The house sat miles away from the closest house, and the nearest town was nearly an hour away. The house had all the amenities that you would expect of an old country house. It was very pastoral all around, and the fields of sheep defined it as an old shepherd’s living quarters. It was nestled into the mountain, and the hills of the country flowed affluently with the cohesive nature of the area.
“Emma Jean! Come take the wash outside and put it on the line before it starts to smell in that dirty water!”
Emma heard her mother calling out to her and rolled her eyes. She turned the music up louder on the old antique radio that sat on her dresser and plopped back down on her bed.
Needless to say, the radio ended up in the field with a pastoral speech from her mother on why she was grounded for two weeks. She couldn’t turn up the music anymore.
The Voice of the Voiceless 
Such a short story, and yet it left me pondering for a little while. As a mom, I certainly identified with the mom and her reaction to Emma Jean’s sloth. But I’m not sure if the grounding for two weeks had much effect on Emma Jean. The fact the radio ended up in the field made me wonder if the sheep get to turn up the music now. 🙂 Welcome to Blogbattle, and hope we see more of your work!
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Aww thank you so much! I am glad to participate. I will definitely be joining more often, and I think the sheep will love the music 🙂
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Pingback: #BlogBattle Stories: Pastoral | BlogBattle
I think Abe captured my thoughts too. (I know it’s AEB btw, I just coined it wrong once so “we” agreed on sticking with Abe haha). Short and succinct though. Sometimes less is more. I think as teens many of us crank the volume up to drown parental rebuke. Not to mention finding chores uber dull if it’s nice outside. Still, the sheep might enjoy some radio although that rather depends on which channel it’s barking out!!
Welcome to BB too. I hope you enjoy it and the group of writers involved are mostly harmless 😊
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Thanks for the warm welcome to BB 🙂 I love the feedback, and I am glad I joined you folks.
I was one of the teens that wished they would have locked the door and cranked my music 😀 I live vicariously through Emma in that story.
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Same here. Mind you back in my day there wasn’t much else to actually do 😂
Keep an eye open for the prompt post on the first Tuesday of each month too. The main story post is now up too so feel free to see what the others have been up to too 😊
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Thanks! I will head over that way in the morning to browse the posts. 🙂
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This very cleverly crafted short space has lovely little gems
‘It was nestled into the mountain, and the hills of the country flowed affluently with the cohesive nature of the area.’ I love use of the words and the image of ‘flowed affluently’ ‘cohesive’ with nature’ which is such a redolent description of gentle rolling hills.
Emma Jean’s Mum’s call and the daughter’s reaction piques the reader’s interest as to The ‘Whys’ and ‘Whens’ of this situation. I’ve been thinking about how they got there ever since.
And of course the events around the radio. Now there’s one which every survivor of adolescence (or both sides of the situation) can relate too.
I’m a recent arrival myself at BlogBattle. Pleased to see you here.
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Thanks for such a great comment. I am glad that it resonated with you, and I will look forward to reading your battles 🙂 Emma Jean and Mom will always bump heads, but I think when they get older they will find they can be best friends. The radio was a casualty of war 🙂
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Ah there is ‘that stage’ between daughter and Mum. Whenever our elder daughter needed new shoes to avoid ‘an incident’ my wife used to send me out on ‘shoe duty’, in which a weird diplomatic discourse took place, both parties playing their restrained part🙂.
Your story took me back to those days, now in a fond sort of way. At least it was only an old radio🙂.
I did enjoy it, a story which can be read over and over.
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What a great reflection back to shoe duty 🙂 I am so glad that I can take you back to a good memory and that you enjoyed the short story so much 🙂 I appreciate the comment and conversation! Thank you!
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And glad to meet you Amy. 🙂
This is a very good blog for Writers to hang out in just chat about writing and sort of allied others things which come to mind.
I am looking forward to more chats.
Best wishes and keep on keeping on 🌸💮🌻🌺.
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Absolutely! It’s nice to have like-minded folks on the same page! Best wishes to you too, new friend! 💎🌷🌈
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🌞
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