The playground in Bright Rock was devoid of children, as was the dwarven town itself. When the gold mine dried up, all of the miners had logically left for the newly opened diamond mine in Glitterdale.
Elga nostalgically wandered around the playground. She had raised her children here in Bright Rock. Her son had loved the pebble pit and the wobbly balancing rocks. When he’d grown up, his daughter’s favourite things were the boulder tunnels and the polished rock slide.
Walk finished, she returned home, grabbed her bags, and finally began the journey to follow her family to Glitterdale.
This story was inspired by the Carrot Ranch prompt for March 13, 2023: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about a place where children once played. It can be a field, a playground, or any place that attracted children to play. But now it is empty. Abandoned. Go where the prompt leads!
Elderberry Tea 
It was hard not to go dark with this prompt!
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Oh, I know! The first thing I thought of when I read the prompt was the horror trope of something spooky happening in an empty playground at night (I actually did write a spooky story with that type of scene before – https://elderberrytea.wordpress.com/2020/10/14/finders-keepers/ ) I wanted to do something different in response to this prompt through. Well, I guess this town could be called a ghost town… But it’s not the spooky sort.
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An empty playground is a sad thing! Nice story!
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Thanks! 🙂
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Perfect blend of wistful sadness and tentative hope for the future 🙂 Prompt could get quite dark like the many abandoned amusement parks or Chernobyl Pripyat playground, but you handled this beautifully! ❤
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Thanks Tom 🙂
Watching videos of people exploring abandonned theme parks or closed down malls is quite interesting to me, but those liminal spaces definitely have a different vibe.
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Thirty years ago… there was more farmland between our home and the city…
Not so much now. *sigh*
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Urban sprawl is an unfortunate development as time goes on. I’d be saddened too.
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We are lucky… being on the edge of neighborhood with land that can’t be build on… mini wildlife area. It really isn’t that much natural space, but enough to attract some birds and other animals.
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That sounds quite nice! At least it’s something, even if it’s small.
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It is… ~Thanks.
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There are so many small towns that have gone through this over the ages. It was a good balance of nostalgia and hope.
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Thanks, Kate! 😊
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Poignant. Sounds like it was time to move on.
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Thanks, Norah. Sometimes that is what is best.
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It is.
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Hopefully Glitterdale will have good places for the children to play. But how hard to leave a place of such long memories.
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I’m sure they set up a new playground there right away. They maybe even have some newer styles of play equipment that they bought from the gnomes. Doesn’t make moving any easier though.
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zactly
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Here’s hoping Glitterdale will be a nice fresh start!
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I’m sure it’s going to hold just as many fond memories after a while.
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