Elephants never forget

Creative writing prompt

Set a timer for, let’s say, seventy-five minutes. Now write a 200-word story. BUT the trick is: you get to use only 50 words to do it. You’ll discover your own way of keeping track of the word count; one approach is to make a running list. 

Say, for example, your first sentence turns out to be “A cow stood in the field.” Now you “have” those 6 words to use going forward.

When you hit 50 words, that’s it: you have to start reusing words. (Let’s allow plurals. So “cow” and “cows” count as the same word.) The final product is to be exactly 200 words (not 199, not 201).

Elephants Never Forget

I don’t remember how I climbed the elephant. 

I remember the smell and feel of it: mud and temple oils, wrinkled skin. I remember looking into intelligent eyes as I hauled myself past the ears, hoping the beer on my breath wouldn’t startle it. I remember the laughter of my pals, as they climbed. 

I remember how close Kandee felt from up there. My eyes swam, my ears rang; the elephant swayed on. I remember passing the temples and stroking the coarse ears. I remember looking into my pals’ beery eyes and laughing myself.

I remember hoping I’d remember it always.