Writing Exercise: More Rory's Story Cubes

In a recent writing group, we used Rory's Story Cubes as our writing prompt. Here's what we rolled:

Where to go from here...

Here's what I wrote:

Old Man Turtle went for a walk one day, but he was slower than usual. He'd forgotten his walking stick which meant he had to go on all fours. He had a hard time seeing things in the distance when he was down low, and often got mis-directed. He couldn't count the birds on the power lines as if they were beads on an abacus. He'd miss the rainbows and a chance for a pot of gold. Not that he ever made it to the end of a rainbow. Too slow.

On the other hand, he did see things he would have walked right past otherwise. The occasional abandoned apple core made a tasty snack. Today's surprise was a rusty old key. He picked it up and stored it inside his shell. Maybe he'd run across a lock that it would fit and that would be fine. He smiled a wide smile (which took some time). The smile contracted as he thought about where the lock would be. Probably up high somewhere. He'd have to stand up to see the lock. He pondered just throwing away the key but couldn't reach a decision.

He continued on. Maybe the lock will have fallen down too, he thought. But it probably wouldn't have anything interesting on the other side. His meandering brought him to a fence. Which way to go, he wondered. Maybe there'd be a lock somewhere and he could get through.

He used the fence to get on two feet so he could see farther. The chain link fence let Old Man Turtle look through. He saw an apple orchard on the other side. All those tasty cores, waiting to be eaten. If only he could find a way in. Up and over would be the shortest way but that was impossible for him. Left or right, left or right....If only he had a coin to flip. He drew his head into his shell to look around. The rusty key, the smooth round stone, the bottle cap, the old padlock. Now when had he picked up that padlock? A week ago? Last month? Yesterday? Maybe he should try the key on it. He pulled them both out of his shell and sure enough, the key opened the lock. Probably why they threw away the key, he thought to himself. Maybe he could put the lock on the fence and then unlock it, letting him through to the orchard. The logic seemed logical to Old Man Turtle. But something was wrong. He'd figure it out by trial and error maybe. Sure enough, he couldn't get through. What was the plan again? Lock and key left him wrong. Oh, left and write, that was the problem. Which way to go. He turned his head to look. Left was miles of fence. Right was the end of the fence.

Then time ran out. I wasn't sure if the right-hand fence would just be the end he could walk around or a corner. I guess we'll never know.

I would argue that I got all the pictures into the story, but the thoughts to himself probably don't quite qualify for the quote bubble. Also, the theater masks I did as his smile that contracts which is also a bit iffy.