Category Archives: Fiction

General fiction – short stories, Friday Fictioneers, 500 words, etc

Friday Fictioneers – I wonder

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#fridayfictioneers #100 words #flashfiction

Photo by Ted Strutz

And I wonder, how he ended

Abandoned in the street

Alone at the end

And I wonder, was he loved

Are his memories kind

As he wheezes one last breath

And I hope

That tender hearts prevail

Trustworthy for the trusting

And I hope

There is a heaven

Tranquil and transcendent

To harbour and hold, even metallic souls

And I wonder, can I use

Any of his parts

 Are they useful to me

 Avariciousness blinding

And I wonder when I became

An actual Ass

All about me. All about me.

Aspiration eradicated [92 words]

Thank you Rochelle Wisoff Fields for continuing to set this 100 word or less challenge. It is certainly a commitment appreciated by many. Other 100 word stories can be read here.

Simply 6 Minutes – Give it to me, Doc

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Simply 6 Minutes 11Aug21

I finally decided to give up the smokes.

Doc’s been telling me, Buddy, do it for the family.

“What family,” I said. “The missus ran off with that gorilla, Brian. My girlfriend wants to move to Cleveland. I told her, she’s on her own.

“The kids are monkeys. I can’t get any sense out of them. “

Do it for yourself, he said.

“Well, mate. I’ll try.

“I’ve never felt so tired. My back hurts, the hair’s thinned out (used to be so luxurious) and I’ve greyed up so much. I used to be a rad orange! I’m just all washed out.

“Look at the wrinkles, man!”

I can put you onto a support group, give you a script for patches, the doc said.

“Well, heck,” I told him. “I can only try. Don’t know if my heart’s in it. Don’t know what I’ll replace my friend cigarillo with. But, I’ll give it my best shot, doc.”

I look around myself now, at the verdant jungle I live in. Full of life. And think, oh to be young again. [6 minutes, 179 words]

https://christinebialczak.com/

  • Set up a timer or sit near a clock so you can keep track of the six minutes you will be writing.
  • You can either use one of the prompts (photo or written) or you can free-write.
  • Get ready and write for 6 minutes, that is it! Can you write a complete story? Can you think of a new Sonnet? Can you write 400 words? 400? 500? There are no restrictions on what kind of writing you do, but you should try to be actively writing for six minutes.
  • After you are done writing, include your word count and then post back to this page #Simply6Minutes or include your link in the comments section. Pingbacks are enabled.

Friday Fictioneers – Storm before the Calm

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Photo prompt by Dale Rogerson

We hold on tight, bodies taut with fright
The world around us shakes
Buildings scream, while wrecking wind walls rupture
Trees spear windows, glass detonates
The world shakes
The storm, it blasts and pounds, and rages, destroys
Homes are lost, cars crushed, detritus piles high
People crawl and hunker in basements, calling for mothers
The world erupts
Heavenly banks burst, demons let loose, hysterical fear abounds
Never-ending terror, noise.
We cover eyes and ears.
Who will stand at the end? Who will survive?
The world calms. Quiet returns.
We lift our eyes. And wait. (94 words)

Thank you Rochelle Wisoff Fields for continuing to set this 100 word or less challenge. It is certainly a commitment appreciated by many. Other 100 word stories can be read here.

Three Things Challenge #476

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To join this writing challenge, check out pensitivity101 for the “rules”: https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2021/01/12/three-things-challenge-476/

Your three things today are:

MISTRESS
EXPECTATION
ANYWHERE

My wildest dreams could not compete.
For such promise to come anywhere near bespectacled, bow-legged, book nerds such as myself, impossible.
I found her in a book. At least, I found the spell, temptation.
When I began to gather ingredients, it wasn’t serious.
Preparing the room was a laugh. Expectations were non-existent.
But there must have been a seed of hope. Otherwise, why did I take such care. Reading and reading again the words. Setting everything up, just right.
Candles fluttered, and curtains flapped in jerky, convulsive shudders.
Then, centre of the pentagram, there she was. Resplendent! Magnificent!
I squealed like a girl, danced on the spot, spinning, and spinning, hands to my face.
The spell promised a friend, confidante, love, and wealth. In one fair bundle.
A glimpse in the mirror as I spun past and I stopped.
Reflected back was not that  beautiful, statuesque woman, straight out of Vogue.
This was a withered hag, thin and grey, straggly hair, and toothless face, grinning at me.
“Mistress,” she croaked, a spider crawling from her mouth.

#3tc; #TTC; #pensitivity101

Take Seven – 8th January

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Take Seven 8 January 2021 by Pensitivity101

Words: Add All Basic Being Bit Determined Hidden Knew Lean Lurking Measured More Show Sneer Started There Tin Tired Treat Wobble Work

My effort below

I’m tired of feeling rejected.

The lurking depression, basically hidden but measured by how easily I feel hurt.

It all adds up. No matter how determined I am to show strength, I wobble.

I’m not alone. Many of us feel this desperation; if people only knew.

They say, it is not about you. We don’t treat you any differently.

You look at me, at my cushy world and sneer.

You don’t understand how much energy it takes to overcome the negative self-talk.

At work all you can see is how unreasonable I’m being because I’m tough. My expectations are high, of us all. Not just you.

Bit by bit I need to prove there is more to me than the lean offering I share.

I wear the tin badge of self-appointed sheriff, started so long ago; first line of defence.

Friday Fictioneers – wasted

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Friday fictioneers stuff

Photo prompt @ Jan Wayne Fields

Every time I glimpse the stuff it pains me.
I quiver with resignation of the writing dream.
Tucked away in a corner, dreams put aside. Hopes doused.
Mountains of ‘how to write’ books.
Stashes of notebooks. Such cute covers, always another one.
The many quality pens presented to ‘the author’ as hopeful gifts. Perhaps this would be the golden pen, the one that writes the bestseller.
The detritus of dreams. Corkboard, thumb tacks, paperclips. The laminator!!!
Collecting all this and not doing the work.
Reality bites. No matter how much stationery I collect, the words won’t write themselves. (98 words)

Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a story in response to a photo prompt – in 100 words or less. You can find other stories here.

Three things challenge #470 – Friendship

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Three Things Challenge #470. Today’s three things are:

LURKING, STARTED, THERE

***

I saw you lurking there, every day as I passed the tube station entrance.

At first, I was nervous. Were you a danger, I wondered?

I became curious and would glance your way a little more each time.

My curiosity gained strength. I made excuses to pass your way.

I’d Benny out for a walk. He was an excellent judge of character.

He loved you immediately. You loved each other. It made me smile.

We began to nod in recognition. Smiling at the friendship.

One day I stopped and said hello.

You shook my hand and I asked, “Do you need anything?”

“A little food, now and then. Friendship.”

Friendship was easy and food was plentiful.

We started a kerbside family, with hotpot from home, occasionally fish and chips from the chipper down the street.

You brought me out of myself, away from my own small worries. You gave me purpose other than work, bills, weight to lose.

Then one day, you had gone. Nobody knew where. I never found out.

Friendship found, then lost. Loneliness threatened.

But I looked up at the sky underneath we shared so many happy times and knew that I would be okay. I could be as lonely or as involved as I chose.

Benny and I had learned awareness and now looked outside ourselves for happiness. (222 words)

***

#3tc; #TTC; #pensitivity101https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/57168971/posts/63039

Simply 6 Minutes – the Rascal

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Simply 6 Minutes 5Jan21

I thought it was love.

He thought I was dinner.

I’d been nurturing a friendship with the little beastie for several weeks. Leaving food out, little tidbits of apple, pear and sometimes banana. Chestnuts if they were available, sometimes walnuts or brazils.

Gradually we began to move closer together until the day that I sat in the forest and he took from my hand. We kept this up for two weeks.

I would generally bring my lunch down and my sketchbook.  I’d eat and draw, and he’d sneak closer and grab whatever I’d left down. This would happen several times over a couple of hours.

The day came when he climbed into my lap and then the day that after eating out of my hand, in my lap he stayed for a nap. We were buddies. We were pals.

Then I thought this was going so well, I’d try offering from my own mouth. He wasn’t too sure about that one. He wasn’t confident about being on his hind legs reaching up to my face. He’d try but get shy about it and wander off.

But he kept looking over his shoulder and circling. He was clearly pondering the problem.

At last, he made a decision and climbed into a tree, hanging on to a low branch. He screeched until I came over to see what he wanted. I stood there talking and trying to calm him. He kept at it, until I came closer still. I kind of got what he wanted (I thought) and put the nut between my teeth.

He quietened. Then reached slowly forward, getting closer to the nut, being held in my teeth.

Then he jumped onto my face and began biting and scratching and screeching. He held onto my nose with his tough little teeth.

I was screaming like an animal in a trap, which effectively I was. Running around and screaming and pulling the little ratfink away from my face, but he just held on. Then I grabbed a boulder.

Guess the rest! Yes, squashed little buddy and yours truly with a broken nose and bleeding face.

And I will never again trust a cute and cuddly woods creature. (6 minutes)

  1. Set up a timer or sit near a clock so you can keep track of the six minutes you will be writing.
  2. You can either use one of the prompts (photo or written) or you can free-write.
  3. Get ready and write for 6 minutes, that is it! Can you write a complete story? Can you think of a new Sonnet? Can you write 400 words? 400? 500? There are no restrictions on what kind of writing you do, but you should try to be actively writing for six minutes.
  4. After you are done writing, include your word count and then post back to this page #Simply6Minutes or include your link in the comments section. Pingbacks are enabled.

Three Things Challenge #461

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The three things today are:

BRING, GAVE and CONTRIBUTION

*** *** ***

Bring home the bacon. There’s a designation of duty well established.

I gave, and I gave, and I gave … designation of another sort. Remarked and reflected upon.

With many a maligned partner asking, “what has your contribution been to this relationship?”

If I’m honest, my generational biases could come into play if I were the reader, and not the writer. At first glance. Before further analysis.

I might assume that …

The husband is the bacon bringer

His unappreciated wife, the giver; and that

Either of them could be the whining and unhappy partner. The supplier of the ingredient, or the one cooking said pork.

Whichever is the provider.

I reflect on how easy it is to disenfranchise and discriminate by pigeonholing people, stumbling into an abyss by misuse of language, by interpretation.

Filtered by perception, generation, gender, colour, circumstance. Country of birth.

Through eyes of the child.

Words should bring clarity. They often bewilder. Obfuscate.

Even with the best of intention.

Three Things Challenge

Three Things Challenge #456

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The three things for today are: CLOCK, SNORE, TREE
*****

I was caught by surprise, snoring on the job.

The radar clocked him flying past at 140km/hr.

I woke up fast, flipped the flashers, turned on the siren.

And pulled out of the highway rest area, throwing up gravel as tires grabbed dirt.

He had a significant lead. Was barely visible ahead.

My patrol car was built for the chase, and I was gaining every second.

Then a bang. An explosion really.

And there was smoke, and debris blasted over the bitumen.

Then the mangled car wrapped around the tree.

Three Things Challenge