A Grammar Lesson

Lie and Lay

Photo by the author of Peter Blume’s Maine Coast from The Minneapolis Institute of Art

This story was published in Medium’s Fiction Shorts. It is a Drabble, precisely 100 words. Today’s word that must be used is laid.

*

Alan?

Ms. Fortune: Is that a cat or a dog laying on the lady?

Lying.

I would never lie to you, Ms. Fortune.

No, Alan. You should have asked if a cat or dog was lying on the lady. And it’s a dog.

Jenna?

Who laid the dog on the lady, Ms. Fortune?

What do you think?

The dog was laying on that orange box, waiting for the lady who was laying on her bed.

Lying, Jenna.

Not since this morning, to my mom, Ms. Fortune.

Bill.

I’m feeling sick. Can I go lay down in the cloakroom?

Lie, Bill.

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