The image is of a pitcher I bought in a 2nd hand store. Your word is “Method”
You don’t have to use the actual word in your piece but do include its essence. For those of you writing a cohesive story you don’t literally have to write your next piece in a different genre or disconnect it from your ongoing story though that is one way to include the word. For those not writing a cohesive story you can experiment with an unfamiliar genre. You can have your character question their direction in life, their sanity, their moral integrity, their place in a relationship, their identity etc. There are lots of ways to use this word I believe so get creative.
There was a method in their madness
So my mother said.
The alien spaceship sat in our backyard.
We all stood at the window
Wondering what next?
A door slid open in the side of the silver
Cylinder with lawn mower wheels
Or so they seemed to me.
We waited in expectation of creatures green,
Tentacles and scaly skins
After all we’d watched the sci-fi channel.
A small bespectacled man stepped out
He looked about and then looked at us
We were mesmerised, spell bound by the ordinary
He wore an Armani suit, polished shoes,
And carried a small clay pitcher,
He asked my mother if she could spare some milk.
Mother was very hospitable
She invited him in
Sat him at the kitchen table
Laid out her best china
Ladled some milk into his pitcher
Asked him his name.
‘Call me Mister Smith,’ he said
‘My real name doesn’t translate.’
Mister Smith sat at our table
He sipped Mum’s herbal tea
Said it was most delicious.
Mum asked him where he was from
He said. ‘$^##@)&%&$^(‘
‘Pardon?’ asked Mum.
‘Oh sorry,’ he said, ‘Prazxton North.’
We were none the wiser and I asked just where that was.
He looked at me and said, ‘You know the Milky Way?’
‘Yes,’ I replied.
‘Nowhere near that.’
And giggled at his little joke.
Then he cleared his throat
‘Three light years away,
A sharp left beyond Pluto,
You can’t miss it.’
Mum interjected,
‘You didn’t come all this way for a cup of milk?’
‘Well yes we are galactic milk surveyors.
Have pitcher will travel.’
With that he produced a small vial
And poured a substance into the pitcher.
There was a rumble, a stumble,
Steam and froth, bubbles and bursting
Then a pop and all was done.
On the side of the pitcher a small green light glowed
‘All good,’ announced Mister Smith
He then left us
His door slide closed and the craft ascended
Then in the wink of an eye
Vanished into the heavens.
‘Oh look,’ said mum, ‘he left the pitcher.’
Might be valuable we thought.
‘No,’ said mum, ‘who’d believe us?’
Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2015/10/18/writing-prompt-129-noend-house-part-8%E2%80%B3/
This is fabulous Michael, very kooky and right up my alley. I love that the pitcher made you think of aliens. I love “Galactic Milk Surveyors” and how chill and hospitable the mother character is
Thanks Yves, its funny but moments before the prompt came up I had been having a discussion with another blogger about aliens and what they might think of earth..
What did you guys conclude?
I we both hoped they would be friendly. I have always had this fantasy of them turning up in my backyard and then coming in and having a cup of tea to explain themselves…..but also we thought they would find earth an odd place where people seemed intent on killing each other…
You never know Michael that day could come! I am both intrigued and frightened. I feel that they are quite different than anything conceived. We always think of life as variations of human and there are so many things that exist that we would never have imagined to exist because of our limitation “human”. I think in fact their are beings among us now that we cannot see yet, how often do we discover a new creature that is not new at all but has been with us for a very long time but we’ve not seen it.
Phenomenally clever, Michael–Bravo! And how was your birthday??
Thank you J.
I have had a fabulous day.
Thank you for thinking of me.
I’m so glad to hear it–yes, I was thinking of you throughout the day: many blessings on your birthday!
Thank you J, enjoy your weekend…
Thank you, Sir 🙂
Oh this was such a wonderful story, Michael! I don’t think I’d care whether the pitcher was valuable or not. It would be something to pass down through the family along with the story. And who knows, maybe sometime in the future Mr Smith will return and enjoy another cup of herbal tea 🙂
Yes indeed Lyn one never knows…
Bloody hilarious mate, good read 😀
Thanks Jen, glad to give you a laugh…
I love this! It’s very “Netherworld.” Being a fairly frequent visitor, you may know that the Netherworld is all about the extraordinary being ordinary and the ordinary being extraordinary.
Six Meekmok thumbs up for this one!
peppersfetch dot blogspot dot com
Thank you so much, that is great compliment, lovely to have you stop by…
There’s a deja vu feeling here for me, Michael. Back in the 60’s, where I lived, there was an almost hysteria about spaceships and spacemen, coming to whisk us away in our sleep. Every light in the sky…people woke up missing their teeth, sleeping in the wrong bed, stories of being led away in the night by little green men and then returned in time for breakfast. Your story could have been one of those! Loved it 😀
Thanks Mandy, I remember those tales, aliens took me for weird experiments, stuck me with probes and other nasties and yes always back for breakfast. Often made me wonder why they only operated while we slept….have a good day…
Very whimsical and I hope the aliens will be as congenial when they get here or when we run into them out there. 🙂
One can only hope. Thanks for inspiring me, it was a lot of fun in the end…
Happy to be inspiring. 🙂