Prompt: The Parable
Writing Exercise #33
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Prompt: There’s no prompt I just wrote this.
So there I was, minding my own business, hiking up this mountain, right? When I feel this shaking under my feet, and suddenly I feel like I’m losing my balance, but I’m not losing my balance, the earth is moving under my feet. This little section of trail starts to slide down the mountain, taking me with it. I know!
So I’m tumbling down on top of a tidal wave of dirt and rocks, somehow staying on top, I get knocked into trees, somehow I lose my backpack, branches scrape across my face—yeah that’s why all the bandaids. I was terrified, honestly! Never been in a landslide before, never want to be again.
The dirt, rocks, and I come to a rest at a little valley between these mountains, I guess a tiny crick flows down, but anyway there was nowhere else for the rocks to go. I was waist-deep in dirt, pinned against a big rock. When suddenly, thunder claps and it starts pouring rain. “GREAT,” I remember saying. No, I wasn’t happy at all, this day had gone from bad to worse. I think, I’ll just hold tight, you know? Someone will find me, and come and unstick me from the dirt and rocks. They’ll see the missing bits of the trail and they’ll know to come checking if anyone got swept away with it, and they’ll find me. You know, reasonable things to think.
I was soaking wet, the dirt was getting soggy, the crick was starting to pool up on the other side of the mound, so I’m thinkin—oh great, if things don’t start moving I’m going to start sliding down even farther. I’ve got to do SOMETHING. And I think—I’m more stuck than a bug in amber, I’ve got time. So, wouldn’t you know it, I just grab a pebble and toss it out of the way; then I grab another. I start digging myself out with my own hands, in the dirt and rain and everything.
And it took forever! No one ever came, I just had to keep digging. But you know what I told myself? I’m gonna climb this blasted mountain, I said. I came to climb a mountain, by golly I’m going to climb it. And with each handful of dirt, I thought about what it’s going to be like on top of that mountain, about how I’m going to enjoy it up there.
After a couple hours I was able to start wriggling out, I pulled one leg out then the other. Yeah I was beat up, lost my pack, scraped up beyond recognition, bruised and battered. But if no one’s coming to help I may’s well make my own fun. And so I marched straight up the mountain, right where the landslide had taken me. And up, up, up, I climbed, because by golly I’m not gonna hike the same trail twice to get to the same spot. And then I went the rest of the way up the trail, like normal, rain and everything. And yeah, it wasn’t fun, and everything about that experience was awful. But at the end of the day I said to myself, I’m not gonna let this thing stop me from getting what I want. And by golly when I get it I’m gonna have one heckuva story to tell. And yeah, so that’s why you found me up here watchin’ the sun come out.
Really? You think so? You think there’s deeper meaning to all that? I dunno, I couldn’t say. I’m just a stubborn cuss too dumb to stop climbing a mountain. Don’t need to be more complicated than that.
(612 words)
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You ever hiked a mountain, real or metaphorical?
What’s your favorite parable?
Top hiking snacks?
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https://open.substack.com/pub/indianamichael/p/always-watching?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2jzix
As requested. :)
Couldn’t resist, I know it’s not a formal prompt today but just dashed this off.
Two Angry Steers
Em couldn’t hide her excitement. “Says here there’s a traveling minister coming to town. Says here he’s gonna talk on The Parables. For my money them’s some of God’s sweetest words.”
Her husband was more phlegmatic. “Yup.”
“Jonas, are you even listening? I’m sure we will hear about casting seeds on rocky soil and the plants not taking hold. That’s a lesson somebody I know could stand to learn.”
“I dont need no farming advice from no fancy pants preacher. Of course you don’t just lay the kernel on top. The good Lord invented the hoe didn’t he.”
As the week progressed Em couldn’t help preview some of what she hoped to hear come Sabbath. Each met with more and more disdain from her incredulous husband.
“Who would plant mustard in this climate. It’s an abomination. And let me get this straight, if you lose one lamb out of 100 you ignore the flock and lose them all to the coyotes to find the one stray. This talk is just plum crazy. No wonder he needs to pass a hat to support hisself.”
Come Sunday Em could barely contain her excitement. “I cannot wait to hear about The Parables. There is nothing like a good parable. You know you can learn a lot from the parables.”
Finally, Jonas had all he could stand. “All week I’ve been hearing about this parson and his helpful hints. His agricultural advice does not make a lick of sense. And now I’m gonna listen to his ideas on livestock? Pair a bulls. Pair a bulls. That’s all I been listening to since Monday. What in the wide world is anybody supposed to do with a pair of bulls? First of all, it’s unnatural. And every rancher worth his salt knows it won’t yield a thing, except maybe two angry steers.”
Em knew her predicament well of course but generally kept it swept into a small, neat pile in a corner of her unconscious. On occasion, like this one, the dustpan overflowed, and she had nowhere to hide the scraps. “I am of a mind to say something about pearls before swine, but I feel like I’d be here ‘til supper explaining it.”