Graveyard Surprise
By Melissa Rooney
For SCBWI Carolinas “Ignite the Spark” Zoom group (18 Oct 2022)
Prompt: Write a children’s story, 250 words or less, using the following prompts: 1) take a location from childhood and strip everything normal about it (if usually crowded, make it barren, etc.); 2) the starting lines, “It’s okay, they’re not as scary as they look;”and 3) the image of a sign reading, “Beware, the Trees Talk.”
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“It’s okay. They’re not as scary as they look,” Jodi’s mother said. “Those carved stones have been here longer than life itself.” She said the same thing every year.
“They weren’t always carved,” Jodi said. “Not until people died.”
He buttoned his collar all the way to the top and clipped on the children’s tie that also appeared at this time every year.
Jodi dreaded everything about this day:
The tight shirt and tie.
The creased khaki pants.
The black shoes that pinched his feet and the seams in the socks he had to wear in order to wear the shoes…
The tiny rocks that got stuck under those socks as he walked the gravel paths past the same vacant scene over and over again.
Jodi’s mom opened the car door and held out her hand.
He let her pull him out of the car and stared at the ground as he followed her down the long driveway.
When fuzzy blades of grass replaced the smooth concrete surface, Jodi finally looked up.
He couldn’t believe his eyes. You could hardly see the gravestones from all the people around them.
He looked at his mother, who squeezed his hand. “It’s a surprise party,” she said.
“For me?”
She laughed.
“For Grandma,” she said. “But it wouldn’t be much fun if I didn’t surprise somebody I love here on earth.”
Up on the hill, near his grandmother’s grave, Uncle John and Jodi’s cousins were leaning a wooden sign against a tree that read “Beware - The Trees Talk.” Little Randy ran around them in circles, already reveling in their prank.
Suddenly Jodi felt like he was walking on air.
