The living room window overlooks The City. A church looms over narrow cobblestone alleys lined with quaint frame houses. Ivy and roses wind around colorful doorways reminiscent of Tolkien’s Shire. No trees. They didn’t have room for them in the Middle Ages. This part of the town is slowly sinking; you can see the cracks in the walls.
Then: a parking lot. A nightclub. Stores. People on bikes. The occasional horse-drawn carriage chauffeuring flocks of tourists to the sets of the soap opera that is being filmed here. The adjacent street has trees. Workers dutifully cut them into shape every spring. The sound of sports car engines revving. Honking. Busses. Sirens. Someone is smoking under the window.
The church bells are tolling, and a loud ping proclaims that I’ve got mail.
[132 words]
(c) Anett Enzmann 2019
five stray minutes 
You painted a great visual scene, with two different narrative streams (omniscient and first person). I loved the “exit route” of your last line which also serves to imply that you are looking out at the city being described. One minor blip that you would probably work on if you had longer than 5+5 minutes is the oddity of the “occasional” carriage and “flocks of tourists”. I want to read the next bit! 🙂
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Thanks, Allison! I was actually going for facetious with the “flocks”. The carriages are exactly that: horse-drawn carriages with groups of tourists crammed into them. (It looks quite uncomfortable, to be honest!) If that didn’t quite come across then I’ll have to figure it out – but that’s what we’re here for, after all!
I have yet to come up with an idea for the next bit… These little vignettes are fun, but I would like to spice it up a bit. This is much harder than it looks! 🙂
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I am hoping to move away from “whatever pops into my head” to something that I can use later as elements for a much longer story. Like sketches one would do for a large painting. Yes, I find it hard, hence the collective blog.
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