For those who don’t know, Friday Fictioneers is a challenge to write a 100 word story from a picture prompt. It’s hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, and anyone can play. Thanks for hosting, Rochelle! Check out the link at the end of my story to see what other fictioneers did with this week’s prompt.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Cinnamon Sky Sees The Light
The excitement in the self-sufficient Tambourine household was palpable. They were going electric. Thanks to Bob’s latest pedal-powered contraption, they now had their own sustainable energy source.
Bob’s daughter, Cinnamon Sky, hopped on the bike and started pedalling. The lights began to glow.
‘Keep going and you might make enough electricity to watch telly,’ Bob said.
Cinnamon pedalled faster and faster. Sparks flew, but she didn’t notice, she was fixated on the promise of EastEnders. There was an almighty bang, followed by a mournful fizz, then the lights died.
Cinnamon slid off the bike.
‘I’ll get the oil-lamps,’ she sighed.
(100 words – but only because I hyphenated ‘oil-lamps’ 😉 )
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Need more Tambourines? Read Gotta Go With The Flow and Fly Me To The Moon
Need more Friday Fiction? Click the blue frog to read more stories from other fictioneers!
EL Appleby: Brain Fragments 
It’s Gilligan’s Island all over again…Love the name of the child Cinnamon Sky…More tambourine….more cowbell! LOL good fun and it had my mind going all over the place. Bob..Mr Tambourine man! Priceless!
Tom
LikeLike
Hi Tom
I had to google Gilligan’s Island – sounds fun! Glad you like Cinnamon Sky – she’s becoming one of my favourites too. There may be more Tambourines coming soon 🙂
LikeLike
Smooth and deceptively accurate depiction of some people in my village! The atmosphere is perfectly captured. Wish it was longer…you could write a novel with these characters…
LikeLike
I’m tempted by the novel idea – might see if the Tambourines and their antics pop up in any more Friday Fictions first. Thanks for commenting.
LikeLike
What fun!! I keep hearing “Green Tambourine” in my head and seeing hamsters for some reason. 🙂
janet
LikeLike
Hi Janet
I thought of hamsters too – I think if I’d had a few more words, Bob might have considered tethering a couple of hamster wheels to his contraption 🙂
LikeLike
Not worth the work. Funny. A great story.
LikeLike
Thanks 🙂
LikeLike
Oh, poor Cinnamon Sky! I so love the Tambourine family!
LikeLike
She’s never going to get to watch any tv, poor girl. I’m glad you like the Tambourines – I wasn’t intending to write any more of them, but this picture screamed Tambourines at me!
LikeLike
This brought a smile to my face indeed and poor Cinnamon.. this took me back to….ok won’t say.
LikeLike
Glad I made you smile. It took me back too – there’s more than a hint of truth in the Tambourine family 🙂
LikeLike
Lovely! I wish today’s avid tele watchers had to pedal to feed their habit. Enjoyed this.
LikeLike
HI Sandra
Glad you enjoyed my silly story. Yours was amazing this week.
I wonder if pedal-powered tvs would catch on?
LikeLike
I really enjoyed this – a perfect scene – and not a word out of place.
Claire
LikeLike
Thanks Claire – what a wonderful compliment – I’m beaming 🙂
LikeLike
Now there’s a concept! If kids had to work like that for entertainment maybe there wouldn’t be so many television vegetables. By golly, El, you may have discovered the solution to childhood obesity. 😉 …that is if it had worked. In any case I’m smiling. Good job!
shalom,
Rochelle
LikeLike
Hi Rochelle
Hmm, maybe I should ask Bob for the plans to his pedal-powered generator – we could go into business selling pedal-powered tvs and make our fortune – I see a future filled with awards and OBEs – or maybe that’s just the writer’s imagination going crazy 🙂
LikeLike
Oh this is great.. Sitcom will be quite different .
LikeLike
Thanks. It would make a fun sitcom!
LikeLike
Ha – if only they had to pedal to power the WII and DSi and things as well!
(Yeah, but don’t make me pedal for the internet, that’s all I’m saying.)
Love your characters
LikeLike
Hi Ariadne
I think this pedal power might catch on!
thanks for commenting 🙂
LikeLike
Another great story El, well written and humorous I loved the ending. 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks jwd – glad you liked it 🙂
LikeLike
Perfect! Great premise/interpretation of the prompt. Looooove the name, Cinnamon Sky. So right for this natural, back-to-earth family. Love her enthusiasm, its disastrous results, and her resigned attitude at the end. Well done!
LikeLike
Poor Cinnamon Sky, she’s used to things not going quite right, and she knows her parents have her best interests at heart.
Glad you liked my story, many thanks 🙂
LikeLike
Oh, Cinnamon Sky is back, yay!!
Love this, maybe all kids should be made to pedal in order to watch tv – sad though that she is pedalling for Eastenders…
Lovely read
Dee
LikeLike
Hi Dee
The prompt screamed ‘Tambourines’ to me, so I had no choice really!
I’m disappointed with ‘EastEnders’ I should have chosen something else – probably something a little more topical for kids, something her friends at school would all watch. Never mind.
LikeLike
Cute story! I admire their efforts for a sustainable energy source. I hope they succeed eventually.. Good for health too!
LikeLike
Hi Parul
Yes, they’re doing their best to save the world! Thanks for commenting, glad you liked it 🙂
LikeLike
Great work ! unfortunate the contraption broke down ! 😉
LikeLike
Hi Shreyank
Glad you liked it. Yes, it’s a shame the generator broke, but I’m sure Bob will fix it soon 🙂
LikeLike
Ladies and gentlemen can we hear a round of applause for the great E.L. Appleby? I am so glad your internet issues are behind you. I can remember seeing a program from American television called “That’s Incredible” where a father equipped the family television with a similar incentive, in the form of an exercise bike. His kids could watch television as long as one of them was on the bicycle generating the power.
LikeLike
Hi Joe
You’re so lovely to me every week – I can’t wait to read your comments!
There used to be a programme called ‘The Good Life’ in the UK in the 70s (I was very little!), about a couple who turned their back on consumerism and went self-sufficient. They showed it in the US but called it ‘Good Neighbors’. They tried various ways of generating electricity.
LikeLike
I can’t remember his name, but there is a actor who is ‘green’ while his family or wife at least isn’t as enamored with the whole ‘save the Earth’ – please just let me go shopping. I think I watched one episode where he was on a bike to get the toaster to work.
Thanks for the links…I missed the first one.
Cheers.
LikeLike
Might be ‘The Good Life’ you’re thinking of (renamed ‘Good Neighbors’ in the US) – with Richard Briers. I was very young when it came out, but I remember the repeats!
Thanks for reading my Tambourine Tales 🙂
LikeLike
That’s fantastic, though got to feel sorry for a girl who thinks Eastenders is worth all that pedalling!
LikeLike
It’s only because she’s never seen it – if she had she’d go off and do something less boring instead 😀
LikeLike
Actually, I think that contraption would be a wonderful idea. Watching TV for 4 hours a day would be the healthiest thing a kid could do then. Just one Saturday morning cartoon marathon away from being an Olympic cyclist.
LikeLike
Just think – all those people on exercise bikes in all the gyms across the world – they could be saving the planet and getting fit at the same time!
thanks for commenting 🙂
LikeLike
I feel for her. So close, yet so far.
LikeLike
Hi Denmother
Yes, poor Cinnamon Sky – maybe one day she’ll get a normal life (and realise she doesn’t actually want one!)
LikeLike
ohhh the Tamborines are back! yeah!!! Poor girl, no tv for her! I hope you bring this family back for more fun later El, they are great. So of course I loved your story. I’ll peddle over here anytime! 😉
LikeLike
Hi Jackie
I took one look at that photo and thought – time for a Tambourine Tale! And yes, I’m sure they’ll be back sometime soon – not every week though – there’s too much other weird stuff in my head that I need to share 😀
LikeLike
Hi El,
I’m really loving this character, Cinnamon Sky. What a great invention, too. Imagine how in shape we all would be if we could only watch TV this way. I bet Cinnamon doesn’t give up easily. Great one!
LikeLike
HI Amy
Thanks for commenting. I’ m seriously considering marketing these pedal-powered tellies!
LikeLike
After trying so hard, too! Sorry Cinnamon Sky… but at least you have oil lamps and a cool name.
LikeLike
Thanks! Glad you liked the name 🙂
LikeLike
Gotta love a pedal-powered contraption. Good stuff and love that Cinnamon Sky name!
LikeLike
Thanks Beth – maybe we should all go pedal-powered!
LikeLike
Forget the TV–with the cost of oil going up, we may all be pedaling to keep the furnace running. Cute story.
LikeLike
Thank you. Glad you liked it and what a great idea, we could pedal our way through the recession 😀
LikeLike
Yes it certainly is hard work being green. But a great evocation of the effort. And I loved the name.
LikeLike
Thanks Lindaura – and so true. If it wasn’t hard work we’d all be a lot greener 🙂
LikeLike
I hope she has some good gears as it’s hard to get many watts cranking via pedal power.
LikeLike
HI Bill
I had a feeling this wouldn’t work in reality – luckily, in my fictional world, pedal-power is much more effective 🙂
LikeLike
I pedal a bit, and most of us normal humans would get a nice 100 watt bulb going. Guys like Lance and the Tour guys could run your TV for as long as you liked 🙂
LikeLike
Cinammond Sky, that’s so dead on for what these types would name a daughter. I think they should invest in solar. Great story. Ron
LikeLike
HI Ron
They tried solar but they live in the north of England where the sun never shines so it was a massive fail!
Thanks for commenting 🙂
LikeLike
Nice story. I wonder what other crazy contraptions Bob has set up in that house
LikeLike
I think we may see more of Bob’s contraptions before too long!
thanks for commenting
LikeLike
LOL that was great. I can just hear Bob saying, “No Cinnamon, you’ll have to wait till your mother switches the washing machine to “spin” before you use the bathroom.”
LikeLike
thanks Lyn – glad you liked it 🙂
LikeLike
Well written and entertaining.
Loved it.
LikeLike
thank you 🙂
LikeLike
Love these Tambourine stories. Oh dear, poor Cinnamon will have to go to the neighbours to watch EastEnders, or cycle more sedately once Bob has repaired his contraption.
LikeLike
Thanks Sarah Ann – I love the Tambourines too 🙂
LikeLike
ah well, that’s life ^^ really enjoyed this story… ^^ Cinnamon Sky is really one of the coolest names ever! ^^
LikeLike
Hi kz
I’m almost tempted to have more children so I can name one Cinnamon Sky – wish I’d thought of it a few years ago (not that she’d thank me when she grew up!)
LikeLike
Heehee, I love the hope and excitement that’s palpable in your story too. You could buy that extra word (to unhyphenate oil-lamps) but taking the “and” out of “Keep going; you might make enough electricity” if you wanted?
LikeLike
Do you know I looked and looked to see if I could dump a word and that ‘and’ never occurred to me! Thank you! And thanks for your lovely comments 🙂
LikeLike
You’re welcome. Word counts are my speciality, although I think it also helps to have a bit of distance that comes from not having written it.
LikeLike
A plus adorable!
LikeLike
[…] Never heard of the Tambourines? Seriously? More here, here and here! […]
LikeLike
[…] more Tambourines? Try Cinnamon Sky Sees The Light or It’s Pretty But Is It […]
LikeLike