Make-Believe 1

The challenge? Write a story in 6 sentences, no more & no less, and if you’d like, share your creation or just visit and comment on others’ ideas, with GirlieOnTheEdge, Denise. The prompt is “KNOT”, and here’s where you join the party: Six Sentence Stories

***

Nora, back curved tight over her lap, raised her skirted knees to block the naughty northern breeze’s attempts to unravel her close work; raking a hand across the back of her neck to free her pale blond hair sticking to her sweaty skin, she yelped as she accidentally ripped several strands from her scalp.

“Easy, little one,” Magda chuckled, gently kneading the girls shoulders and crooning, “No need to be collecting any more of your own hair when you have plenty in your lap to create a friendship braid. Remember that this one is just for practice, and that you must continue to collect samples from all those you wish to bind together.”

“And the right words to seal the spell,” Nora looked up anxiously in the old woman’s rheumy, ice-blue eyes.

“The strongest magic is based on good design, the freshest ingredients, and a tight and sure knot to secure it all together; but you’re right that underneath all your spelling must be clear and right intentions to guide your words, the braid’s design, as well as the knots within.”

“Clear, right intentions,” the girl mused, lifting her head to gaze with troubled eyes over the fjord’s long expanse, wondering if her intentions were indeed pure and just.

© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2022)

Make-Believe 2  

“Remember, Nora, that the braid is a symbol of the closeness you wish to keep with your friends, and as with any relationship, ingredients must periodically be renewed and added onto, to keep the spell vital,” said Magda, holding the young girl’s hand in the gnarled warmth of her own.

“But Magda, I’ll need to keep my friends close if I’m to continue collecting hair to add to the friendship braid, and I’m not nearly skilled enough at the four-stranded pattern to add in Hjordis’ and Peter’s curls, and Tomah’s thick black strands in with my own!” Nora’s voice wavered at the enormity of the task she was undertaking.

“Well, yes, you do need to practice, and you will have to figure out how to spend more time with your friends to collect their discarded hair, but that’s really the point of all this, spell or no spell,” said Magda crisply, thinking that perhaps it had been a mistake to create a distraction for the girl, of working an imaginary spell, but then she softened her tone and added, “Now show me the knot you will use at the end of each section, to hold your weaving together.”

Wiping a tear with the back of one hand, Nora bent to the braid made only of her own fair, silky hair, and worked the knot tight and square and smooth.

Magda, her eyes on where the fjord ended and the wide ocean began, didn’t notice the hot blue sparks sparking from the girl’s fingers as she worked her magic.

© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2022)