photo by Shaun Holloway – click here for the bigger picture
‘So you could grow lots of pumpkins from each of these seeds?’ Carl felt the smooth oval shells, the stringy flesh wrapping round his forefinger and thumb as he dug his hand further into the goo.
‘That’s right,’ said Mum, knife shining in her hand. ‘Dozens, maybe.’
Was that what happened to humans, then? One seed, dozens of babies? Carl looked down to his mum’s swollen belly, hard as a pumped up basketball, straining under her pinny … and began to cry.
Written for Sonya at Only 100 Words’ Three Line Tales. See the pic, write a story in three lines. See here to join in and to read the other stories.
Word Shamble 
You feel for Carl, the way life, the universe and everything — and especially the words and deeds of grown-ups — are often all so confusing, senseless an upsetting to a child.
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Easy to mislead a child by assuming they have a level of knowledge or using an unfamiliar idiom. Ah, the joys of the world and of language 🙂 Thanks for reading Chris
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Poor Carl. Pumpkin carving was not a good time for his mom to tell him the facts of life, lol.
Great 3 liner.
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Ah, thank you! And for a change for one of my stories, no one had to die! 🙂
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Only the pumpkin, lol.
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Haha! 🙂
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What a terrifying thought!
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Haha! I think poor Carl thinks so – all those siblings to share his mum with. 🙂
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And maybe all as like as peas in a pod!
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Ooh, scary thought – all those identical babies 🙂
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How thoughtless of mum. Poor kid… Great use of the prompt 🙂
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You never know how kids are going to perceive stuff, do you? Thanks Sonya
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