From Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr’s photo prompt, The Unicorn Challenge (08/05/23). No more than 250 words in length. Otherwise, let your creative flag fly!
There was a glitch in my time-story machine. The dumpsters behind the brick wall overflowed with things abandoned and unvalued. Clear that brick wall, I thought, and…
I’d dropped down the wrong rabbit hole.
Again.
No yellow brick road. Only smooth, black pavement, sectioned by sharp white paint. One pearl gray Lexus stood guard in the warren of parking slips.
No tiny huts clustered around a colorful village square, only two-story, wood-shingled townhouses with frighteningly large mouthfuls of windows. Chemically-enhanced crew-cutted lawns broke to 75 feet of association-approved native flowers. Inhabitants peered from behind closed curtains, shrunken and gray, garbed in muted colors and finely-tailored wools.
No talking rabbits with pocket watches. No walrus and carpenter leaning back, surrounded by a scattering of empty oyster shells. No caterpillar puffing philosophically from the heights of a questionable mushroom.
But bonus, no flying monkeys or homicidal apple trees.
My laden backpack rattled with bowie knife, Smith & Wesson, ammo, and a tin of pumpkin spice butter cookies. The goal had been to reach the Emerald City’s treasure room, or the vault behind the looking glass. I wasn’t prepared to navigate a gated community.
A stout, florid-faced woman in tasteful kitten heels – might’ve been the Red Queen – burst through her front door. Pointing an accusing finger at me, she opened her mouth. Not waiting to confirm, I spun about and ran to find a bus stop, or better, a secret portal.
I prayed for the right change, or at least the right denomination.
© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2023)
Valley of the Trolls 
“wood-shingled townhouses with frighteningly large mouthfuls of windows.” such creative description
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Thank you for your kind comment! 😁
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You’re welcome :)
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And that’s the essential thing – you had fun with it.
Few things worse than having to navugate a gated community!
I reckon you’d find a secret portal more quickly than a bus these days!
I really enjoyed your story, Liz.
Good to see you back.
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Glad you enjoyed! I may step back from time to time, but I’m also peeking through that open knothole in the fence, and enjoying the game! Cheers!
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Admit it, (I promise not to tell anyone), on this post-modern consumer paradise where better than down an alley next to an over-filled dumpster to find a portal to other worlds and times.
Fun story
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You may be right, Clark!
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Very timely piece as we’ve been watching the original animated Alice in Wonderland from 1951 with our 3 yr old granddaughter. She loves the impossibilities of that wild and marvelous movie and I’m wondering if I should be at all concerned.
Great write, Liz!
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Thanks, Nancy! Keep her brim-full with art, music, and writing & she’ll be satisfied. Yes?
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Indeed! She is one smart cookie, our Colette!
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❤
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Love the concept of a time/story machine, Liz.
And of course it needs a glitch to let you be creative.
What a shame you didn’t meet Alice or Dorothy.
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Thanks, I had fun with it!
Maybe they’re at the illusory bus stop or portal!
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