Short Story

Coulro Saves The Day

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for The Unicorn Challenge where we are
asked to get creative in 250 word or less using
the photo below as inspiration. This is my story.

© Ayr/Gray

My whole life has been nothing but one big joke. I don’t know why I expected otherwise, considering I was raised by a couple of clowns, but I did. Oh, don’t get me wrong; I’m not being derogatory. Not in the least. My parents are clowns .… literally. They are circus clowns and so am I.

Raffles and Mittens are my parents. Some of my aunts, uncles and cousins are Poodles, Flopsy, Jingles, Pogo and Skippy. Rumor has it that my great-grandparents were Bozo and Clarabell but we never know what to take seriously in this family.

We all live in a rinky-dink circus trailer and if you think walking into pantyhose drying in the bathroom is annoying, try existing with a squirting flower, a megaphone, a pop gun and a seltzer bottle every day of your life. This clowning around life ain’t that easy!

Anyway, we needed some mode of transportation to get around town for shopping and appointments so we went to the used car lot. Of course, the used car salesman tried to talk us into a clown car, which was terribly condescending. Clowns are people, too, dammit! 

That’s when my boyfriend, Stumpy, had an idea. Stumpy is a coulro* and the best clown on stilts there ever was. Everybody looks up to him! With bicycle parts salvaged from the junkyard, he assembled the Clown Limo. With his long legs, Stumpy can drive us anywhere at all.

People say it’s the coolest ride in town!

NAR©2024
250 Words

*Coulro is a Greek word that means “stilt walker” or “clown“. It may come from the ancient Greek word kōlobathristēs, which means “one who goes on stilts“.

The Unicorn Challenge-27/09/24

This is “Take The Long Way Home” by Supertramp.

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

39 thoughts on “Coulro Saves The Day”

  4. Bozo and Clarabell 

    I trust you found that in your characteristically comprehensive research. none of you people should have a memory trail that winds that far back into the forest of time.

    fun
    interesting the greek rooks of the word

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  10. Love this one a lot! Perfect story to fit that photo.
    My sister was a clown, she even went to Clown College, and her name was Jingles. She let me help at kid’s birthday parties and stuff, I was Patches. She was a much better clown than me because she always followed the rules and I ended up laughing out loud too much.

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    1. Thanks, D! You never cease to amaze me! I’ve met a lot of clowns in my day but never anyone who was a real clown or even knew a real clown. You have, I’m sure, many great memories of Jingles and Patches. What a great comment! 🤡

      There are some photo prompts which are more difficult that others; this is the 2nd one two days where I looked at it and said “WTF?” I let it go for a few hours and then came up with this. I’m happy for whatever comes into my head and I’m thrilled to know you enjoyed my story.

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  11. Pingback: Coulro Saves The Day – Brain disorders & other General topics of the day

  12. Funny story. Your descriptions are the best — “if you think walking into pantyhose drying in the bathroom is annoying, try existing with a squirting flower, a megaphone, a pop gun and a seltzer bottle every day of your life.”

    I love it.

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    1. Thanks so much, Sally! I’m thrilled to know you enjoyed it. I thought this was a tough one. Looking at the photo, the first thing I thought (other than WTF) was “only someone with long legs can ride this thing!” and there you have it! I haven’t read any of the other stories yet so it will be interesting to see what everyone else came up with.

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    1. I’m thrilled to know you enjoyed this spur-of-the-moment write, Jenne. I never read the other stories before I write mine bc I don’t want to be influenced in any way and I must admit, I was coming up empty for a while. Even after translating the signs on the doors, nothing came to mind so I left it alone for a while. When I returned and took another look, I thought “Boy, only really long legs can pedal this thing” and that’s how it started. Now to see what everyone else wrote!

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