Someday

 

Welcome to the Spot Writers. This week’s prompt follows the prompt from last month, which was to tell a story through a camera. The prompt for this month: tell what happens after. In the story from last month, the camera showed the early life of a family dog, first injured and then lost after being startled by fireworks.

Someday

by Val Muller

Ella sat I the basement, listening to the base of the sub woofer. She was watching a war film—well, she wasn’t actually watching it. She had chosen it for its loud soundtrack—for Charlie. The loud sounds helped drown out the fireworks of Independence Day. He was old now. Likely he wouldn’t be able to run off so fast anymore, but he could still be scared.

Ever since the summer he ran off during the fireworks, most of the family gave up the holiday. Sure, they did cookouts, but they generally came back home before the big displays. It was bad enough that neighborhood displays stretched out over the week. Only Henry was out with friends, as he usually was. Maybe he had been too young when Charlie ran off. Maybe he didn’t remember the worry and the stress.

Ellen turned back to her sketchbook. In it, she was finishing the cross-hatching on a sketch of Charlie sleeping in his bed, a brilliant display of fireworks in the background of the drawing. But they weren’t ordinary fireworks.

On the next page in her sketchbook, she started her blueprint. It was a grand light display, one that would presumably be lit by drones, each programmed to light in silent precision. No explosives, no smoke, no terrifying sounds, no lost animals. She was only going into her junior year, but she already had her college essay drafted for the school of engineering she hoped to attend. It was an essay about the night Charlie disappeared and her plan to use drone technology to change the standard for holiday illumination displays.

In his bed, Charlie stretched, then curled up again. Ellen smiled sadly. She doubted Charlie would be around next summer; this was likely the last Independence Day she had to hide him from the fireworks, but he would always be in her heart as she pursued her dream. The technology was nascent now, but she would bring it to full fruition. Her name would be in the textbooks one day, a pioneer of electronic pyrotechnics. In fact, she would write her own book one day, likely as part of her dissertation. She would make sure it was published to be released on the 4^th of July. And it would be dedicated to Charlie.

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The Spot Writers—Our Members:

Val Muller: http://www.valmuller.com/blog/
Catherine A. MacKenzie: https://writingwicket.wordpress.com/wicker-chitter/
Phil Yeats: https://alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com
Chiara De Giorgi: https://chiaradegiorgi.blogspot.com/