Prompt 284-Present Past

Write about an event going on in your life right now, but see if you can write about it in the past tense.

The night was hot and sticky as I sat down to my evening ritual. Despite the fan moving the air around, my office was stuffy. While my computer powered on, I opened the windows. It had begun to cool with the setting sun and, if the frequent breeze was any indication, the front moving in. If there was any relief to be had, the rain would cool things off.

I navigated through the folders on my desktop to the folder with all my prompts. I scrolled to the bottom for the next one and opened the document. The cursor mocked me with its blinking. “Whatever shall you write? How will you fulfill this prompt? There is nothing going on in your life!”

I glared at the clock. It was still early. I had plenty of time. Time to brainstorm. So I took a shower.

As I washed my hair, I thought about all the things going on in my life. Work. Family. Upcoming birthdays and anniversaries. Those last were technically future events, and while I could write about them as if they had already passed, I was determined to write the present past.

I watched the foamy soap swirl around the drain in the tub. What do I do? What am I doing now? As I turned the water cold, it shocked me as much as the realization that I had the perfect event waiting for me. It would be a bit meta, but it wouldn’t be the first time I’d ever written a post like that.

I turned the water off and dried myself off, donning clean pajamas and running a comb through my damp hair. I returned to my office where I found a cat curled up in my computer chair. I chuckled at him. He always wants to be in my seat. There was still enough room for me, so I sat in front of him, his furry little body warming my lower back as he curled around my hip.

I put some music on in the background and began to type. About ten minutes in the music paused as my phone rang. It was my husband. He was done with golf and wanted to know if he should bring me dinner. He golfs in a work league every Thursday so I usually eat dinner by myself instead of waiting until after 8 to make anything. I reminded him of this fact.

“Ok, so will you be writing when I get home?”

I looked down at my keyboard and the words already on the screen. “I’m writing now. I started early so I could be done by the time you get home.”

I could hear the grin in his voice. “So we can watch Stranger Things?”

“Duh.”

“Ok. I’m gonna grab myself something to eat. I’ll see you in a bit.”

I hung up and returned to my blog post. I decided I would include that conversation towards the end. It was all a part of the same event, after all.

I read through the post and nodded in satisfaction. It would suffice. There was only one thing left to do. I typed up the notes, and posted the meta tale to the blog. It was a good night.

Notes: Yeah so that was a little weird. I do a lot of my story telling in the past tense, so that part wasn’t too difficult for me. As I said in the post, the hardest part was figuring out what to tell. I had an interesting day at work, learned a lot about the new customer I’m working with and the team he leads. I’d been struggling to make myself interested in his program, just going through the motions of learning the day-to-day without ever looking at the bigger picture. I got to see a bit “behind the curtain” today though, and while my actual work still bores me, I have a better appreciation for it. It could really be so much worse, and there’s a small chance I’ll still get to work on something new.

But anyway, now it’s your turn! Take an event that is happening now and write about it in the past! Have a great Friday! See you tomorrow!

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