writing Prompt: The smell of smoke was strong in the air.

Have you ever had a morning where you are on time but everything else conspires to make you late? I actually woke before my alarm today. Then things needed my attention. So now I am late. Such is life, but at least it is Friday. So let’s get starter. Timers at the ready and off we go.

I may take a little time after this to figure out where this is going. The gnomes intrigue me.

Friday, November 17^th: The smell of smoke was strong in the air.

The smell of smoke was strong in the air.  I looked around but could see no sign of fire.  In fact, my boots were welded to the ground as I searched the surrounding area for any signs of fire.  My eyes ran over the ground and up and down every tree, rock and decorative gnome until I could assure myself that there were no fires nearby. 

I swallowed back my own racing heartbeat as I saw no signs.  It had been three months since I raced the wildfires to escape and I thought I had a handle on the nightmares.  ‘But apparently only when I am asleep.’

My subconscious was doing better than my conscious mind.

I took a deep breath the scent of fire was gone and no one seemed to notice my mini panic attack. I continued moving forward, nos slightly lagging behind the others.  ‘Let’s hear it for the self absorbed.’

I was fairly certain that unless I ran off screaming into the night waving my hands above my head none of these three would notice any changes.  They were not ones for subtle clues and not really ones to pay attention to anything that didn’t directly affect them. 

‘Maybe my screaming fit would only draw attention if I threw something at them.’ I thought.  I contemplated that for a few moments and then a thought hit me  My brain shaking off its own self absorption to register something my eyes tried to tell it.

‘Wait…gnomes?”

What were garden gnomes doing in the woods? No one lived out here.  A prank maybe?  I looked to the shadows but there were no gnomes to be seen.  There were still trees and rocks but no gnomes.

Had I imagined them?

If so, I was farther gone than I thought.  My steps took me forward but I was still well behind the rest of the group.  Not only had my pause to look for signs of fire slowed me, but my steps were more cautious, less hurried.  I knew they wanted this errand done.  They considered sending an entire team out to an abandoned farmstead to make sure it was still abandoned a waste of time. 

This land had once been populated by farms and filled with fields.  Agriculture had produced only subsistence levels of growth and industry was a far more lucrative and stable option when it came to town.  The year after the factories were built a series of droughts followed by floods took out many of the barely scratching by farms.  The state purchased them and let the forest return, swallowing up the field and surrounding the houses.