Wow. My brain hurts.
A man, a plan, a canal, Panama.
A lipogram is a story or poem or novel, in some cases, where a single letter is omitted.
And again, all of these prompts are taken from: The 3 am Epiphany They do not belong to me.
122. E-Less
Write a story of an older brother or sister’s terrible fear about a younger sibling. Do not use the letter “e” in the story at all (as in never). You may, as an alternative choose to avoid some other common letter like “a”, “i", “o,” “n”, “t”, or “s”, for reasons organically tied to the story you’re working on. You may want to make up some prewriting lists of common words that don’t have the letter ‘e’ - sturdy functional verbs of movement and the irregular past tenses of these verbs (because you can’t use the -ed ending). 600 words.
His family is crazy.
T’s always known it. Atwoods don’t do sanity.
T thinks a lot about his baby bro at first.
All tiny and small. Born small. Tiny.
T’s not that old, but T’s smart for his class.
Ryan’s such a tiny baby. A boy.
T has always thought about having a baby bro. His pals all had siblings.
T is going to watch out for Ryan.
Ryan can almost call for him now. Ry was small and tiny, but was smart.
Ryan will twist up his tiny fists and wail until TJ would find him.
Ryan just can’t stop crawling around.
But his mom just can’t always hack it.
So T will wash him up at night and hold his milk and wrap him in soft things so Ryan won’t cry as much.
But occasionally, Ryan just can’t stop crying.
T didn’t want Ryan to cry. T didn’t want Ryan to annoy his dad. His dad got angry fast.
But Ryan was just a tiny baby. A child.
But T was too.
T didn’t want his baby bro to grow up thinking that all dads would shout as loud as his Dad.
But T was glad that his dad would only just shout. Ryan was just a baby. So far, Ryan was only victim to shouts.
T isn’t afraid of his daddy.
But T knows that Ryan is afraid of him.
Ryan will suck in his tiny lungs, holding air in until his daddy stops shouting.
Ryan knows to shut up if his daddy shouts.
T wants his baby bro to grow up strong and smart and fast.
It’s a Monday and Ryan looks up at him and winds his tiny fists in his gray shirt.
“Tray,” Ryan says, smiling and flashing a tiny tooth.