Writing Exercise: It Was An Odd Way To Start The Day

It's been a while, but today I thought I'd publish a piece of flash fiction that I wrote Monday for one of our Writers' Group Exercises. We each picked a random sentence and had to then let our imaginations go woth the flow...

Sentence: It was an odd way to start the day...

It was an odd way to start the day but who was I to complain. After everything that had happened recently a touch of normality was needed - but it felt strange.

I say it was an odd way to start the day; waking up to the smell of coffee and pancakes simmering away was one if the best ways to start a day - but as I mentioned before, it felt strange.

For the last few years I had been held captive by Pirates off the Turkish shores. I had originally set out with my wife in our yacht for a sail through the Med, something that wasn't unhead of. We had spent many months sailing the world but on this particular occasion, our trip didn't go to plan.

Our yacht was seized, we were captured and our belongings ransacked and sold on. I spent a month or so with my wife, chained in the brig of one of their ships before we were seperated.

After that I heard rumours of the pirates asking for a ransom. The fact that payment was refused infuriated them to the core. It was something they later loved to taunt me with, the fact that no one cared for me enough to pay.

I never saw my wife again. For years I was forced into labour on board their ship. If I couldn't earn them money through a ransom I would earn my keep another way.

Eventually I was able to plan my escape. With the shores of India in sight I waited until I was unguarded, something that now happened quite often, and I slipped overboard and swam to safetly. Once there I managed to seek help and was offered a hotel room while officials done their job.

This morning, after spending my first night in a bed that wasn't floating, I woke to the smell of coffee and pancakes. It was nice but I knew I wouldn't enjoy it. I strangely missed the rough handling that usually accompanied the rising sun - and I missed my wife.

Today, I knew, was to mark the first day of my search for her. I didn't care of the outcome, whether she was dead or sold on somewhere, but I knew I couldn't rest until I knew.