Underground Writers Network Forum Challenge of the Week - #7

Le Parisiene Motel
Year: 1943
Location: France, region of Bourgogne
Historical situation: World War II

This week�s writing challenge consists in creating a short story or a plot about a cheap youth hostel situated in a small town in France, during World War II.

The rules:

1. No more than 500 words
2. You have to include a subtext of one of the following words:

*pain
*love
*jealousy
*greed
*loss
*shock

Remember to post the stories/links here so that we can create a list, and vote at the end of the week for the best.

Have fun!

Just to make sure we are all on the same page ;)

Quote:


Hope that helps ;)

The subtext suggestions are the stumbler. It is very difficult to lay these concepts into a subtext revolving around a hub of the french underground during the WWII era. Far easier would be concepts like honor, courage, betrayal, fear, hatred, sorrow, etc... This is going to take some serious thought. I should have one by the end of the day, I hope. The operative word in this writer's challenge has got to be CHALLENGE.

My Name is Pierre

My name is Pierre Lemonde. I am only fourteen, but I feel like I�ve witnessed a lifetime of pain and death. I can still remember the day Paris fell. The Earth shook as Panzers and Tigers crushed the cobbled streets, and the SS took charge of our beautiful home. My father was a judge in the fifth ward.. they took him in for questioning� he never returned. We fled to the country, where mother died of a terrible lung infection.

It is easy to ascertain where a young man like myself might place blame, so one frosty evening, I entered Le Parisienne Motel and began my initiation into death. Each German I kill makes me feel like the regulator of justice. I know that his children will know my pain and it makes me feel better even if only for a moment. I live for those moments� hell, truth be told, I�d die for one of those moments. My commander, a man named Etienne Montclair, says that the children of war make the best fighters. Maybe he�s right.

I sit here, in Le Caf� Dubois, staring at the mustering rabble of the German occupiers. They have barracked themselves in the hotel across the street, and meet every morning in the square to assign patrol. I listen and write on my arm with a piece of grease pencil. The hot coffee warms my core and steels my resolve. Etienne says that the Americans are massing an assault that will liberate us. Then what? Who will I lay to the grave? I need the death.. It gives me life. As I write, I can�t help but think that this world has changed so much, and is due to change so much more, that boys like me will have no place in it.

Etienne always touts the importance of information. �If we know their patrols, we can move freely,� he says through his blue cloud of stale tobacco smoke.

Truthfully, in my mind, the only way to truly move freely is to have no patrols� and that is but a simple matter. I toss aside the pencil and stand. I plunge my hand in my pocket and feel the reassuring weight of my grenade. A smile I can�t stifle creeps to my face as I approach the muster with a hot cup of coffee in one hand, and death in the other. It�s sort of ironic.. Life and death.

�Captain, it�s a cold morning,� I say as I hand the cup to him and ease out the pin in my other hand.

�Show me your hands, you brat,� he says. God, his accent is nauseating.

I remove my hand from my pocket .. It�s empty. I smile and hand him the steaming cup, then offer him the hug of death. The resistance will have an easy time of it today, and somewhere in Germany a child will cry. The last smile I will know crests my lips just before....




word count is 500 counting the title
Subtext is *loss*

Mine is up:

I hope I did this right. I never knowingly used subtext.

Mine is 492 words and I used pain/shock as my subtext



Kate

Riding on the Bus

here's mine. goes a bit into the subject of human (greed), hate. (love), and (pain). Just small parts but I think it works. 367 words.

hope it fits.

That's a very moving story you've got there ...

I'm so sorry! I misread the requirements for the contest, I'm afraid my entry doesn't follow the rules (didn't write about the hotel, just the subtext). my bad!

I was out yesterday, and wishing I had a way to post a bulletin to let everyone know. (Talking to Charlie about it)

We didn't receive too many votes here, but some people emailed me their votes, so I am posting the new "winner" today.

As as result of this challenge, I am writing my first historical fiction novel, lol. I'll post the plot later and ask you what you guys think :)

Hope you are all having a wonderful day!

Awesome Valarie! Can't wait to read it. As per suggestion from Yira I am seriously thinking of taking "Simone" and making it a full novel. I have to say I am very excited to be chosen and thanks to everyone who voted for me, read my piece, and rated it. Thanks a bunch.

Kate B.

Well, late but here goes. I'd love to hear any thoughts you may have on this one :)