She’s dreaming, but she can hear them rattling inside the powder box. Grandma’s button box. She feels them between her fingers, sees them with her dream-eyes. Bone ones, feather-light carved wood ones, painted china ones, cloth-covered ones. Stamped brass and pearly shell.
They used them as coins for betting, learning arithmetic playing “21.” They played a bastardization of marbles and tiddlywinks with them. But she loved it most when Grandma told their stories.
“This one came off your Great-Aunt Alice’s wedding suit. She married a rake, let me tell you, we all thought he’d never be more than a fancyman…”
Every week at the Ranch, Charli Mills hosts the Rough Writers and Friends flash fiction challenge. This week’s prompt: “In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story that includes buttons. You can use the word plural or singular in different expressions, or focus on how buttons relate to a story. Go where the prompt leads.”
99 Monkeys 
Loved the descriptions, could feel the buttons as well as see them. And then the stories gave them meaning. Cool. Glad you crawled out of the cave and over to the Ranch.
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Thanks! It’s good to be out of there.
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You had me at every description of each button! These are among some I recall finding in the desert. Not cloth-covered or wooden, though. I once found a large abalone button. Do all Nevada kids grow up learning to play 21, lol? Great flash, Debra. I enjoyed the character of the aunt mentioned, too.
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My grandparents used to take us out to ghost towns, and buttons were treasures. So was broken china pieces–grandpa would cut out parts of the pattern to make into earrings and necklaces. Man, I miss those days so much.
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I would love to relive those adventures! I’m sure we must have crossed trails at some time. Did you ever get up to Tuscarora? My dad went to grade school there before it became a ghost town. His dad worked a nearby ranch. I love broken glass and china, too.
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