Hello all and merry belated holiday season! This December has been incredibly busy for me, as I just graduated undergrad, and I was so busy with that and my part-time job that I almost missed the December challenge this year. However, I am intending to complete it as always, as behind as a I am. I spaced on sending Hades my prompts until December 3rd, so I used a random word generator for my first three prompts. I imagine they might be a bit shorter this year; I'm trying to get them done faster since I'm so wildly behind.
1. Orange
Mary Watson balanced a small orange in her hand, gazing upon it with a strange wonder. John Watson paused from where he had been stuffing stockings, knit by Mrs. Hudson, with tops, jacks, a packet of nuts, an apple, a peppermint stick, and oranges. He and Mary had completed seven of the seventeen they were working on for the Irregulars, and setting aside extra materials to stuff into the stockings going to the boys they knew had siblings who they would want to share with.
"My love?" he inquired. Mary started. "My apologies, darling, I was miles away." She tapped the orange with a smile and slipped it into a stocking. "When I was young, I often had stockings like these. The oranges were so sweet."
Implicit was the sentiment that Mary had often had oranges and little else during the time after her father's disappearance, where she had no family and little wealth. He loved her all the more for refusing to say as much. Mary often walked a line between pride and optimism about her past. It was like her to remark on the sweetness of the fruit instead of the poverty it represented. He handed her one.
"Not so sweet as you, I'm sure," he said, and kissed her temple as she began to peel.
