Gramma’s House, #99-Word Story

Posted on by Colleen M. Chesebro

The Carrot Ranch March 13, 2023, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about a place where children once played. It can be a field, a playground, or any place that attracted children to play. But now it is empty. Abandoned. Go where the prompt leads! Submit by March 18, 2022.

Photo by Nikolaeva Nastia on Pexels.com

The abandoned house looked old. The peeling paint and faded shutters reminded me of gramma’s face, always lined with worry, droopy with age. This house in Dorrance, Kansas had been my refuge, all those summers ago when I was a teen.

I gazed at the sandy street, still unpaved. I’d ridden my first horse down this street, with grandpa watching from his chair on the porch. The horse had bucked me off, and I’d skidded down the street, leaving most of my skin behind. After I healed, I couldn’t wait to ride again.

Now, only good memories reside here.

This is a fictional account of a dream visit I took to visit my grandparent’s house in Dorrance, Kansas. The part about the horse bucking me off is true! It took me most of the summer to heal from my injuries.

21 thoughts on “Gramma’s House, #99-Word Story”

  1. Great story! So sorry you got hurt though! When my son was about 10 or 11 he was at riding lessons and the horse threw him off and rolled over him. everyone feared the worse, except me, and he got up and was completely fine. Such a strange but whew experience!

    Liked by 1 person

      1. That really sounds terrible. Scraped wounds are just horrible–so painful with all that skin involved! Yes, it was a miracle that he wasn’t hurt. Or it was because the horse purposefully wasn’t hurting him and just wanted to “act out.”

        Liked by 1 person

          1. Oh, I’m sorry about the home life, Colleen. Such a shame how the kids suffer . . . . I am imaging this horse! Gosh, Colleen, you’ve reminded me of a horse memory I have (whether dream or real I have never known for sure, but suspect it was real). I wrote about it on my blog years ago. Maybe I will reblog it because it really makes you wonder about memory and about horses.

            Liked by 1 person

  3. You brought back memories of places that I have been but are no more, Colleen. I especially appreciated your thoughts of “dream visits” for I believe that what was is forever real and recurring.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yes!! I have no idea if Gramma’s house is still standing, but I see it as I did when I visited years ago. This was their first house. The second house belonged to my aunt, who is also gone. So many memories… I like dream visiting. It’s always an adventure.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I grew up in the city and had no idea what I was doing riding a horse. But I couldn’t wait to try it again! I think I was about twelve when this happened. Such a strange time for a girl. Really what I wanted was to belong. Little did I know I wouldn’t find that for many years. What a journey!

      Liked by 1 person

  5. I enjoyed reading about your childhood memories, Colleen. I can relate to the injuries part. I use to crash my bike all the time because I liked to go fast. I had a few bad crashes and luckily never broke any bones.

    Liked by 1 person

🔒 I respect your privacy and have a ZERO TOLERANCE for spam. Please add your comment below. 🌜🌝🌛

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.