100 Words #1

The other day, I felt inspired to do a little writing exercise: the hundred-word story. I recall doing stuff like this in high school and really enjoying it. I think I'm pretty good at setting a scene, if I say so myself, so this kind of thing suits me well!

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Before the tramp could see the train, he could hear it coming. Not the rumble of the engine or the click-clack of the wheels, but the vibrations traveling through the rails. The steel hummed and twanged like something alive, reaching frequencies that made his teeth hurt. It reminded him of his youth on the farm, watching rabbits and voles fleeing the thresher that was chewing up their field. He stretched and picked up his pack. The train came, the pitch of its horn bending in his ears as it approached - and passed.

"Oh," he said sadly, "not stopping today."