sadoeuphemist:deepwaterwritingprompts:Text: There’s a child in the woods. If it offers you a bone, y
sadoeuphemist:deepwaterwritingprompts:Text: There’s a child in the woods. If it offers you a bone, you must gently refuse. If it cries when you say no, your life is over. READERS SHARE THEIR TECHNIQUES FOR DEALING WITH THE BONE MOPPET :“Oh, well mostly I try to be nice to it. That’s what everyone says to do, isn’t it? What I’ve found helps, when I have to go through the woods, is to bring some candy, or marbles, or those little toys from a Happy Meal or something of the sort, a little treat. That way, if the bone moppet approaches me, I can put on a big smile and say, ‘That’s a very nice bone, that’s very generous of you, but look, I’ve got something for you instead! Isn’t it pretty?’ It’s such a poor thing, a little kindness like that can be overwhelming to it. And then once it’s distracted I take the opportunity to quickly slip away.”—Hilde, 36- - -“Anyone who’s lived here for any amount of time knows how to handle the bone moppet. It’s only the newcomers who feel obliged to stop and talk: ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, dear, that’s very sweet of you, but I’m just not interested in a bone right now’. Pah. That never works. The more involved you get, the harder it is to extract yourself. What you have to do is ignore it from the beginning. Don’t make eye contact. Don’t even slow down. That’s just part of living in society, ignoring one another. Stride through the woods as if you’ve got somewhere to be, and if it tugs on your sleeve, just mumble something about how terribly busy you are, and push on.”—Oskar, 45- - -“Okay, so this is kind of messed up, but this is the trick my cousin taught me. The moment it shows you the bone, you go wide-eyed. All eager and excited. ‘What an amazing bone!’ you say, before it can even get out a word. ‘My friend back there, they’ve been looking for a bone just like this! Yeah, they’re back there in the woods a little way, you should go find them! I was just talking to them five minutes ago. They’d love a bone just like this. If you hurry, I’m sure you can catch up!’ “Yeah, ha ha, it’s really [expletive] up, isn’t it? Sorry. Excuse my language. Hopefully you’re alone in the woods when it happens. It would be terrible if you accidentally sicced it on someone else. And then once it hurries off, you run away as fast as you can in the other direction. It feels really mean, yeah, but I guess when you’re talking about life or death, you’ve got to use whatever tricks you can.” —Zyph, 22- - - “I accepted the bone from it years ago. It couldn’t be helped. I was trapped, and it was on the verge of tears. No, I wouldn’t advise it as a solution. They say there’s just the one, right? A child, singular? I don’t think that can be true. You accept the bone, and then there’s blood in the water. More keep coming. Or maybe it is just the one of them. They all look the same. I can’t be sure. All of them offering up their bones, solemn and insistent. Once you’ve accepted the first, it’s impossible to come up with an excuse. “I thought, for a while, that there might be an end to it. All the bones. So small. So very many of them. I used to think that maybe someday the collection could be complete. But it’s been years since then. I don’t think there’ll ever be an end to it. I’ve filled three graves now. Working on a fourth.” —Kveta, 59 -- source link