For this week’s 15 random words I’m using:

• 2 words that were left in the comments of last week’s post:

persimmon – reverse

• 13 words from https://randomwordgenerator.com. To the right is a screen print of the words it gave me:

interest – queue – plan – façade – nose – length – characteristic – spring – print – cultural – scramble – sand – column

Below is the short-short I wrote using these words. Once again the characters from my Adventures with Harrison and Mason scenes called to me. Between “sand,” “column,” and “façade,” I figured something featuring a sand castle would be in order, and I figured Harrison, Mason, and their son Jaxon would be just the right people to build it.

“I think we should put a column or two along this façade,” Mason said.

Jaxon looked up from the side of the sand castle where he was working. He squinted like he tended to do when he was thinking hard. Harrison figured he was working out what façade meant from the context of the sentence rather than deciding whether he agreed with Mason’s suggestion. His sunglasses slid down the length of his nose, and he absently pushed them back up.

Nodding solemnly, Jaxon said, “That’s a good plan, Pop.”

Jaxon crawled in reverse to where Mason sat and began to dig a little hole.

Harrison set down the bags of food he’d just picked up at the lunch shack up the beach and asked, “Are you making a moat?”

“No Daddy.” Jaxon rolled his eyes. “That would be boring. I’m going to hide The Hulk in the hole so he can spring out and surprise the invaders when they come.”

“Oh, of course.”

Mason looked up and winked. He wouldn’t have suggested a “boring” moat. Not unless he had some little toy alligators or sharks to put into it. Even that would probably be too ordinary for Mason and Jaxon. Maybe a Kraken action figure would’ve made a moat interesting enough. Creativity was a characteristic those two had in common.

Harrison looked out over the ocean as he spread a blanket for their picnic lunch. It felt weird being on a beach and building a sand castle in December. Weird for people used to Midwestern weather anyway. This Hawaiian vacation was a wonderful getaway, and Jaxon was having the time of his young life.

The queue at the lunch shack had been outrageous, but the food smelled fantastic. Jaxon cast a concerned glance at the food as it came out of the bag. He probably wasn’t quite ready to trust them yet after the tofu and veggie scramble they’d tried to foist on him at breakfast.

In contrast, Mason looked on with open interest. “What’ve you got there, hun?”

“Persimmon muffins, chicken katsu, and some chicken long rice.”

“Rice again?” Jaxon said. “I like it, but man, we have it every day here.”

“It’s a cultural thing,” Mason said. “Don’t worry, at least there’s no tofu involved.”

They joined Harrison on the blanket, and Mason leaned across to whisper, “Have I told you yet today how sexy you look in that Hawaiian print shirt?”

Harrison laughed. “I’m running out of fingers to count how many times.”

Once again, because I can’t resist a good challenge, I’ll take the first 15 prompt words given to me in the comments, below, for next week’s Flash Fiction Friday post. One word per commenter, please. I’ll make up the difference using the random word generator site if I don’t get 15 here.

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