Online writing group ‘Tuesday Tales’ this week gave out the prompt ‘airport’ and below is the result, my twelfth for them. You can read everyone’s stories for this prompt here.
Tuesday Tales provides a new prompt each week, the members write a story inspired by it and post it on our blogs / websites. Then we email the link and first two or three sentences to Jean Joachim. She then posts them on the Tuesday Tales blog (on a Tuesday 
), gives us the link then we go out and shout about it. So, without further ado, here is my 200-worder second-person.
Cocoon
It’s the one place you dread. Psyche yourself up so much that you feel sick before you get on the plane. If you liked alcohol more you’d get drunk but then you know that would make things worse.
Looking around, you compare like-for-like; ‘suits’ on the red eye, but even the shades of grey differ. You’ve been often enough the past few weeks for some to become familiar but they look through you, used to seeing the same faces but not communicating, unless it’s mobile to ear.
You send a text to your brother, always waiting at the other end, say your flight’s on time and you’ll be there as usual.
The sign comes up and you switch off your phone, put it in your bag, no need for the formality of a reply.
The flight’s not too bad and you think you might actually start to enjoy it but you know you won’t have to do this much longer. That Dad won’t last much longer.
As you walk into arrivals, a stranger holds a placard containing your name and you feel your legs weaken. You switch on your phone and it beeps, clicking the ‘read’ button confirms the worst.
The links to the earlier prompts can be found on my new Tuesday Tales page here on this blog. Do go and check out the Tuesday Tales site.
So, not only can you read these stories but you could also write your own using the prompts given each week. There’s no word count limit. Single-word prompts are something I regularly give my Monday night workshop and it’s amazing how different our stories can be.
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Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called Short Story Saturdays where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
