Short Story

The Playground

The Sicilian Storyteller

Written for Six Sentence Story, incorporating the word “slide”,
Fandango’s Story Starter #141 and four additional word prompts

Allison arrived home to discover, propped up against her front door, a mysterious package addressed to her but with no return address; in these dangerous times, opening a strange package with no identification is a reckless thing to do and Allison isn’t the type to take chances, no matter how curious she was about this unexpected delivery. 

Unlocking the front door, Allison gave the package one last glance and went inside but she couldn’t think of anything other than the box on her porch and eventually gave up, heading back out; the more she looked at the box, the more one sticking point nagged at her: the print on the hand-written shipping label looked extremely familiar. 

Suddenly, like a bolt out of the blue, Allison realized the handwriting was her father’s; a thousand thoughts flew through her mind as she tried to figure out what he could have sent her, finally coming to the conclusion that her dad must have packed away a few items for her which belonged to her late mother .… items of sentimental value …. before he sold the old family house and settled into a senior living facility. 

No longer wary, Allison excitedly picked up the package and brought it into the kitchen where she placed it on the counter and with a knife carefully followed the taped-up folds until she was able to open the box; resting atop the packing material was a small envelope with her name on it written in the same handwriting as the shipping label and inside the envelope was a note which read, “Dear Ali, I remember how much you loved these and I wanted you to have them, maybe one day for your own little girl” ~ Love, Dad.   

Puzzlement creased Allison’s forehead as she gently pushed away the bubble wrap to discover one of her favorite toys – a miniature playground set complete with working swings, a seesaw, monkey bars, a slide and sandbox; there was even the little family with their pet dog which she had named Tess. 

Now all smiles, Allison carried the pieces into the sunroom and placed them on the side table next to her chair near the window; they looked so happy and gay with the sun shining on them and Allison sighed, not at all surprised to feel a tear running down her cheek.

NAR©2024

Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt!
Fandango’s Story Starter #141
FOWC with Fandango — Stick
Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge – Miniature
FOWC with Fandango — Print
Weekly Prompts Wednesday Challenge – Smiles

This is “Lazy Day” by Spanky and Our Gang

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.

51 thoughts on “The Playground”

  7. very cool

    What a combination! A detailed accounting of a simple, if not common, life experience, i.e. receiving a package. But the thing we benefit from is your making these life/family connections in such a skillful manner that the Reader can tapped into their own life/past/history

    ‘nother enjoyable Six!

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    1. Nope, no poison gas, no decapitated heads …. just a harmless childhood toy. This time, that is. 🧨

      As far as those prompts go, I seem to be getting a bit of a rep here on WP. What can I say? I don’t go looking for the prompt words; they sorta find me and when they come together (in a file I call “Prompts“), who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth? 🎁🐴

      Thanks, Sighs! I hope you have fun reading some of the other stories by writers other than moi; they’re really good! 😊

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      1. You are good/clever about combining the word prompts. I guess we all have something worthwhile to offer.
        It is difficult to read all the different offerings. Of course it does give me an excuse not to house clean. “Just gotta read all those stories!”

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