Example #6 calling out the prompts in Examples of flashs past

AmygDala New prompts: Use one, or use all, anywhere: "Then Daddy took it down.", "For four years she'd been doing this.", "He grabbed it out of her hand."

He grabbed it out of her hand and put it back on the mantle between mom and dad’s wedding photo and the plaster casts of her hands from first grade. For four years she’d been doing this, taking down the sword and threatening to remove it from the scabbard.

It was a souvenir grandpa had picked up on some Island we’d never heard of in the south pacific. A Japanese officers ceremonial weapon. The kids were too young to think about it and never asked how grandpa had come by it, I mean never asked the pertinent question; Did you kill him or were you just looting the dead?

Grandpa had told them both when they were very young, five and seven, that if a Samurai sword were unsheathed it had to draw blood. The kids didn’t know the sword was British steel and that the officer had probably studied in London and it was about as far from a samurai sword as a sword could get. Grandpa had a brain tumor at that time and two years and a lot of painful treatments later he was dead. That was four years ago.

“I hate you!”

“Shut up ya little punk ass”

“Mom! Dad! He called me a punk ass.”

“Mom and Dad already know you’re a punk Ass.”

“You are!”

“Real Mature”

“What is going on here?” Dad. It had to be dad. Dad was the arbitrator of all punk assing and “Are we there yet’s”. He was also the one who had to do the explaining at parent teacher conferences and had to take out the garbage. Mom did a lot of other things, like pack lunches and sing to them when they were sick, but when it came to punk assing, it was always dad.

“She was taking the sword down and trying to take it out.”

“he just grabbed it from me. It hurt my fingers, he hurt my fingers.”

Dad gently took her hand in his. “This hand?” She nodded. He pressed gently on the forefinger “This finger?” She didn’t know what to do, so she sniffed. “This one?” he pressed the middle finger. She nodded quickly. He kissed the finger “Better?” She nodded.

Dad stood up and looked at the boy.

“She’s not supposed to do that Dad! She just wants to draw blood like Grandpa said.”

Then Daddy took it down. He took the sword out of the scabbard, showed it to both of them. Put the sword back in the scabbard. “See? Nothing happened. You two stay here.” He went away, upstairs. The kids knew he was going to put it in the bedroom closet. They’d searched for Christmas presents for years. Daddy always put things in the bedroom closet.