Congratulations to Howard T., grade 12, at Twin Hickory Area Library! Howard’s short story was randomly selected as this week’s Summer Stories Teen Writing Contest winner. Howard will receive a copy of Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith.
Week 4 Prompt:
Twin brothers inhabit one human body and one wolf body. Neither brother can be human all the time, and neither of them wants to be a wolf forever, until…
Howard’s Winning Story:
Breath billowing in the frigid breeze, I grasped at the wool draping from my scraggly nape. A thin lunar grin bestowed welcome light upon a blanketed wooden cabin, where inside a kindled flame’s soft glow boasted a silhouetted figure standing in the doorway.
He called out to me, “I’ve finished with dinner. Time for switching.”
Routinely, I retraced my way back from the high precipice where the view offered me so much solace. I knew my brother, Romulus, would only do the same after (reluctantly) inhabiting this body – to gaze upon the merchant’s village brilliantly shrouded in the fog of subliming mountains.
Once in the cabin, the mirror shard we had found and hung on the wall unwittingly revealed familiar jaunty eyes inset on a majestic yet forlorn face.
“Remus, your hand.”
We were sensitive to our own humanity. In the human body, we could communicate our trade and converse with the lass we had mutual affection for. Alas, our curse allows not for that perpetuity. Our paw and hand met, and for an instant, our minds melded. It was a practiced and necessary compromise in our lives throughout all lingering memory, all to each gain human tactility for half a day.
I opened my eyes and started. “What…?”
“I dunno,” he replied in shock, “I reckon we’re liberated… But that cannot be!”
“Yes, it can,” someone whispered. We slowly turned to find the gossamery Arina from the neighboring village perched on the doorstep. “Because I will love you both.”
Don’t miss your chance to win! Submit your original story in response to this week’s prompt.
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