Float Through Time | Prompt A Day -- June 2025

Author's note: I will be using @rbhayes account for my journey back into writing from hereon.

This comes a little late, but it's definitely for the month of June

shoutout to @shadowspub for the daily prompt (subscribe to her newsletter)

Fiction: A spring homecoming parade float breaks from formation, leading participants to a hidden part of town where celebrations from various time periods occur simultaneously.

Ashgrove’s Spring Parade started out much like last year – festive music filled the air and colorful confetti littered the streets while their town made floats paraded down the main street. Each float had a unique theme to them that was made by each club from the town’s school, but mostly this year it had to center on the town’s bi-centennial celebration.

Maxine marched along behind her own history club’s float, their school’s mascot, Leonhart, making up the center of what was supposed to look like a Maypole while a couple of younger kids in their school had fun circling the ribbons on the lion as the parade went on.

“Hey, I’ll just buy a drink by that lemonade stand. You want one too?”

“Mmmhm, sure.” Maxine replied distractedly, looking at her phone to check on the map and see how long they’d be in this parade.

“I’ll catch up to you guys!” Her friend wandered into the crowd to get to the makeshift stall while Maxine seemingly followed their float, half wondering when the detour for the parade happened as they turned right where there was supposed to be an alleyway that should have been too small for their float to fit right through.

Soon the music around them changed into an old-timey banjo that had Maxine looking up from her phone, left in awe at which club had the time to set this all up. Horse-drawn carriages passed by the street while a mime performed across from them, she had to step back as clowns on high stilts walked by as the kids from their float merrily jumped down and rushed towards a cotton candy making machine beside a stall making animal balloons.

Glancing down at her phone made Maxine anxious as she saw there was no signal now to refresh her maps app. She glanced to one of the members in her club who looked confused as he kept looking behind his back, saying something about trying to find his way back but ending up at the same place.

She felt a sinking feeling in her gut then, quickly heading for the younger kids in their group as she, along with some of her other peers wrestled them back up the float, a ticking sense of time creeping up on her as the music around them shifted into the merry tunes akin to a carnival.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you around dear.”

Maxine’s eyes caught that of an old lady, sitting by a clothed table just by the corner of the street, nails glinting as her wrinkled fingers waved at them as she smiled just a bit too familiarly even as their float now seemingly moved backwards on its own with all of them on it.

A feeling of dissonance hit Maxine as she was soon greeted by the previous parade music back along main street, her legs now dangled over their float as she saw her friend race back to them with two lemonades in her hands.

“Hey! Sorry that took a while, didn’t expect there to be a line for that kid’s lemonade stand.”

“Di-did you not see the whole float just get back from an alley way…?” Maxine seemed to be still in shock as she hopped down, though the cold plastic cup she wrapped her fingers around seemed to help calm her down.

“What do you mean? You guys have been here this whole time.”

Maxine’s hold on her cup loosened mid-sip as she looked back up to their float – cuz when had had their school mascot become a… tiger? Maxine broke into a cold sweat as they headed back to their school to mark the end of the parade and up ahead, a banner welcomed them back, ‘See you next Spring!’