Winner of The Lake House Fiction Writing Prompt Contest!

We hoped everyone enjoyed last week’s contest titled, The Lake House, in which we asked writers to combine several unrelated elements into one cohesive story. You don’t usually find golf carts and Christmas ornaments up at a summer lake house, but our winning entry showed that these elements can be combined in a way that seems natural. Congratulations Tammy! And thanks for your entry!

Check out the prompt and the winning entry below!

Prompt:

Characters:

A 56-year-old man from the city who has spontaneously decided to rent a house on a lake in a small town for the summer.

An eccentric widow who has lived in the town for many years.

Items or words to include:

Lake house

Golf cart

A Christmas ornament

Line of dialogue:

“Are you taking his side against me?”

[line]

The Lake House

By Tammy Mack

Ralph Mason was your ordinary fifty-six-year-old man. He held a steady job, paid his bills on time. Everything you would expect. Except that Ralph Mason was sick of the routine his life had taken on. It had been three years since his wife died, and it felt like all Ralph was doing, was going through the motions.

It was a year before her death, and six months after they found the cancer that Marge had decided that they should take a trip together. One final thing that the two of them could do together. They didn’t realize just how sick Marge would get so quickly. The chemo, that had extended her life by six months, made her so weak that she couldn’t even get out of bed.

It killed Ralph to know that he couldn’t take her on a trip. It hurt even worse when Marge died in her sleep while he was at work. He had heard on the news of people finding their loved ones dead after returning home. He had felt bad for those people. Ralph didn’t think that he could handle something so unexpected until he came home on January fifth and found Marge unresponsive in their bed.

Ralph was pretty sure a part of himself died that day, right along with Marge. That was why he currently found himself pulling up to a small store, in the town of Pike. It was a place in the middle of nowhere, where large cities flourished on either side of it. While Pike wasn’t known for much, it was known for its log cabins in the depth of the woods. A place where anyone could go, just to lose themselves for a few days.

While it had intrigued Ralph to spend the next week roughing it in the middle of nowhere, he had decided to rent the one lake house still available. It was on the outskirts of Pike, and it sat alone right near the edge of the lake. It was quiet and serene. Exactly what Ralph was looking for. He had known, when he saw the pictures of it online, that Marge would have loved it.

“Can I help ya, find something?” A voice crackled from behind him.

Turning around, Ralph offered the older lady a smile. “No, thanks for the offer though.”

The woman laughed, before smiling. “Name’s Mildred. I’ve lived here for almost ten years now. My husband, God rest his soul, and I used to vacation up here. He died almost twelve years ago. I decided to move up here and open a store. It just, I guess it made me feel closer to him. Being somewhere we both loved so much.”

Ralph nodded, “I understand. I lost my wife three years ago. I always promised to take her on a trip to a place like Pike. Just never got around to it.”

“It’s the promises unkept that breaks our hearts the most.”

Both Mildred and Ralph’s attention went to the front door. They watched with amused grins as two young kids attempted to climb out of a golf cart.

“Ah. Young love.” Mildred whispered.

Ralph nodded. “Hey, by chance, do you happen to have any Christmas ornaments?”

Mildred gave him a weird glance. “Yes, of course. Not out on the shelves. I might be a little eccentric, but people will think I have done lost what’s left of my mind if I keep Christmas ornaments out this early in the year.”

“You wouldn’t mind selling me one would you? It’s just, Marge would collect Christmas ornaments from anywhere that she went. I know that she would love this place, so I thought I’d honor her by buying an ornament.”

“Well, of course.” She smiled.

By the time she returned with a box of ornaments for him to pick through, the two young kids from before finally made their way into the store. Both of them had their arms draped across each other. Ralph couldn’t help but smile at them.

“I think you might’ve been right about young love.” He mumbled lightly.

Before Mildred had a chance to speak, the young boy walked up to Ralph and rolled his eyes.

“Must be senile.” He whispered to his girlfriend. “Hey old guy, it’s not Christmas time.”

“Yeah, I know that. It’s more sentimental.”

This time the girl rolled her eyes. “Old people. Sheesh.”

Mildred bent down so that both kids could see her clearly. “Listen to me. I don’t appreciate that tone. If you can’t respect your elders, then you can leave.”

“Geez, Mildred. Are you taking his side against me?”

“Yes, Mark, I am. Don’t call me Mildred, mister. I’m your grandmother and you will address me as so.”

“Yes, grandma.”

[line]

For the last two years, Tammy has been hard at work on both a novel and on a series of short stories. You can connect with Tammy on Twitter at@tjmack1986.

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