#MondayMixer is a flash-fiction event hosted by Jeffrey Hollar (@Klingorengi) . Jeffrey provides three groups of three prompts (three locations, three things and three adjectives) and participants post 150-word stories – using at least one word from each group – on their blogs. This week’s prompts are:
Locations: 1) skyscraper 2) tundra 3) estuary
Things: 1) verbena 2) harbinger 3) piglet
Adjectives: 1) euphoric 2) perfunctory 3) maladroit
Here is my story:
Christopher Robin gazed out at the spectacular view offered by the top-of-the-skyscraper restaurant.
“How wonderful it is to share dinner with my best friends,” he said to Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore, euphoric from such height and so many lights.
No longer six, Christopher Robin had grown up, become a chef and moved away from the Hundred-Acre Wood to the States. Today, he was opening his new restaurant atop a magnificent hotel near the estuary.
“Don’t most restaurants fail in the first year?” asked Eeyore – as pessimistic as ever.
“That’s ridickerous, you maladroit mule!” answered Tigger. “Christopher Robin knows what he’s doing. Doesn’t he?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Pooh. “I’m just a bear of very little brain. How do restaurants work?”
“Here we go, everybody,” interrupted Christopher Robin as the waiters brought a large platter to the buffet. “Hunny-and-Verbena- Glazed Piglet with Haycorn Stuffing.”
NOTE: My entry qualifies for the “Over-Achiever Award,” since I used six of the prompt words (skyscraper, euphoric, estuary, maladroit, verbena and piglet), and not just three.
P.S.: Since MS-Word improperly counts hyphenated combinations of words (e.g. the compound adjectives “top-of-the-skyscraper, ” “Hundred-Acre” and “Hunny-and-Verbena- Glazed”) as single words, the word count may appear to be less than 150 if tested in MS-Word without putting spaces after the hyphens.
Well done, you.
I always enjoy reading known stories taken to a different level, and you’ve certainly managed that. There is something romantic about the whole scene; after so many years they’re still together. On the other hand, I can’t quite get the image of a grown up Christopher Robin offering food to a table filled with stuffed animals. When I studied psychology a whole paper was dedicated to imaginary friends and consequences – and one of the students wrote about Christopher Robin and his friends 😉
With regards to your question on Twitter. I’ve not heard anything with regards to it having Germanic influences or even roots. What I do know is that her son, Christopher (Robin) Milne, loved to go to the Zoo. Or was it the circus, I can’t quite remember, but he named his own teddy bear after his favorite bear there, who was called Winnie. I had German throughout school, for 7 years, and I’ve not been told any references to it there. Nor did it come up in later years, but, like I said, I don’t know that much more about it.
Wonderful!
Poor Piglet.
Oh … this is horribly wonderful. Poor little Piglet!!!