[Write the Story] A Tour Guide in the Florida Keys

Prompt: A Tour Guide in the Florida Keys

Words: revolver, headphones, doughnut, leopard, spaghetti, tiki hut, magma, magnetize, swampy, recital

Story

I adjusted the spaghetti strap on my tank and polished off my doughnut. My shift was about to start. With a sigh I shrugged into my jacket and buckled on my revolver. After tucking my headphones into my locker, I headed out to the tiki hut to welcome my first batch of tourists.

“Welcome to Leopard Key. I’m Ellie, your tour guide. Stay close as we head to the boat.” I swung into my recital as I herded the pasty Northerners to the airboat.

We zipped around the swampy island. I pointed out the alligators and birds along the way, as well as the vine overgrown ruins of huts and other buildings from the long-lost civilization that haunted the Key.

As I told my story, I saw shivers among my passengers. Leopard Key was an unsolved mystery built on a bed of cooled magma. No one knew where the people who built the huts went or what happened to them.

“But if you listen closely, you can hear their voices in the trees.”

“Why do you wear a gun?”

“To show you that the. Dry rocks had been magnetized.” I let the gun stick momentarily to a nearby stone. The I whipped it back. “And to protect us from ghost pirates.”

I fired past the kid and everyone screamed.

But that was one less spirit to worry about.

Word Count: 228

Written: 9/13/18

Tags: fiction, flash fiction, ghosts, Piccadilly, Pirates, Write the Story