Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
100 Word Story: Pencil Stubs
Pencil stubs are hard to sharpen unless you have a knife. Then you have to hold the pencil with the point away from you and make quick slicing strokes, all while your fingers cringe on the yellow, and you wonder why you must be so frugal when other people buy new pencils or none, preferring to write with fountain pens full of blue ink.
There’s a story behind the frugality, the preciousness of the stubs heaped in the drawer with the masking tape that’s lost its stick. The story is complicated and precious, honed, whittled.
_________
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
2 Comments on “100 Word Story: Pencil Stubs”
Leave a Reply
Recent Comments
 | Deb on Living in the Death Wish |
 | Ann on Living in the Death Wish |
 | MaryG on The Searing Comfort of Layla |
 | Nancy Bauer-King on Brevity is Beautiful |
 | joviald3f8e0e214 on Brevity is Beautiful |
Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
Ah… You’ve “honed” my interest. (I’d like to hear the longer story, too) Good job!
everything is a choice and has meaning. in third grade, I had a friend named Kenny. he would only write with tiny pencil nubs and loved them. my teacher would call him ‘Kenny Sovie Nubby.’ I never really understood her lack of kindness to him, as he loved to write, just chose them as his tools.