when she thinks of Tomas.
Kind regards,
Anna
Having seen pools that burst open filled with water, I thought, what a mess to have to clean up. But, it was a very enjoyable fantasy.
I could see Tomas clearly.
Very nice read.
This was well done - you squeezed in quite a bit of background in a sentence or two (they split up, she moved with the kids, they have cats, etc.) all important when you're trying to keep it under 400 words. And it was cute, the rude awakening at the end!
This is sooo wondeful and cute! I liked her fantasy/dream, cats and ships and pirate and all. Just like last week's entry, I am truly excited whenever you write about cats like this. Good-looking guy, thoughtful heorine, amazing fantasy world cats --I'm all set! I was a little disappointed that it was a dream :(
Thank you for your kind words over at my writing blog. I'd love to see your cat reading list and I hope to see where your writing experiments take you in the future.
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