Clothespin Commitment

Chasing Revery is a blog I hadn't read before but will now. It offers a challenge to writers to come up with a short, 500 word maximum, story that relates to a posted image and includes 5 randomly selected words. 


Below is the image,

and the 5 random words.

1. Task
2. Digging
3. Flea
4. Price
5. Legend

And here is my tale.

Clothespin Commitment

The old clothesline hardly saw any use anymore since Sean bought the fancy new washer-dryer combo on sale last year. These days its primary purpose was to serve as the net when the kids played volleyball in the back yard. 

Meanwhile the clothespins sat in a box on the back porch, completely ignored and nearly forgotten. But today they once again had purpose. Today they once again would be entrusted with the task of securing Sean's laundry on the line, ensuring that it remained high until dry. 

Digging through the collection of clothespins Sean selected five of the newest and strongest to keep his white bedsheet fixed to the line, to prevail against all attempts by the wind to turn the bedsheet into a beautiful white sail and blow it across the yard. 

The clothespins had but one purpose in their lives, one job that gave meaning to their existence. The five chosen to secure the bedsheet against the wind knew that nothing could deter them from their assignment. They couldn't allow the flea that chose to use the clothesline as a highway from the doghouse end of the yard to where the dog was now resting in the shade of the sheet to distract them from their duty. But when the crow landed on the line and began to peck at these curious wooden oddities, they realized the wind was not going to be their sole enemy on this fine afternoon. 

The crow fixated on the clothespin at the closest end. He pecked and prodded until finally the clothespin lost its grip and fell to the grass. The remaining four clothespins silently communicated alarm. "We must hang together, we cannot allow this creature to defeat us. No price is too large to pay in our duty to keep this sheet on the line."

The crow, deaf to the clothespin's cries of commitment, continued to peck at the next clothespin on the line. Its resistance to the crow's assault was commendable but futile. Within just a few minutes it joined its fallen comrade in the grass. Clothespins two, three and four soon suffered the same fate.

Now only one clothespin remained to carry out the duty entrusted to the original five. 

This particular clothespin was a legend among Sean's clothespins. The gales of the Summer storm two years ago tore all the laundry off the line except for a pair of Sean's underwear that this clothespin refused to release its hold on. No crow, no amount of wind would defeat it.

The crow soon realized that he had met his match. This wooden toy fought off every trick in his repertoire. Acknowledging this, he lost interest and flew away. The wind, too, seeing that it couldn't dislodge the sheet from this hero's grasp, fell to a light breeze. 

Grateful to the survivor, Sean decided this clothespin should serve a higher purpose. It's now affixed to the side of his desk and holds all of his important mail.