Write the story you would not have invented by yourself.

Your brief

• Main character: A twelve-year-old who has appointed themselves the neighbourhood detective.
• Setting: A charity shop where the same object keeps being donated back.
• Relationship: One owes the other a small favour that has become strangely important.
• Weather must change: A heatwave breaks with one enormous crack of thunder.
• Amusing incident: A folding chair collapses very slowly during a serious speech.
• Complication: The obvious route is closed for a reason nobody can explain.
• Opening rule: Start with a small mistake that initially seems helpful.
• Structure: Use the Story Spine shape without writing the sentence starters.
• Dialogue: Include a truthful answer that deliberately creates a false impression.
• Ending rule: End on a line of dialogue of six words or fewer.
• Tone: Use restrained absurdity: nobody comments on the strangest detail.
• Wildcard: The protagonist must give away something they expected to keep.

Use all five words

Maximum length: 1,000 characters, including spaces.