I haven't done anything on this story in a while due to lack of ideas. However, I came up with a challenge for myself. I recently found a list of one hundred writing prompts on Tumblr. Using a random number generator, I picked three and tried to create a short story out of them. And this is the result (in case you care, I put the three prompts in bold).
Don't hate on me too badly if you don't like it. This was just an experimental piece.
Family Portrait
"I just want one nice picture of us!"
"Lightnin', I've got enough to do today as it is."
"Doc, you knew I was planning on doing this today! You were there when I booked the photographer three weeks ago!"
The Hudson Hornet shrugged. "Things come up all the time when you're a doctor. What if there's an accident in town? You expect the patient to wait while we take this damn picture?"
"Of course not!" Lightning countered. "But your paperwork and stuff can wait, can't they? We do this right, it shouldn't take any more than five minutes."
"Five minutes I could be spent doin' that mountain of paperwork." Doc gestured to it. "Or plannin' for your next race."
Lightning groaned. "Fine! It's not like I was expecting you to understand!" He started to drive off.
The rest of the residents of Radiator Springs and the forklift photographer were all waiting over at Flo's for Lightning and Doc.
"Where is Doc?" Luigi wanted to know.
"He doesn't wanna come", Lightning muttered angrily. "He doesn't get that this is important to me."
"Can we hurry up?" a bored-sounding Fudge pleaded. "I don't wanna wear this stupid dress more than I have to!"
"Fudge!" Luigi scolded her.
"Uh... Are we still doing this?" the photographer questioned.
Lightning had been about to respond with, "Yeah. Let's just do it." However, he couldn't get the words out. Glancing back at the clinic, he knew there was someone missing.
"You know what? I don't wanna do this without Doc."
He raced back over to the clinic.
Sarge shook his hood. "It's hopeless. He's been here a year. He ought to know by now that Doc doesn't care for this kind of thing."
"I don't know", Sally voiced her opinion. "Stickers can be very persuasive. And this is very important to him. He might just pull it off."
"While we wait", Flo spoke up, "why don't we have some drinks?"
"Wait, Fudgie!" Luigi grabbed hold of his daughter before she could follow Flo and wrapped a nearby towel around her. 'I don't want you getting your drink on your beautiful dress."
"Doc!" Lightning called out, barging through the doors of the Hudson Hornet's garage after finding that he wasn't in his clinic.
Doc had his rear bumper to his protégé. If he heard him (and he probably did), then he made no acknowledgement of it.
Lightning came closer, only to cough as some dust flew into his mouth. "Gosh!" he sputtered. "How can you stand this mess?"
"I thought you were takin' your family portrait", Doc replied, still not looking at him.
"Look, I know you don't understand, but this is important to me. I want you there!"
Doc looked his way quizzically. "What makes you think I don't understand?"
"Come on, Doc! You've never really cared about family stuff!" Lightning accused. "When we have birthday parties, you're always there, but not really there, if you know what I mean! Plus, who could forget about how you just left Thomasville? You just don't care about the people who care about you!"
Doc was silent for a while.
"I train you for your races, don't I?"
"Yeah..."
"I look after you all when you're sick or you've hurt yourself, don't I?"
"Yeah..."
"As town judge, I make sure you're all safe, don't I?"
"Yeah..."
"And you're tellin' me I don't care?"
Lightning didn't know what to say.
"I know I don't like to socialise very much, but I do care about you and the rest of this town."
"I- I'm sorry, Doc", Lightning apologised. "I guess I was just mad because it means a lot to me that you're in this picture."
"Why is this picture so important to you, rookie?" Doc wondered. "I didn't know you were so sentimental."
"Well, I guess I'm just grateful to have a family as great as this. I mean, with my parents always being so busy with work and all, I just like having this amazing group of people who are there for me."
He looked out the window at Flo's where everyone was parked, having drinks, talking and laughing merrily.
Doc couldn't help smiling as he followed the younger race car's gaze. "We're both pretty lucky, hot shot."
"Just answer this one question and I won't ever bother you again."
"What's that?"
"Do you regret leaving Thomasville?"
Doc thought about that for a moment.
"Yes and no", he answered finally. "Of course, I miss my friends there and I've since realised I was bein' selfish when I left... But on the other tyre, I'm happy with how things turned out here."
Lightning smiled.
"Well", Doc announced finally, "if this picture is so important to you, let's get this over with."
Lightning couldn't help laughing at his mentor's teasing tone.
"'Bout time y'all showed up!" was the way Mater greeted the two race cars when they arrived at Flo's.
"Okay!" the photographer called out. "Are we ready to do this?"
"Uh-oh!" Fudge cried before anybody could say anything. Right away, everyone could see what her problem was.
"Oh, Fudgie!" Guido exclaimed, using napkins to wipe the spilt lemonade off her dress.
"It was an accident!" the six-going-on-seven-year-old insisted.
"You need to be more careful, Fudge!" Luigi shook his hood in disapproval. "Your beautiful dress!"
"Never mind, Luigi." Lightning scooped Fudge up. "I'll get her changed."
"This was not exactly what I had in mind..." Luigi informed Lightning, eyeing his daughter dressed in jeans, sneakers and a red 95 T-shirt.
"Come on, Luigi!" Doc piped up. "She's perfect just the way she is!"
Fudge beamed.
Now that everyone was gathered and ready, the photographer began guiding them all on where they should be.
"Okay! Smile!"
Everyone smiled and the photographer snapped the picture.
Lightning had promised Doc that if the photo was good, it should only take five minutes. Well, the first photo was perfect. Yet, the process took the whole day. Why? There were so many ideas on where and when to take great pictures. They took a couple down by the waterfall in the glow of the afternoon sun. Willy's Butte provided a good location too. Lightning had had the idea of heading up to the Wheel Well at sunset, so off they went. Sally wanted to wait until it got dark to get pictures under the neon lights of the town, so they did that too.
Everyone expected Doc to grow bored or annoyed or both. However, the Hudson Hornet enjoyed it as much as anybody. Why? Because he got to spend the whole day with the most important cars (and human!) in his life. For ages, he couldn't believe how much the red race car had changed since his arrival in Radiator Springs. Though, this was one of those times he thought about how Lightning's arrival had changed him. And, in Doc's eyes, there was no better way to spend the one-year anniversary of that fateful day.
Doc never did get round to his paperwork that day, but he didn't mind one bit. It had truly been a perfect day. Then, just when he thought it couldn't have been better, when he returned home that night, he discovered that the mail truck had been. And there was a letter from Smokey waiting for him.
My honest opinion on this one? It's not amazing, but considering how quickly I wrote it and I didn't really plan it in advance, it's not half bad.
Let me know what you think.
