Title: Full Time
Source: Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers
Word count: 160 words
This week’s photo prompt is provided by Michelle De Angelis. Thank you, Michelle!
It was a long, hot summer and Alysia had nearly finished. The thirty-three-foot Chris Craft needed a total overhaul. She purchased her in early spring and by St. Patrick’s Day had the boat gutted. The wooden hull was sound and didn’t need a lot of patching. She sanded, caulked, painted and varnished. She applied six coats of varnish herself. The engine, however, needed a complete overhaul.
Then she ran out of money. Alysia took a second job, sold her apartment and moved onto the boat. She slept on the deck in a sleeping bag under the stars. The boat owners in the surrounding slips noticed and monitored her progress. She often found gifts on the boat when she returned from work. When she questioned them, they laughed and denied her accusations.
The summer boaters winterized their boats as Alysia put the final touches on her full-time home. They threw a housewarming cookout and promised to be back in the spring.
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Keep on writing.
Jo Hawk The Writer
Jo Hawk 
Aww a lovely story! I’m glad Alysia found a home again 🙂
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No matter where you go, moving is a lot of work. Glad you liked the story.
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A lovely tale Jo. If only more real-life communities were like this.
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I think they are out there, you just have to look. Glad you liked the story.
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Sweet story. Her hard work and sacrifice seem to have paid off.
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Thanks Iain. The old wooden Chris Crafts are worth the effort.
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A heartwarming story, Jo. It’s a great and different take on this week’s prompt.
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Aw thank you. I never really occurred to me to write about the bridge. Here in the Chicago area we have a boat load of trunnion bascule bridges or “Chicago style” bridges. When they are raised they are just part of the landscape.
Glad you liked the story. 😊
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i like your story very much, one of my dreams is to live on the water and this seemed like the beginning of a really good life for her. the details of the story was what kept me reading.
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Thank you Gina. I love spending time on the lake. I will admit I had a difficult time containing this story, it wanted to be much longer. 😊
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oh that’s lovely! I like any body of water I suppose. I can imagine how the story could continue to grow. the delight of writing short stories is seeing it blossom as we go along. i felt the character really settling into your mind as you wrote her out
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Ha! I felt is was her settling into her new life. Regardless, I am glad that came across.
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Awww, so sweet that the community came together to support her dreams like this.
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Thank you, I like to hold out a little optimism. Glad you liked the story. 😊
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Lovely. I liked the fact that rather on the bridge, you focused on the boats instead. 🙂
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Thanks, as I said in another comment those types of bridges are common around the Chicago area, so I didn’t consider it unique. Glad you liked the story.
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I did 🙂
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Nice, Jo hawk, you are the only one, i think, that did not have a bridge-centric story. I love boats and the water culture and if I thought my wife of 26 years would not leave me I would buy a boat and find a port to live for a year or two.
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I owned a 24 foot SeaRay for a number of years. It was nice to spend weekends on the lake. Glad you liked the story.
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My wife is afraid of the water because she had such a large family and her father’s education was so limited they didn’t have the kind of funds to allow for the swimming pool growing up, so she never learned to swim. I love it, but understand her fear.
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Ha! That is what makes me such a great boater. I can’t swim either and I am deathly afraid of falling in. So I take extra precautions to make sure it doesn’t happen. They have invented this thing called a life vest… It is like my security blanket. 😁
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I learned to water ski in a lake in East Tennessee and a life jacket was required by my uncle. Several hard falls proved the importance of the life jacket.
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That’s one determined lady! Nice tale Jo
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You do what you need to do I guess. Glad you liked the story Lynn.
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Yes indeed!
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