Yellowbelly—Six Sentence Story

Early in the morning worried about how he was going to use the assigned word “yellowbelly” in a story Jeremy walked to the ocean as the beach was being raked into a linear pattern perfect in its symmetry until he stepped on it. He saw a bird and considered but then rejected the idea that he might be able to get away with writing a story about a yellowbelly seagull.

Forgetting about the word he wondered where the birds that were coming to shore spent the night, but all they wondered about was whether he brought snacks. Others bored with the sun tossed pieces of bread to the birds who grabbed whatever they could as Jeremy clicked his camera.

Eventually everyone, including the yellowbelly seagulls, realized that the day had indeed begun as expected without their needing to be there at all. It just happened leaving it to those like Jeremy who’d rationalize the joy out of stuff to only step back onto the freshly raked sand and see to his surprise sunrise, birds, beach and even himself as one awesome gift among many others from the Lord for which his thanks was long overdue.

______

Denise offers the prompt word “yellowbelly” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Job 37:14
Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.

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Author: Frank Hubeny

I enjoy walking, poetry and short prose as well as taking pictures with my phone.

28 thoughts on “Yellowbelly—Six Sentence Story”

  3. Love this: “It just happened leaving it to those like Jeremy who’d rationalize the joy out of stuff to only step back onto the freshly raked sand and see to his surprise sunrise, birds, beach and even himself as one awesome gift among many others from the Lord for which his thanks was long overdue.”

    Well said!

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  4. Hi Frank, the picture with the seagulls is a perfect reminder why folks shouldn’t feed the seagulls, Nice birds but they can and will be very aggressive in fact some towns here have specific warnings not to feed them. I have personally seen them grab french fries from poor little kids plates. We also have some cute little birds called piping plovers and are seeing occasionally pelicans that you’re very familiar with. Went to the beach earlier and experienced a lot of wind and fog but very quiet and non big crowds. Take Care my friend DAN

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    1. I agree with you that it is not smart to feed the birds, especially seagulls. The photo does show what can happen. They remind me of that Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds, that I think I saw at St. Joe. I’ve seen those piping plovers along the beach. They are cute. Thank you and blessings, Dan!

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    1. The prompt was challenging especially since I had the story written before I found out what the word was. This one took a major rewrite. Thank you, Clark!

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  13. ” who’d rationalize the joy out of stuff ” – to some extent this happened to me when I went to university to study English literature. I do appreciate learning how to analyze literature, and see the quality in how something was constructed, or how/why it has the big impact it does, etc., and I continue to engage in analysis through watching video essays about movies/literature on YouTube – but sometimes, people should just watch / read something just for the sake of enjoyment.

    Actually, reading so much indie work here on WordPress – stuff that hasn’t been run through the filter of traditional publishing – has been really good for me to get back to reading without analyzing, without mentioning critique, and just enjoying it.

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    1. One of the good things about WordPress is one can publish something with no critical filter except one’s own. As long as one remembers to give thanks the analyzing may help increase the joy. Thank you, Nicole!

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