Mini Story, Photo Prompt, Writing Challenge, Writing Prompts

Midnight Delivery

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written in response to a cool image
I saw on Bushboy’s World.
Thanks for letting me use it, Brian!

Rendering by ChatGPT

The gas lamps of Ballarat’s main street had long since dimmed when young Ellis Keating eased the Steven Thomas & Co. cargo trike out of the laneway, its spoked wheels whispering across the damp cobblestones.

The wooden box was heavier than usual tonight. Not with bread or bolts of cloth or ironmongery but with pamphlets …. three hundred of them, freshly pressed, still smelling of ink and consequences. Votes for Women. The Time is Now.

Ellis had no particular interest in politics himself. He was seventeen, mostly interested in whether he could coax more speed from the penny-farthing his employer kept chained in the back shed. But Clementine Marsh had asked him …. Clementine Marsh, with her dark eyes and her fearless way of looking at constables …. and so here he was.

The trike handled beautifully, truth be told. Four wheels steady as a cart horse on the rutted road, the great wooden cargo box hiding its contraband perfectly behind the cheerful lettering of the firm’s name. Who would stop a delivery boy?

Nobody, as it turned out.

By three in the morning, pamphlets had been slipped under the doors of every draper’s shop, milliner, and dressmaker from Lydiard to Dana Streets. Ellis coasted back through the pre-dawn quiet, breathless and grinning.

Clementine was waiting at the laneway entrance. She pressed a sixpence into his palm.

He handed it back, grinning in his most charming way.

“Consider it a contribution …. to the cause!”

Original Photograph © Bushboy Photos

NAR© 2026

This is “Suffragette City” by David Bowie

Your dinner will be here soon

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

22 thoughts on “Midnight Delivery”

  6. A truly wondrous photo of Brian’s, and a truly wonderful story by you, Nancy
    After Federation, the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 granted most women the right to vote and to stand for federal Parliament. This made Australia the first modern country to allow women both to vote and stand for national office.

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  9. A great story Nancy and well worthy of my photo. Thanks for using it.
    Just some editors picks. “its spoked wheels whispering across the damp cobblestones” Iron wheels on cobbles wouldn’t whisper, they would shout out I’m here 😂
    Also a trike has three wheels. “Four wheels steady as a cart horse on the rutted road,”
    You can delete the comment if you wish 😀

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    1. I will not delete your comments, Brian; they answered a lot of questions for me. Research isn’t always foolproof (take it from this fool!). I wondered about the four wheels; it is a trike after all. Several searches quoted four wheels for this Steven Thomas & Co pushcart so…..

      Regarding the “whispering wheels”, that was poetic license and your clarification and explanation of iron wheels makes perfect sense.

      No harm, no foul. I consider this a great learning experience.

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      1. I am glad my editor past didn’t offend. You are never a fool Nancy 🥰
        Thinking about the search, maybe it also took the big Penny-farthing wheel at the back as part of the trike.
        Last night I was in a writing mood and quite picky about my own stuff 😂
        I also enjoy research and learning

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