A Request and A Challenge

I just realized the answer to the perennial question faced by writers everywhere: where do I get my ideas?

Looking through my writing folder, I figured the best story ideas I've come up are the ones I get from this blog. Specifically, from people who suggested 15-minute picture-stories for me. I mean, how else could have I come up with the idea of a failed World War 2 Russian robot or starship churches fighting cosmic horrors or Hemingway meeting the minotaur?

So I was wondering if anyone out there has more interesting pictures to suggest?

In the spirit of this suggestion, I dredged up this picture from fiddler kitty which I borrowed last year but never got around to writing a story. Enjoy!

This is 15-Minutes: The Girl who Sang to Gargoyles

The parents were whispering again so the pale girl pretended to be asleep until they left the room.

Afterwards, she raised to her head to see if they were gone. Sometimes, they would just stand to one side, quietly watching her if she didn't check first. She didn't know why they did that.

She sat up and looked around: her room was in shadow thanks to the heavy curtains over the large windows. But she could see outside that the sky had darkened to twilight. She hugged a brown scraggly teddy bear to herself and decided to go out.

Padding to the glass doors to the balcony on her bedroom slippers, she slid the doors open and-- ignoring the evening's chill-- whispered, "Moe? Larry? Curly? Are you there?"

At the balcony's edge, the three stone gargoyles turned around to look at her.

"Sorry I couldn't come out earlier. The parents were talking about me again," the girl said in a hushed tone as she approached them.

She placed a small white hand on one of the gargoyle's snout. Meanwhile, another gargoyle scratched its neck with its hind leg.

"Yes, I don't mind. I like singing for you guys," the girl said with a faint smile. "What would you like me to sing?"

She nodded, coughed lightly and then started singing. It wasn't sound that came out of her mouth, more like a hum or a vibration that could be felt on the skin. But the gargoyles swooned to this, swaying slightly in the night wind.

Afterwards, she finished with a laugh and the gargoyles pressed around her like giant cats.

"Alright, one more song," she said.

This time, when she sang, no sound came out but bubbles of light floated from her mouth. One of the gargoyles, its tail wagging friskily, jumped up to catch them.

And for a time, the little girl knew some peace.

(For those who don't know, 15-minutes is the time I allot myself to write these pieces. Try it: it's good writing practice.)