I hope everyone is having a good week so far. Are you feeling creative? Is your muse active? Scroll down to read Friday Night in the Box or read below for this week’s writing prompt.

The Muse on Monday challenge is to write a story of your own based on the prompt below. You can submit it using this link for a chance to have it published next Monday when the new prompt comes out. You just need to submit it before 12:00pm EST next Sunday.

If you have an idea for a prompt for a future week, please send it to me at greenwalledtreehouse@gmail.com! It can be in this form or anything else.

(click the headings of each prompt for a description of it.)

Story Prompt: August 9, 2021

SETTING: any

CHARACTERS: a lazy cowboy

CONFLICT: any

GENRE: comedy

TONE: dark

OTHER ELEMENTS: any

And now, a story based on last week’s prompt:

• Setting: inside a box
• Genre: romance
• Other Elements: pineapple, a couch

Friday Night in the Box

The work is finished for the day, the scientific instruments shut down and stored. The Box, as we call it, feels relaxed as the hum of machines and computers fade.

The weekend is here, but we never go out. We can’t.

The kitchen is only two steps from the couch, so I hot-finger carry a bowl of microwaved chili to the small table in front of the couch and put a plate of dried pineapple next to it. Our supply is almost gone, but it’s Friday. We deserve a treat.

You walk over, sock feet echoing a little on the metal floor. You sit down and lean against me and we just sit for a moment. We’ve worked hard this week and for a moment, we just be and enjoy sitting together at rest. Then you take a deep breath and pull the table towards us. I hand you a spoon, then reach over and with a remote, dim the lights.

“So, what should we watch?” you ask.

Outside the window in front of us, the darkness glows with the pulsing phantoms of hundreds of jellyfish continuing their eternal dance two miles below the surface of the ocean.

I grin. “Whatever’s on, I guess.”

Good luck and happy writing! Come back next Monday for another story prompt.