Creative Writing - Sample Stories

Safety Agenda Item 4 a)

      Standing on the nature strip, Trevor Randall put the blue plastic lunch bag into his son Anthony’s hand. Anthony smiled through his beard. As usual he looked like he wanted a hug. His big arms dangled at his sides and his torso bent inward, as if he were holding a bird in the rolls of his stomach.
    Trevor smiled back and Anthony grunted, waved an arm. He couldn’t speak, but Trevor always knew what his son wanted.
    Dad, don’t watch me go back across the road. I can do it.
    Trevor looked at him.
    ‘You sure?’
    Anthony waved his arm, insistent.
    Trevor smiled and walked back towards the short iron gate at the front of his house.
    Tyres screeched and Trevor turned and saw a car’s red taillights. Further up the road, Anthony was face down on a nature strip, the blue plastic bag lying next to him.
    Trevor ran towards them both.  

* * *

  Trevor still hasn’t broken the habit of every morning making a sandwich for his 37-year-old son. And though he’s unemployed, he hasn’t broken the habit of getting up each day for work.
  Several unopened envelopes lie on the table in front of him. He pushes his breakfast bowl away, picks up an envelope and opens it. It’s a card with a picture of flowers in a vase and the words, Thinking of You. On the inside the card reads, Come bak SOON in red pencil.

This is an excerpt. The story won the 2005 Eastern Regional Libraries National Short Story Competition.