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White pelicans are gregarious. What one does, they all do. The pelicans were on my neighbour’s lawn, all standing still as statues... about twenty of them. I had never seen a pelican up close and thought to go and get my trusty Canon camera. Before I could take a step, I saw Tom.

Tom came busting out his front door, red-faced and yelling ...”shoo.. shoo...get away..get off the lawn!

”Where’s my gun?” He looked back knowing his wife would be right behind him.

“I don’t want bird crap all over the lawn. One good blast with the old 20 gauge should scare them off.”

White-faced Debra obeyed her loud boisterous husband as she had done many times. Soon she was in the doorway with the old gun praying it was empty.

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End of 1st Prompt.

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These were the kind of crazy antics Tom would do that had embarrassed their son and he had moved out of his parent’s home in Maine to Nebraska.

The neighbours whispered among themselves,

”We really think that Jonny doesn't want to move from Nebraska to Maine” but being so far away they knew he worried for his mother’s safety.

Now the whole neighbourhood was outside, shaking their heads in disbelief when they saw Tom shouting at the birds and waving his hands wildly around.

Jonny had been a caring son and protected his mother many times from Tom’s untimely rages often fueled by alcohol.

Jonny had wanted his mother to leave his father and stay with him in Nebraska after he saw Tom was becoming worse. There would be peace at times and everything seemed normal then all hell would break lose when Tom gave in to his demons.

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End of 2nd Prompt

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Tom and Debra were proud of their son and happy he had secured a veterinarian position in Nebraska. Tom still had the pen he brought back from their trip. He managed to get a fine pen free from Jonny’s clinic last Easter. He felt it was the least he could have after the cost of the long drive to visit their son.

Jonny pulled into the driveway with his shiny new car as the shot ran out. He gasped at the thin fragile figure in the doorway holding the shotgun.

“What on earth have you done, Mother?”

He could hear the beating of wings as the pelicans took flight and, beneath their shadows, his father lying motionless on the grass.

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End of 3rd prompt

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My Weekend Freewrite. The prompt for each section is in bold typing.

Check @mariannewest’s post Here for more info.

I didn’t have a photo of a Pelican. Above photo is of a Great Blue Heron I had photographed one summer.

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art and flair courtesy of @PegasusPhysics

#thealliance