Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Grip: A Six Sentence Story

The pounding on the door became more and more insistent as Abigail, face flushed, the fringe on her forehead damp with sweat, pulled the covers up to her chin and closed her eyes. Her body was trembling violently as a boot was thrust through the door, splintering the wood, heavy footsteps clattering across the floor; the men stormed towards Abigail, bayonets raised, as one of them shouted, "Where is he?!" 

Abigail painfully turned her head towards the men, eyes glassy, and with great effort, she attempted to raise her head but quickly dropped it back onto the pillow, coughing.

"Forgive me, officer," she said weakly, her voice straining, her forehead furrowed with pain, "but my family has been stricken with the grippe, and I'm the only one left now." The soldiers, eyes wide, began backing towards the door, hands over their noses and mouths, as the group's leader mumbled, "Sorry to bother you, ma'am," to Abigail, followed by a shout to his men to run for it.

Abigail, willing her racing heart to slow down, slowly counted to one hundred, and when she was sure there was no chance the soldiers would risk coming back to the house, she threw off the covers and leapt out of the bed, unlatched the camel back trunk, and furiously pulled the man inside to his feet by his hair before collapsing in tears in his arms.






Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge's Blog for Six Sentence Stories with the prompt "grip"


18 comments:

  1. Aw-w-w! Well done! You've got the Six twist down tight. Real tight, sis ๐Ÿ˜Ž

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    1. Thanks, sis! It was not the twist my husband thought it was going to make when he read it!

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  2. It's a good thing they were afraid of the grippe. Nice rescue.

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  3. Brilliant take on the prompt. Great to see how the soldiers flu out of there. ;-)

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  4. You certainly nailed that one! Super Six.

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  5. la grippe...love that from old movies. super six.. 10 point landing.

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    1. Thanks! I remember reading the word in a Laura Ingalls Wilder book when I was in about 4th grade and asking my mom what it meant. I don't know what made it pop up this much later, but there it is!

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  6. Well done. Abigail was a great actress and knew the perfect way for the two of them to stay together.

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  7. Brilliantly told. I like how you mentioned 'bayonets' at the start which gave the story its sense of time. Abigail did an excellent job under pressure. Here in France we still call it 'la grippe'. Love the Ordinance snippet you added and the Squirrel Nut Zippers tune... hadn't heard of them before, now listening to their 'Perennial Favourites' album ๐Ÿ˜Ž

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    1. Thank you so much! I didn't know the word was still in use! I stumbled upon the Squirrel Nut Zippers song when I was researching the grippe. How could I not include it?!

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