Rattling swords, rattling bones, rattling words. The rattle is a strident sound, one that grabs attention. The wind can rattle through dry weeds, or it can rattle your nerves.
Writers didn’t stay rattled, and used sound and tension to create a wide swath of stories. Like a musical instrument, each stroke of the rattle ads something new to the music on the page.
The following is based on the January 5, 2017 prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about a rattling sound.
***
The Rattle by Michael
I awoke, disorientated. It was black as pitch. Around me there was silence, except for the rattle. Menacing me when I moved and I feared it.
Shifting to my right the rattle increased in volume. I felt it might rush in upon me. I sat still, the rattle decreased. It never grew silent but rattled softly reminding me of its presence. I’d run, but I couldn’t see. I called for help. Only the rattle responded. The sweat on my brow dripped into my eye as the rattle drew closer. I pushed back, it pushed forward. I closed my eyes.
###
Winds of Change by C. Jai Ferry
Thick snowflakes blanketed the cornstalk remnants, cows, and cedars with a suffocating softness. God, she hated night-time snowstorms. They gave her nightmares about nuclear winters. Soon she was staring at a featureless panorama that looked more like the surface of the moon than the winter fields of the Great Plains. Tomorrow’s roads would be perilous as the soft fluff created unyielding drifts anxious to crumple the front end of the hardiest Ford. As if on cue, the cracked window in her office rattled against its pane. She braced herself against the shudder traveling her spine. The winds had arrived.
###
It Could Be Bones Rattling by Bill Engleson
“Sounds ominous.” I say this lightly. I always say it lightly. Many of my words are light-weight. People know when they are speaking gibberish. I certainly do.
Shelley gives me that look. I get it a lot. We’re on the porch. We’ve been up all night. Talking. I hate talking. I’m always one step behind and an hour late when I talk about my feelings.
“Look.” She points to the sidewalk. The sun is just inches away from rising. The pimply kid who delivers the Morning Bugle is dragging a stick along the picket fence.
I hate that kid.
###
Make Your Mama Happy by Roger Shipp
“Mama, Mama!” Eight-year-old Herbie was racing from the front window to the kitchen door. “It’s Uncle RoRo. In a U-Haul.”
Sylvia went to greet her youngest brother.
Roro (a bit of a ne’er-do-well, but the favorite uncle of Herbie) was balancing three boxes in his arms and side-stepping the feet his anxious nephew.
“What on earth have you brought, Roro?”
“Memories,…Memories.” He smiled as he was opening box after box. “I remember you saying as you left for college how much you missed my garage band.”
Roro was still smiling… “Herbie, here’re my old sticks. Make your mama happy.”
###
Rattle That Lock by Lady Lee Manila
Don’t let them take over the reins
Get out of that dark forest
Don’t want it to be the bleakest
Force your way into the light
Don’t give up easily the fight
Beneath the waterfalls such force
And within us we’ve got resource
Marvellous sound the falling water
We won’t know until we’ve entered
Rattling but so soothing
All the positive force it brings
Think a little and send us the rain
We’ve got the power to reign
Rattle that lock and lose those chains
Don’t let them take over the reins
###
The Good Nephew by Luccia Gray
‘Go away,’ he shouted, covering his head with the woollen blanket, but the rattling grew louder.
‘Leave me alone!’ He was trembling.
More rattling.
‘I don’t want to go there again!’
‘I warned you last Christmas,’ came the ghostly echo with more thunderous rattling.
Minutes later, the ghost discarded the heavy chains and stood by the skeletal corpse in the icy bedroom.
‘I was only reminding you to keep your promises,’ he said closing Ebenezer’s blank eyes.
Then he opened the safe where the miser kept the gold coins and dropped them into his purse.
‘Rest in peace, uncle.’
###
Unexpected Help (from Miracle of Ducks) by Charli MIlls
Coins in a coffee can rattled as the boy ran across the parking lot. “Dr. Danni Gordon!” He yelled.
Danni and Michael turned. She recognized the boy from the class she had toured with Bubbie.
“For you. To find Bubbie.” He thrust the makeshift rattle at her. She peeled back the lid to see dollars among coins.
“To find Bubbie?”
“I heard Bubbie the Archaeology dog was AWOL. I took up a collection for a reward.”
Despite her panic, she forced a smile. Michael joined her and asked, “AWOL?”
“My Dad’s gone to Iraq. He’s a soldier, not AWOL.”
###
Can I Keep the Change? by Norah Colvin
With the string bag slung over his shoulder and the purse clutched tight, he was on his first big boy errand. And, he could keep the change. He rattled the purse. What possibilities awaited. Should he hurry to get the money, or dawdle and contemplate? Regardless, he got there soon enough.
He handed the purse to Mrs Kramer, who extracted the list and gathered the items. As she counted the coins into the till, he announced, “I can keep the change.” She peered over her glasses, then held out one large brown coin. He trembled: what could he choose?
###
Rattling Change by Drew Sheldon
It seemed like he never stopped rattling the change in his pocket. From time to time someone would get annoyed and ask him to stop.
“Sure thing,” he’d say. “I’ll stop just as soon as I’m dead.”
Years later at his funeral, I couldn’t help but rattle the change in my pocket. As people turned to look at me, I pointed to his casket and said, “It wasn’t me. He lied.”
He would’ve liked that joke.
###
Who’s Afraid of Rattlesnake Eggs? by Joe Owens
Randall twisted the button with the rubber band threaded through as he held the paper clip frame tight. He could hardly contain his glee of pulling his most ingenious prank ever on his old buddy Don. Don was terrified of snakes. This would send him screaming.
“Hey man, what’s happening?” Don said when he arrived.
“Oh nothing I am just getting ready to check out this thing Harmon sent”
“What is it?” Don asked. He took the envelope and began to open it.
“Rattlesnake eggs!” Randall guffawed.
With the pressure released the button rattled loudly against the envelope.
“Gaaahhhhhh!”
###
Shake, Rattle and Roll by Geoff Le Pard
‘What’s this, Dad?’
Paul looked up from the box he was sorting. ‘Goodness, it’s your grandpa’s football rattle.’
‘What’s that?’ Penny eyed the contraption suspiciously.
Paul smiled, taking it. ‘Eagalllesss!!’ He bellowed and spun the rattle. Penny covered her ears. Paul laughed. ‘Football grounds were full of that noise in the 60s and 70s.’
Penny pulled a face. ‘I prefer those trumpet things you hate.’
‘Vuvuzelas? They’re awful.’
‘You’re just old-fashioned.’
Paul nodded. ‘Like REM and Beyonce are different I suppose. One’s tuneful and the other mush.’
Penny went back to her box. ‘We can agree on that then.’
###
The Greater Good by Pete Fanning
A war raged on Steeple Street. Girls versus boys, a two day battering of snowballs the neighbors hadn’t seen since the nor’easter of 1996. Nerf air darts littered the yards, abandoned sleds and lone gloves dotted the trampled battlefield.
The rattle of chains. A gruesome, hair-raising scrape. A scrape that pushed showers and bedtimes.
“Plow!”
A plow, on a Sunday night. About as welcome as a granny smith on Halloween. A quick cease-fire. Factions merged. A human chain formed as the plow approached behind a swirl of snow.
Boots dug in, snow-caked mittens held strong.
Homework was at stake.
###
Scavenger by Anne Goodwin
“You a simpleton?” the overlooker roared above the rattling machines. I shook my head. But the job wasn’t so scary when Ma explained it.
Dodging his stick, I squeezed into the narrow passageway beneath the loom. Thunder in my ears, nostrils clogged with dust, I gathered the stray strands of cotton from the floor. Slid out again and onto the next.
It was dark when Ma brought me, dark when I limped home. A cough rattling my chest, fear rattling my mind. Aching back, arms, legs; buzzing ears. Rich kids went to school at six, I went to work.
###
For the Public Good by Liz Husebye Hartmann
Her 1997 Honda rocked and groaned through the narrow city streets.
She knew the moment her car crossed from affluent to impoverished neighborhood. City snowplows hadn’t served this area after the last spring blizzard, hoping a quick melt would ease the budget. Instead, a subsequent freeze had turned the roadway into a bobsled run. The same reasoning prioritized pothole repair.
She was an underpaid public health nurse, serving at-risk new mothers. The science behind the Home-Visiting program: solid. The actual barriers: downplayed.
She wanted to believe anyway.
The car bounced, scraped, and stalled.
Her hopes died with a rattle.
###
Followed by Jane Dougherty
It was bitterly cold, and the heater in the old van was barely keeping her feet unfrozen. The narrow country lane that wound in a picturesque way in daylight was simply dangerous at night, and trees leaned overhead blocking out even the feeble light of the stars. Two pinpoints of light glittered in the darkness—the headlights of the car she was convinced had been tailing her since she left the main road. She was still miles from anywhere when the sound she dreaded broke through the rattling of the chassis—the knock knock knock of a dying engine.
###
Bones by Sarah Brentyn
She woke to a noise. Her brain couldn’t register it. Clinking. No, more of a clattering. That was wasn’t right, either. Rattling. That’s what it was.
“John!” She reached over—his side of the bed was empty.
Slipping out from the covers, she walked to the kitchen. Dark.
“John?” She moved toward the dining room and the rattling grew louder. She heard it clearly as she passed the basement.
Opening the door, she gasped. Her hand flew to her mouth, “John!”
He looked up, eyes wide behind his mask.
The players dropped their dice. The D&D game was over.
###
Deafening Silence (Jane Doe Flash Fiction) by Deborah Lee
Becca heels her shoes off. Dirt especially shows on bare carpet. Two months Richard’s been gone, and the endless expanse remains broken only by two power cords and their lamps.
But she’s home, safe after another day at Bile & Heartburn — er, Pyle & Hepburn. Away from Carolyn, who inspects every draft with narrowed eyes and pressed lips. Away from the yappy dog next cubicle over. Especially away from Jane, who apparently thinks they are best friends just because they share work space.
Becca hits Pandora, cranks the volume. Anything to cover the noise of her rattling around here by herself.
###
Making New Connections by Diana Ngai
Smoothing her hair, Faith strode up the front walk. As a recent transplant she felt lucky to have found a group of women who made her laugh and invited her out. Tonight was “Girls Night In” and she felt giddy.
An unknown face opened the door; Faith was instantly rattled. Peering beyond, she saw only strangers inside and her stomach clenched. Confidence shattered, her neck tightened and she wondered if she had the wrong address. Introverted instincts told her to hightail it home, but she had already been seen. Faith fought the impulse and, with faked determination, stepped inside.
###
The Gettin’ Place by Jeanne Lombardo
He took a drag and rattled the ice in his cup.
“That Coke’s no good for you,” I said.
“One poison at a time, Mom.”
Our usual exchange.
“Feeling ready?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“We’ll get the apartment packed up. Figure out the rest after rehab.”
He nodded, his beauty piercing and hopeful in the dawn light.
“Those blankets, though, I’m tossing them.”
“OK.”
We’d argued about the overstuffed garbage bag the girlfriend had left behind.
“Where’d she get them anyway?
He smiled, knowingly, sheepishly.
“The gettin’ place,” he said.
He’d come far, but the street was still in him.
###
Rattling On and On by Florida Borne
He spoke 12 languages and read texts in 4 so old that no one knew how the words were spoken. His face scowled like a bureaucrat obsessed by one misspelled word in a 100 page document.
To everyone else in the class, he rattled on and on.
“More advancements are made in a benevolent dictatorship, however the next dictator might be a tyrant. The basic problem is people. Someone somewhere wants someone else’s something.”
The class rattled with laughter.
“Once, universities admitted only those individuals willing and able to learn,” he said.
I smiled, an older student nodding agreement.
###
The Novel Project by Elliott Lyngreen
In collaboration between each partition, raw literature inventing a novel, are roaring clickings or clackings, but typing so swift it sounds as a fierce rattling; overloading keys fast enough to brand a new novel.
The boss rolls into his reverie. He minimizes parturitions of story, removes the soundtrack. Clear muffles mumble, “Woah… might see smoke linger out this cubicle… Just wanted to inform, We appreciate dedication. And intend to give you a raise.”
But he awakes at his glares; at the astonishing data entry, then back into him -waking from dream and quickly removing headphones, entagling their streams.
###
Rattle by Pensitivity
It was annoying and kept her awake at night.
Nothing was loose, but there was a constant rattling outside.
The boat was secure, ropes tight as the wind blew them against the jetty.
By torchlight, nothing could be seen and as if a phantom, the noise stopped as soon as her head appeared in the hatchway.
On closure, it started again.
She groaned.
Next day, all was revealed.
The wind had been rattling zip tongues against the hull.
With crochet hook and wool, she produced six-inch anti-tapping devices, neat little squares to place between zip and metal.
Perfect.
###
Every Breath by Ruchira Khanna
Jack signed some papers, and waited patiently in a corner whilst expelling air with sound; that would make eyes turn in his direction.
Sighing with relief when the nurse called out his name; he was aware of the awful rattling noise along with each breath.
The machine was set, and he was asked to hold still as the MRI was taken.
A loud groan from the technician made him alert.
He inquired in a petrified tone, and was shocked to hear the diagnosis, “You have two marbles in the upper front of the body that clash upon each breath.”
###
The Yellow Rattler by Ann Edall-Robson
The breeze sifted through the grass and hidden treasures below. Standing perfectly still, the rattling sound could be heard, mixed with the buzzing of bees and musical lyrics from the tree leaves overhead.
It had taken hours to hike to the meadow. A place of life recognized by only those who care to know.
Tiny wild violets peeking up at the sun. Old Man’s Whiskers, pink and nodding. Vibrant, red Indian Paint Brush stands in the greenery.
The sound comes once again with the wind. The seeds rattling in the capsule and papery calyx of the dying Yellow Rattle.
###
The Soft Rattle of a Sweeping Brush by Jules Paige
(prose and pi ku)
Who would use a ‘thoughtfilled’ crumb catcher? Nay, not
the one for use at fancy restaurants or royal dinner parties.
But more a one for everyday persons that might be used
to clean up misused words, foul words used incorrectly –
Especially spoken out of turn and without thinking. Catch
that little bit of an idealistic inkling? Could we be like a
horse’s groom and use two brushes at once? Catching
thoughts that floated past inner eyes, that were not seen
and landed in another’s ear, was heard and then taken
to the bank?
brushing light:
there,
the idea kisses
###
Reblogged this on ladyleemanila and commented:
rattling tales 🙂
Thanks for rattling these stories around to your blog!
Love these…what a fantastic compilation Charli 🙂
An amazing array of stories from a rattle! Thanks, Sherri!
Looks like a solid week for the Rough Riders Charli. Thanks for all you do to support writers.
Off to a good start — no one got rattled! Thanks for being a part of our literary community, Joe!
I love being a part Charli
It seems the more I write the more I want to.
Wish I had time to go and leave individual comments on each blog. Some really great flashes here!