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December Writing Prompts 2022
December is here! The year is almost over; where did it go so fast? Light those candles, get some champagne for New Year's, and get ready to welcome 2023. And As always--
Disclaimer: I never close old writing prompts from previous months. People can and should be encouraged to post on old month's prompts and I highly encourage players to track these posts to catch stragglers or new people writing on old prompts.
Now. With that out of the way, onto this month's prompts.
1. "You're still here, despite everything."
2. An amazing thing with no explanation.
3. Focusing so hard on the details that you miss the big picture.
4. No two snowflakes are alike, but together they make the world beautiful.
5. The simple things are what matter in the end.
Bonus image prompt:
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4. No two snowflakes are alike.
“Look! It’s snowing!”
The flakes had barely started to dust the ground, but it was indeed snowing. The forecast called for several inches over the course of the day.
“All the more reason for you to come inside and warm up.” She encouraged. “I was just about to pour myself some tea. Would you like a cup?”
Chichi moved back from the window when she saw Minoru’s legs swing around. He dropped toward the open window like it was an American Ninja Warrior obstacle, and expertly slid himself inside the hallway. The trick shook off some of the snow, but his hair still had a light dusting, much like the ground outside.
“Yes, please!” He grinned, turning back to the open window. A long, winding road could be seen between the rooftops in the neighborhood. “Hey, Mama… remember when I used to go sledding down that big hill?”
“I remember the year you tried to go down it on a garbage can lid, and we had to take you to the emergency room when you broke your arm crashing into a mailbox. You kept insisting it was Isamu’s idea.”
Minoru laughed and shrugged.
“Hey, he was the one that told me to put the sled in the garbage.”
“Because you’d broken it…” she began.
“Yeah, yeah… I know.” Minoru laughed. “Crashing into a mailbox.”
Chichi sighed, handing her son a warm cup of green tea. “Minoru, it was the same mailbox.”
“I obviously needed a little more practice.” He sheepishly replied.
“At that point, you needed a cast.” She corrected him. “And if memory serves, about three and a half weeks inside to think about making better decisions.”
Unfortunately, being grounded until the cast came off was hardly a deterrent. And neither was the cast. If anything, Minoru saw them both as a challenge. By the time they rang in the new year, Minoru had figured out how to roll forward without using his arm and had moved on to testing out his new trick over stacks of his brother’s books. Isamu was not pleased. Neither were Itaru and Chichi.
“Mama… did you ever wish I was more like Isamu?”
Chichi sipped her tea quietly. “While your father and I may have often been at our wit’s end trying to keep both you and everything around you in one piece… No, of course not, Minoru. Not even for a moment.”
She put a hand on her son’s shoulder and looked outside again. The snow had really started to come down now. It was beautiful to watch.
“No two snowflakes are alike. But together, they make the world beautiful. Just like you and your brother.”
Minoru smiled, unable to stifle the yawn that followed.
“Speaking of Isamu, he’d better get up soon. I’ve got a question for him too.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“I need him to calculate the most aerodynamic sled substitute you’ve got in the garage. The garbage can lid isn’t nearly as big as I remember it being.”
“Oh, Minoru…” Chichi sighed and just shook her head.
“What?” He laughed, watching the snow come down.
3. Missing the Big Picture
“Oh dear, let me get that.” She took the letters, and started flipping through them. “Hopefully nothing has been ruined to the point of… oh! There’s a postcard from the Jones family!“
“From Tom and Aletayria?“ he asked the obvious, as he hung his coat on a hook to drip itself dry and slipped out of his shoes.
“Oh my…” Chichi immediately covered her mouth, feeling backwards for the wall behind her.
Itaru quickly looked over, confused and concerned. “What is it?”
Breathlessly, Chichi turned the card around. The pale colors, the scripted font, the floral layout - even at first glance, this was clearly a wedding invitation. The ink on the bottom was smeared and unreadable. They would need to call to obtain the date, time, location and all the other important details. But those details weren’t nearly as important as the bigger picture - the names that preceded them. Itaru read the card aloud as far as he could.
“We are delighted to announce the upcoming marriage of Ziggy Stardust and Mi…”
His voice stopped. His jaw dropped and he stared at his wife. She had the exact same expression. They both read the card again.
“Did you know?” Itaru asked, still stunned.
“No! I mean, I know they were dating… we all know that. But I haven’t seen Ziggy since the American Ninja Warrior Finals. You remember how worried he was. He wouldn’t let Minoru out of his sight after the ankle sprain. Not that we knew it was a sprain at the time.” Chichi gasped a little. “Minoru did say something about breakfast in bed in Ziggy’s hotel suite, remember? Do you think that’s when he proposed?”
“No, no… Minoru would have said something on the flight back. He was far too focused on the competition. It had to be after they got back to the Nexus.”
“Maybe Minoru proposed…” she reasoned. “But he would have mentioned something… shown off the ring. It’s really not like Minoru to keep secrets.”
“When was the last time you spoke to him?”
“Oh my. It’s been a couple of weeks. Minoru said he’d was really busy with work and he had some… gosh, upcoming projects?” Suddenly Chichi remembered. “A photoshoot. He said Erik was helping him with a photoshoot! He… he had to go to a bridal shop. He bought a dress for it!”
“Minoru bought a dress?”
“He said it looked perfect for an angel!” Chichi nodded. It seemed so innocuous at the time, but clearly the dress must have been for Ziggy. And those must have been their engagement photos. “Why didn’t he say anything?!”
Itaru and Chichi were beside themselves thinking through all the details they must have missed.
“Do you think he worried we might not approve of the nuptials?”
“I would hope not. I mean, Ziggy is… definitely different, but as long as Minoru is happy, that’s all I ever really cared about.”
“Agreed.” Itaru was quick to add. He read the card again. Some of the ink came off on his fingers. “I know Minoru and I don’t always see eye to eye on everything. Isamu was always far easier to communicate with. But I wouldn’t have imagined he would keep something this important from us.”
“Do you think he kept it secret from Isamu too?”
Itaru sighed. “I don’t know if that would even be possible. But if Isamu’s been sworn to secrecy, there’s nothing we can do to weasel it out of him.”
“…Should we call Minoru?”
The concerned parents lasted another fifteen seconds before dialing their younger son’s number. Even though it was early, especially for him, Minoru picked up.
“…hello?”
Itaru put the phone on speaker. He was a little apologetic when he asked, “Did we wake you?”
“… no, not today. I… uh… had something to do before work. I was supposed to get something in the mail and I haven’t yet, so I needed to check on it, make sure Isamu doesn’t see it and…”
As he spoke, Itaru and Chichi shared an equally concerned and surprised expression.
“Minoru… it… it came here.” Chichi nervously interrupted.
“What?!” Minoru shouted. They both heard a thud as he landed from whatever height he’d just jumped from. “I used my address! Here! In the Nexus! It wasn’t supposed to come there!!”
“I am afraid it did.” Itaru added.
“Then you… you know… that I…” Minoru’s voice trailed off as he groaned audibly. He felt like he’d just fallen off a roof.
“We know.”
“Minoru, when were you going to tell us?” Itaru tried to hide his disappointment, but Minoru must have heard it. Because, like many of the conversations he had with his father about these sorts of topics, he clammed up. It took him a moment to respond.
“…when it was over? When everything was, you know, done?”
Itaru and Chichi felt just as defeated as their son sounded.
“Minoru, we’re your parents. And that’s… a very special, once in a lifetime moment. We want to share as much of it as we can with you.”
Minoru’s hand went over his face, partially obscuring his words. “Which is what I was really trying to avoid…”
Chichi sounded like she might be about to cry.
“You know we respect your decisions, and we want you to do what makes you happy. But we would have hoped you’d have wanted to share it with us…”
“Why? So everyone can tell me how to do it better?”
“Minoru, we wouldn’t…”
“I tried that already! It didn’t work! It made me miserable! I thought this time would be different!” He grunted, exasperated, as he slid down next to a wall. “Fine… fine… can you at least just tell me my grade and get it over with?”
“…excuse me?”
“Yeah, I know there’s only one class on there, and at the rate I’m going, it’s going to be who knows how many years before I actually get my associates. But taking them online, one at a time, it works for me, okay? I think I might have scored a really solid B. Maybe even a B+!”
“Minoru, what are you talking about?”
“My grades…” his voice trailed off. “you… didn’t know I went back to school?”
“A second time?”
“Yeah?”
Itaru and Chichi stared at each other, very confused now.
“Minoru, that’s wonderful…” Itaru started slowly. After everything they’d discussed the prior winter, this was something Itaru had very much been wanting to hear. But that wasn’t really important right now. “…And I would love to continue that conversation with you at a later time. But your mother and I are talking about… well… your other big secret.”
“…what other big secret?”
Chichi finally just exclaimed, “That you’re getting married!!”
It was a good thing Minoru was on the ground, because he very well might have fallen in the middle of exclaiming, “… hold up. That I’m WHAT?!”
“Minoru, we saw the invitation in the mail today.” Itaru began to read, “We are delighted to announce the upcoming marriage of Ziggy Stardust…”
“…and Mick Ronno?” Minoru filled in the rest.
“And… Mick…?”
“Mick Ronno.” Minoru repeated, filling in the silence. “Guitarist for the Spiders? He came to watch the Finals. I know you guys have met him.”
The silence started to stretch uncomfortably.
“Uh… Mama? Papa? Are you guys still there?”
“Yes. Apologies. This is just a bit confusing…” Itaru tried to choose his words carefully. “We were under the assumption that you were still dating Ziggy.”
“Yes.” Chichi added, her voice trailing off. “We had no idea that…”
“Oh, I am!” Minoru insisted. “I’m just not getting married to him! But we’re still dating! It’s cool! I promise, it’s cool. With Ziggy and Mick, and his other partners too.”
“Other partners?”
“Ziggy has way too much love to just give it all to one person! Even in marriage. He’s got a really special bond with Mick. He has a different kind of special bond with me. It’s kind of… uh… hard to explain…“
Itaru and Chichi looked at each other, and then back at the phone. None of this was normal from their point of view. Minoru was probably long overdue for a very important talk. Or twelve. But from what they knew of Ziggy (and his parents), this was a relationship built on trust, understanding and open communication. And if this kind of relationship made their son happy, then who were they to debate it? In fact, given his peculiarities, it might be just about the only kind of relationship that could make their son happy.
“We trust your judgement, Minoru.” Chichi finally broke the silence. “And we’d be happy to attend the wedding, once we get the rest of the details.”
“The invitation… you see… Half of the ink smeared off in the rain. Everything beyond the ‘Mi’ in the second name was illegible.” Itaru helpfully filled in.
Suddenly, everything clicked into place for Minoru. He burst out laughing.
“Oh! Oh, man! That’s what this… Oh! Yeah, I’ll text it over once I get off shift. I don’t remember it off the top of my head.”
“Thank you. We’d very much appreciate that.” Itaru replied.
They were about to hang up the phone when Minoru interjected softly. “… hey, about the classes… can you just forget this conversation ever happened? I really do just want to work through them at my own pace. No pressure. No one looking over my shoulder or trying to help. …that’s why I was keeping it a secret.”
Minoru couldn’t see the relieved smiles on his parents’ faces, but he could hear the silence that started to stretch again.
“…please?”
“As difficult as this is for me to say, as you can rightfully imagine…” Itaru replied, letting out a soft sigh. “If it means that much to you, then my lips are sealed.”
“Mine too, Minoru.” Chichi added. “But when you’re finished with all of them, just let us know. We’d like to celebrate that once in a lifetime moment with you too.”
“Even if it takes years?”
“Even if it takes decades.” Itaru confirmed. “Though, I refuse to hold myself accountable for anything I may say in the event of literal senility.”
“Thanks.” Minoru chuckled a little bit at that. “You’ll have all the details in the morning. I promise.”
The bigger picture, in more ways than one, wouldn’t surface again until Minoru’s Christmas card arrived in the mail a few week later. The dress really was perfect for an angel… that just happened to be topping a tree. That Minoru had literally climbed and posed on top of. Because, of course he did.
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Mikkel’s gift - received
“Hey!” Minoru wasted no time. “Do you have any thank you cards? I could have sworn we had some.”
“I will go look in my desk.” He replied, glancing over the gifts. “What is all this?”
Minoru hopped over the mess he’d made. “Danish chocolates and fruit pastries! Completely homemade! Ziggy dropped them off. They’re gifts from Mikkel. You gotta try one.”
Not one to refuse a recommendation like that, Isamu reached into the first box, and sampled a piece of chocolate. “Oh, that is delicious.”
“The pastries are even better. And they’re vegetarian too!” Minoru nodded.
“What is the occasion? An early yuletide gift?” Isamu picked up the card, which was homemade as well, and equally well done.
“That, and a thank you.” Minoru admitted, picking up one of the pastries. He took a big bite before adding, “He kind of came to me for some relationship advice.”
Isamu reached into the other box to try one of the fruit pastries next. “Your relationship experience is highly unconventional, but I am not certain conventional is a word that can be used to describe any of your friends. Mikkel… is he one of the ones you do freerunning with?”
“No, that’s Frederik. Mikkel is Rik’s younger cousin. He helps out a lot backstage with the crew.”
“Ahh… forgive me, I still struggle to keep everyone on that roster straight.” As he disappeared into his room, he called out, “pun not intended. I am well aware of how few of them actually are, in fact, straight.”
Minoru snickered, finishing off the rest of the pastry. Isamu emerged a few minutes later with a box of cards.
“I will be making my annual pilgrimage to the shrines later this week. Would you like me to procure an omamori for you to send along with the card? En-musubi.” He specified. “As I assume, from the gift, that your advice was successful.”
Minoru took the box and nodded eagerly. “That’s a great idea!”
“Well, it is the simple things that matter in the end, is it not?”
“Yup. They definitely do.”
5. The simple things are what matter in the end.
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