This week’s prompt at Charli Mills’ Carrot Ranch blog was to write a 99-word (no more, no less) story that included the phrase, “the well’s gone dry” and to go where the prompt leads.
Normally, this pedometer geek writer waits to post the story after Charli Mills posts the Collection so that it can be linked to her site; however, this time I will make an exception. The story is as follows:
An Ordinary Day
It was an ordinary day until it wasn’t.
Another mass shooting, in a small Texas town, this time. Twenty-one dead: two teachers trying to protect their students and nineteen young children. Each family, in minutes, losing the future they thought they’d know. A town left to grieve. Hardened news reporters turning away from the camera, returning to say, “I’m sorry.” The country is sorry.
Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Dayton’s Oregon District, Las Vegas, and too many others still resonate, reminding of callous, indiscriminate gunfire, more loss of life, more grieving families, and more tears until the well’s gone dry.
~Nancy Brady, 2022
The Collection should be posted on or after June 1, 2022; check out all the stories written with the phrase, the well’s gone dry at www.carrotranch.com as well as the latest stories from the Word Wranglers for last week’s prompt of re-writing Charli’s story in a different way.
#99wordstories
nbsmithblog...random digressions and musings 
Such a sad theme, but very appropriately done. Nice focus on the grief the families are feeling and I like how you avoided the politics to get that feeling of loss in. Very nice job here. You have me hooked on this.
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Thanks JC for reading it and your kind remarks . I have to admit that I some editing help to make it better. Every time I hear of these deaths, I am so saddened and really hurt for the families. I can only imagine my own grandchildren and worry about them.. ~nan
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It’s so sad, Nan. I’m pleased you dedicated your story and your post to all those lost children and all those grieving families. I wish you’d had something else to write about though. So tragic.
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Norah, it is so sad. I feel for all of the families who are dealing with this and the other tragedies. Unfortunately, I could have written a 99- word story with just the names of the venues and may not have covered them all. I read a statistic recently that the number one reason for childhood deaths in the US is through is caused by guns. Now, THAT’S sad.
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OMG. That is incredibly sad. And so avoidable. There is no reason for it to happen. There are deaths that can’t be prevented, but surely these can.
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May all those lost be remembered as the stars shining in the sky.
May their memories be for blessings.
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Yes, let us hope, Jules.
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We must continue to remember the lost and strive to make schools a safe place again. Otherwise, we will be back to the 1700s when public schools were unheard of.
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Agreed, Marsha.
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Norah, you would think these tragedies could be avoided, but certain lawmakers/politicians are afraid of their constituents that believe the Second Amendment includes that assault-style weapons as well as losing the support of the NRA contributions to their campaigns. Therefore, until there is some sort of ban on them, these things will happen. I don’t think the Founding Fathers thought that the right to bear arms AND well-regulated militias meant the ability to kill innocents quickly. Just my opinion, but the slaughter of the innocents, tragic!
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Can they not totally ban the use of arms? This was a very touching story.
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Nightlake, there was a ban on assault-style weapons, but it expired in 2004. Since then, re-implementing the ban keeps getting (excuse the pun) shot down by the powers-that-be. If you are interested in the history of it, there is a Wikipedia article on the Federal Assault Weapons Ban by Googling it.
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