Another good turn out for the Lowestoft Library Teen Writing Group this week, with six creative writers turning up.
This session we each wrote a 26 line story, where each sentence began with a different letter of the alphabet (in sequence). This is a bit like an acrostic/abecedarian poem, but obviously using prose. We had fun trying to think of words beginning with the more difficult letters of the alphabet. I think a little cheat should be allowed with X, as we could only think of 'xenophobic' and 'xylophone', which didn't really fit in with anyone's stories, so words beginning with ex- were allowed (exciting, example, explore, extend ...).
While writing this I found that I don't know my alphabet as well as I should! We can all recite it, but when it comes to knowing which letter follows on from another, out of context, it can be quite tricky!
Anyway, here's my story.
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A few years ago the world was subject to a terrible catastrophe. Bombs were dropped on all major capital cities, killing millions of innocent people. Catharine should have been in London on that fateful day, but a power cut has meant that her alarm hadn't gone off, and she slept in till 10am. Dragging herself out of bed, bleary eyed, she sighed as the red lights on her clock came into focus. 'Eric should have called me,' she thought, as she reached for her phone, which was sitting on her bedside table. From the flat next door, Catharine could hear old Mrs. Jacobson sobbing and wailing like a deranged banshee. Groaning, she pounded her fist on her bedroom wall in the hope it would quieten down her neighbour, but the crying just got louder. Her phone vibrated in her hand, but when she looked down she was disappointed to see that it wasn't Eric, but instead her battery was dying. Irritability started to set in as Catharine scrambled about under her bed looking for the right charger cable for her phone. "Just how many of these things do I need?" she mumbled whilst untangling the wires. Kneeing herself in those nose as she stood up, Catharine grumbled and flopped back onto the bed. Laughing, she pulled a pillow over her face. Moments later her phone vibrated loudly. NICOLE flashed across the screen, and Catharine knew to never ignore a call from Nicole.
"Oh my goodness, where have you been?" Nicole screamed into Catharine's ear. "Please tell me you're alive, I couldn't bear it if something had happened to you," she continued.
Quickly, Catharine opened her mouth to speak, but, as always, Nicole carried on talking before waiting for an answer.
"Really, you should let your best friend know if you're dead or alive, if nothing else. Something like that should be at the top of your list, you know. Talk to me Catharine, I'm begging you."
"Uumm, my alarm didn't go off, and I feel like I've been kicked in the face, which I kind of have been, but with a knee rather than a foot, and I'm a bit confused as to why you're panicking more than usual," Catharine answered.
"Vap-a-rize dropped their bombs today," Nicole said solemnly.
"What are you talking about?" Catharine asked. Exhaling slowly, the penny dropped.
"You must remember, they've been threatening to drop them for ages, and today, this morning, first thing, they annihilated the world's major capital cities; London being one of them," Nicole blurted out. "Zombie apocalypse annihilation would be a day at the beach compared to this."
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Our next meeting is on Wednesday 2nd July, 5-6pm, at Lowestoft Library.
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