Short Story, Word Challenge, Word Prompt, Writing Prompts

Connect The Dots

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written for Sue & Gerry’s Weekly Prompts  
Colour Challenge – “silver”. Also for Fandango’s
FOWC and the prompt word “constellation”.  
Here’s where the prompts took me.

Image by Me & ChatGPT

The old man spread a blanket on the grass and they lay side by side, two shapes under an enormous sky.

“See those three?” Grandpa raised a weathered finger. “Orion’s belt.”

“Who’s Orion?”

“A hunter. A giant. Depends on who’s telling the story.” He let his arm fall. “A constellation is a group of stars that forms an imaginary pattern in the night sky, like a connect-the-dots game. These star patterns can represent animals, people in stories, or objects. Someone looked up once, lonely or frightened or just wondering, and drew a line between the lights so the sky felt less empty.”

Eli stared at the three silver stars until they seemed to pulse. “Did it work, Grandpa?”

“I’ve been coming to this field since I was smaller than you. Same stars every time.” The old man’s voice was quiet. “Never once felt alone out here.”

They lay in silence. A satellite drifted across the dark, there and gone.

“Grandpa, when you die …. will you be up there?”

The old man considered this with well-earned patience.

“I’ll be in here” he said, patting Eli’s chest. “And I’ll be in the story you tell about tonight, when you bring your own boy out here and show him the three stars in the hunter’s belt.”

Eli seemed to like that answer; it wasn’t long before he was fast asleep.

NAR©2026

This is “Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)” by Don McLean

Weekly Prompts Colour Challenge – Silver
FOWC With Fandango — Constellation

Everything here on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.

30 thoughts on “Connect The Dots”

  9. A beautifully narrated story my dear friend … coincidently (again), I wrote this poem today (I’ve no idea when I’ll post it) …

    Goodnight, But Not Goodbye

    The twilight clouds are alight,
    Mother Nature’s waving goodnight.

    Levitating above the linen horizon’s misty eye,
    I see my pothole flickering in the sky.

    But I know daytime is still my ally,
    and this old July magpie
    isn’t done yet — so loosen your black ties.

    I’m cruising around on standby,
    and my celestial star will send me a lullaby
    when the moment is right to say goodbye.

    Another song from Lunkum.

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