| General Fiction posted September 15, 2019 |
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the life of a housekeeper in a four-star hotel
Too much sport without training
by Katherine M. (k-11)
The door slammed, echoing down the long hall. Virginia could hear the crisp tap, tap of stiletto heels smartly following the echo, except that the rapid taps paused every seven seconds. It must be Clarissa's tall thin heels she could hear, heels that gleamed wickedly when the sun shone. None of the other women tortured and damaged their feet by wearing such shoes. They had obviously read the same article as Virginia, which claimed that ten percent of women who habitually wear high-heeled shoes suffer from undetected fractured toe bones.
In contrast, the rest of the team were trainer-orientated, even if these did look more than slightly ridiculous topped by smart black dresses or business suits. The employees all felt that their dress-code could be relaxed somewhat at this, the birth of a new century. However, apart from footwear, the management didn't agree. They insisted that a four-star European hotel had a certain level of standards to maintain.
Instead of pausing precisely after the next seven seconds, Clarissa's neat tapping was heard to shudder to an awkward stop, accompanied by a high-pitched mechanical squeal, an inhuman wail, and a heavy thud. Virginia and Trevor set out to sprint rapidly towards the combination of unhabitual sounds, and found Clarissa sprawled on the highly polished marble floor of the hall. Her left leg was buckled uncomfortably beneath her.
It looked as though something more major than toe bones were fractured now. Thus, Clarissa's daily grind of a rapid twelve-kilometre walk through the hotel halls, almost a run really, to check all the rooms before the hotel clients finished breakfast, would be ended until further notice. Similarly, a replacement would be needed to ensure her further twelve-kilometre trek coupled to an energetic daily gym session to check on the cleaners' endeavours. It was the last of these losses that saddened Clarissa the most, as her predecessor had told her that upon returning to work after maternity leave the excessive bending, stretching, and twisting would guarantee a complete loss of any weight added during pregnancy.
The Door Slammed writing prompt entry
The door slammed, echoing down the long hall. Virginia could hear the crisp tap, tap of stiletto heels smartly following the echo, except that the rapid taps paused every seven seconds. It must be Clarissa's tall thin heels she could hear, heels that gleamed wickedly when the sun shone. None of the other women tortured and damaged their feet by wearing such shoes. They had obviously read the same article as Virginia, which claimed that ten percent of women who habitually wear high-heeled shoes suffer from undetected fractured toe bones.
In contrast, the rest of the team were trainer-orientated, even if these did look more than slightly ridiculous topped by smart black dresses or business suits. The employees all felt that their dress-code could be relaxed somewhat at this, the birth of a new century. However, apart from footwear, the management didn't agree. They insisted that a four-star European hotel had a certain level of standards to maintain.
Instead of pausing precisely after the next seven seconds, Clarissa's neat tapping was heard to shudder to an awkward stop, accompanied by a high-pitched mechanical squeal, an inhuman wail, and a heavy thud. Virginia and Trevor set out to sprint rapidly towards the combination of unhabitual sounds, and found Clarissa sprawled on the highly polished marble floor of the hall. Her left leg was buckled uncomfortably beneath her.
It looked as though something more major than toe bones were fractured now. Thus, Clarissa's daily grind of a rapid twelve-kilometre walk through the hotel halls, almost a run really, to check all the rooms before the hotel clients finished breakfast, would be ended until further notice. Similarly, a replacement would be needed to ensure her further twelve-kilometre trek coupled to an energetic daily gym session to check on the cleaners' endeavours. It was the last of these losses that saddened Clarissa the most, as her predecessor had told her that upon returning to work after maternity leave the excessive bending, stretching, and twisting would guarantee a complete loss of any weight added during pregnancy.
In contrast, the rest of the team were trainer-orientated, even if these did look more than slightly ridiculous topped by smart black dresses or business suits. The employees all felt that their dress-code could be relaxed somewhat at this, the birth of a new century. However, apart from footwear, the management didn't agree. They insisted that a four-star European hotel had a certain level of standards to maintain.
Instead of pausing precisely after the next seven seconds, Clarissa's neat tapping was heard to shudder to an awkward stop, accompanied by a high-pitched mechanical squeal, an inhuman wail, and a heavy thud. Virginia and Trevor set out to sprint rapidly towards the combination of unhabitual sounds, and found Clarissa sprawled on the highly polished marble floor of the hall. Her left leg was buckled uncomfortably beneath her.
It looked as though something more major than toe bones were fractured now. Thus, Clarissa's daily grind of a rapid twelve-kilometre walk through the hotel halls, almost a run really, to check all the rooms before the hotel clients finished breakfast, would be ended until further notice. Similarly, a replacement would be needed to ensure her further twelve-kilometre trek coupled to an energetic daily gym session to check on the cleaners' endeavours. It was the last of these losses that saddened Clarissa the most, as her predecessor had told her that upon returning to work after maternity leave the excessive bending, stretching, and twisting would guarantee a complete loss of any weight added during pregnancy.
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Writing Prompt Write a story that starts with this sentence: The door slammed, echoing down the long hall. Don't add to the sentence. The catch is this must be flash fiction. So the story should be between 100 and 1,000 words. |
Word says this is 340 words long
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