Writer Unblocked

By Rachel H Grant

Gnomes were magical, they brought good luck. Or so I thought whimsically as I placed my two new trophies in the garden. One on the rockery, and one by the back door.

The next morning I was startled to find the gnome by the back door gone – now in the middle of the lawn. The rockery gnome had moved, too. He was higher up, standing valiantly astride a stone, his impish eyes surveying the garden with glee. Some prankster had been at work. I placed the gnomes back in their rightful places.

The morning after I awoke stiff and sore, to find myself lying on the lawn. In alarm, I looked up. There at the kitchen window, watching me with a sick smirk on his face, was a human-sized gnome. In panic I tried to rise, but could not. I looked down at my small clay body in its green tunic, and then back to the grinning gnome. He winked.