Toenail Clippings and Sea Urchins

Response for Noteworthy Writing Prompt # 3

"Someone stepping on someone else toenail clippings"

This one was a pretty gross prompt but, Natasja Panchuk was able to turn it into a beautifully detailed  dream scape story.

It's been a real treat for Rene and I to read the wonderful stories coming back from these prompts. It's good to know you're having fun with them as much as I am. 

If you would like to share yours, please contact me below in the comments or email your story to wildwestdiaries@gmail.com.

Thank-you Natasja for sharing!

 

I awoke to grey sunlight falling through my window, landing softly on the white blankets that kept in the warmth. Reluctant as I was to leave my soft nest, I threw over the blankets and touched my feet to the cold hardwood beneath me. The pale grey walls made no contrast to the peace of the late morning and as I shuffled towards the bedroom door to reach out for the brass knob centimeters from grasping the cold metal, sudden pain punctured the sole of my foot. For one suspending second, I was still. The rush of my blood ceased and my train of thought came to a halt. I was flawlessly still with nothing more to move me but the soft light reflecting off the dust particles in space.

As my breath was stolen from me, so was my sense of reality. My eyes burned. Starfish crawled up the desk, while eels slid between my ankles and the twinge beneath my foot turned out to be a tiny sea urchin.

The light faded and when I looked out my window it was not faded grass or uniform houses that greeted me, but seaweed that snaked up from barnacle infested rocks and silvery fish to which I did not know the names. In that single moment, when the ocean flowers appealed to my eyes and when the water filled my lungs did I understand; waking up is more than a cup of coffee, but a whole experience that you can never take back. I gazed wonderingly at the ripples of sun coming down from the surface. It reflected off the grainy sand and across my skin, absorbed in my bones and consumed in my flesh.

I pulled in the water and pushed it out. As the pain in my foot dulled, my eyelids started to droop. When I opened them again, I was relishing in not the sea water but the dull sunlight that filtered through my window and washed gently across my room. Oxygen once again flowed through my body, and when I lifted my foot there was nothing there but a single, yellowed toenail clipping.

End

To read more stories from this prompt:

What's Hidden In The Dark?

Thank-you to Natasja Panchuk for her Toenail Clipping story and Rene for the unique prompts and encouragements.