Written on June 8, 2020 by Gale Striker
Category: Impromptu
In the quaint little town of Hopeless lived Spot and Maisey, two cows destined to be friends for life. With green pastures and greater dreams, these two cows spent most of their time wandering the fields hoping for a little excitement. Unfortunately, their farmer named Cal had moved to the town of Hopeless years ago after an accident occurred causing all the neighboring farmers to revolt. Apparently leaving a cow sized hole in the side of a neighbors house was not an acceptable way to handle ones farm. Needless to say, Spot and Maisey have no neighbors now and therefore no fun.
They had no fun, that is, until Vanessa somehow stumbled into the town of Hopeless.
“Who’s the new lady,” asked Spot. Her tail waived back and forth more than usual. “I’m dying to see another human that doesn’t fear little old us. Poor Cal… you used to be so much fun.” As Spot finished her sentence the neighbor across the street got out of her shining new car quickly to be followed by a landscaping crew.
“Her name is Vanessa,” responded Maisey. “Owns a company called I Can’t Believe It’s Not Working. Whatever that means, I could not tell you.” The landscaping crew gathered in a circle with Vanessa waving her hands fanatically.
“Wait, how did you figure that out?” Silence stood between them. It was obvious Maisey was not going to reveal her sources. “Whatever. Well, I hope she’s interesting.”
“Shall we?” Maisey idly walked back into the fields with a slightly faster tail flick than usual.
Spot broke her gaze from the landscaping crew and turned around and tilted her head. “Maisey, don’t tell me you’re planning something.”
Five months passed as the land was transformed and the house was constructed from start to finish. With her hands on her hips and head tilted high, Vanessa admired the newly constructed house. It was obvious she was quite proud that her vision finally came to fruition.
“Maisey, I think it’s done!” Spot was stepped up on the fence trying to get a good view. “I think we can finally start setting up!”
Cal sat at on their sofa reading, their foot tapping nervously. Something wasn’t right. They had been a farmer for years. When Cal had a gut feeling, they new they were right. For some reason, Cal felt something very bad was going to happen. What made this feeling so odd is that it had been going on for months. Every morning Cal went out to milk Spot and Maisey. Every morning they were there waiting, acting responsible. It was unusual. Spot and Maisey never acted in line. They made sure to show who was in charge. If Cal was milking them, they would almost always try to kick the milk bucket over when they were done or knock Cal over or sometimes grab the milk bucket with their mouths and run with it. These cows were acting abnormally calm, and Cal couldn’t take it.
With one swift movement the old farmer closed the book and tossed it back on the dining room table. They shouted to no one in particular “dammit Spot and Maisey, what are you doing?” as they strutted outside. There were no cows to be seen. Cal’s stomach dropped. This could not have been a worse sign. For the past few months those cows had always hung around the farmhouse in the afternoon.
At a quickened pace Cal started heading across the field and over the hill. It was hard to see all the land from the farmhouse because of the one singular hill that blocked most of the landscape. As Cal finally reached the top of the hill their stomach sunk. There were no cows in sight. Spot and Maisey were missing. Maybe it was one of their supernaturally smart pranks. What could have possibly triggered this mischief?
Cal traveled to the edge of the field checking behind all the trees and boulders failing to find them. Just as the sun was setting Cal saw a path in the grass leading to the forest bordering the property. “You have got to be kidding me,” Cal mumbled to themselves. Surely enough, there was a hole in the fence leading to the forest. More specifically, a hole that was just big enough to fit a cow. “Spot… Maisey… what have you done,” Cal whispered. Five months. For five months they had been acting so well. Why now?
The last sliver of light revealed one cow in the forest circling a giant wooden structure. “Maisey! What are you doing here? Where is Spot?” Maisey looked back at Cal with wide eyes and ran towards the other side of the wooden structure. “You get back her girl! I don’t want you causing any mischief!” As Cal rounded the corner Maisey had her leg resting on a lever. “What the…” Cal trailed off.
A moo came from the sky. “Spot?” Cal looked up to see Spot sitting on top of the wooden structure. The realization hit Cal in the gut. This wasn’t any wooden structure, it was a catapult. Why a catapult? Well five months ago their neighbor had just appeared and there was no way to get to their property. “NO!” shouted Cal.
The next news headline of the town of Hope was titled “Cow Punctures Roof of New CEO in Latest Murder Attempt!”
The Impromptu section of Sea of Book is a challenge where the author has one hour to write a story based off of three random words. They get no time beforehand to prep and must make a (greater than) 500 word story that somehow incorporates the idea of each word.
This particular challenge used these three randomly generated words: Arrogant, Beef, and Grass
