A Writing Prompt: Underneath the Floorboards

There is a website called Random Word Generator. It is a great place to look for a writing prompt. It offers prompts as words, names, sentences, phrases, numbers, and more. It is an interesting site I stumbled across. I haven’t written from a writing prompt in a while and I want to share what I’ve come up with based on the one I chose from this page.

*EDIT: I wrote this in about an hour and a half. Enjoy.

Prompt:
He had a hidden stash underneath the floorboards in the back room of the house.

Timothy was not in a hurry. He was never in a hurry. He made it his life’s mission to never rush to do anything. This was not the impression others had of him. His clothes were always clean and pressed. Lunch was never forgotten at home. Timothy was predictable. Timothy is always early. Until the day he wasn’t.

Jane was Timothy’s closest friend and co-worker. In the office, they sat side by side and were perpetual teammates on projects. And Tuesday, Timothy was late.

Jane threw her coat on the back of her chair and looked at the desk beside hers. Empty. While unusual, she was a bit early. Traffic on Timothy’s side of town did look bad that morning. But as the clock crept closer to eight, Jane got a bad feeling. At eight o-one, Jane was already dialing Timothy’s number. It rang until his voice mail picked up.

Picking up her coat, Jane found herself on the road to Timothy’s house. Pulling up to his house she instantly knew something was wrong. His garage door was up, the front door was open, and Timothy was spray-painting symbols on the front yard. She jumped out of her car

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I have to go home,” he said without looking at her.

“You are home,” she said. “Look behind you. It’s your house.”

“No,” he said looking up from his work. “I have to go home to my family. They need me. Jazu needs me.”

“Jazu?” she asked. “What are you talking about?”

“Jane,” Timothy started, “it’s a long story that I just don’t have the time to tell you. I have to hurry.”

Jane stood there and stared at her co-worker. This man carried her through countless projects. They never finished late and they never hurried. Timothy wouldn’t let them. He was the master of time management. This was literally the first time she’d seen him sweat. And boy was he sweating.

“Let me help you,” she said. She walked over to the symbols he was painting in the grass.

“I don’t think you can.” He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and compared it to the lawn art.

“Sure, I can,” Jane said. “I don’t have anything better to do today.”

“Jane,” he said, “you are my closest friend. There is something I must tell you before I go.”

He pulled her by her hand and led her into the house and sat her down at the dining room table.

“Jane, I’m not from this world,” he began. “I grew up in a different dimension, one adjacent to the earth we are on now. That world was called Jazu.”

“Do you have any medicine I can pick up for you?” Jane asked.

“Jane, listen.” Timothy’s voice shocked Jane. “Jazu is a land of chaos. A world of fear and vengeance. Most of all, it is a world without time. Of course, it has time, only people counted time differently. No one is ever on time. In fact, each family has its own unit of counting time. It’s terrible. I hate it.

“My family counts time much slower than the other families. On Jazu, we were never where I wanted to be. We were late for everything. The food was gone when we arrived to events. Once we arrived just as our friends were coming back from a three-day excursion. We were three days late. That is when I decided to leave and come here.”

“You came here?” Jane asked. “Because everyone uses the same system of time?”

“Yes,” Timothy said. “And now I have to go back. I got word that time has gotten worse in Jazu and it’s ripping the planet apart. I think I can bring what I’ve learned here to help keep the planet together.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Jane ran her hand through her hair and focused on her friend. His eyes were wide and clear. He didn’t look any different.

“Please trust me,” Timothy said. Jane studied his face a bit longer then nodded. She could always have him admitted to a hospital after his plan fails.

“Thank you, Jane,” he smiled. “I have a hidden stash underneath the floorboards in the back room of the house. It’s the last thing I need to get to my dimension.”

Timothy stood up and made his way to the back room. He moved the bed to the side and pried open the floor with a crowbar he pulled from the closet. Underneath the floor, he pulled a small leather bag. She could hear whatever was inside clink together.

“Come on,” he said. “I have to hurry.”

“Hurry?” she asked. “You?”

She found herself rushing after him. He made his way to the front yard where the markings were still fresh. He put his arm out to keep her from rushing into the middle of the design.

“Stay back,” he said. He opened the leather bag and held it high above his head. He began speaking in a language Jane didn’t understand. Her eyes were wide and her breath quickened. Timothy’s voice began to get louder. That was when Jane noticed that the wind was whipping around her face. In an instant, she saw him thrust the contents of the bag out onto the design. Dice. He rolled dice from the bag onto the yard like some strange LARP experiment.

The ground began to shake. Underneath the markings, the ground cracked and opened. Violet and red light shined from the crevice. Jane stopped breathing. Everything she thought she knew was turned on it’s head.

“I have to go,” Timothy said over the noise of the wind. “Come with me. I could use your help.”

“Are you crazy?” Jane asked. “I can’t leave.”

“Why not?” he asked. “What do you have keeping you here?”

“I…,” Jane stammered. She couldn’t think of one thing to keep her on earth. He was offering her adventure. And they did make a great team.

Timothy held out his hand to her. She looked at it and back at the strange light stretching from the ground. Without another thought, she put her hand in his.

“Let’s do this,” she said with a smile. He smiled back.

“On three,” he said. “One. Two. THREE.”

They jumped into the crack. Into Jazu. To fix time.

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Thank you for reading. Let me know what you think. Please reply to leave any comments or questions.

• Lucille