Friday Fictioneers – Clean shot

Every week, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields (thank you, Rochelle!) hosts a flash fiction challenge, to write a complete story, based on a photoprompt, with a beginning, middle and end, in 100 words or less. Post it on your blog, and include the Photoprompt and Inlinkz (the blue frog) on your page. Link your story URL. Then the fun starts as you read other peoples’ stories and comment on them!

FF - Prompt 180606

PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot

Clean shot

Of course, I keep my ears open as to what she is doing. Even after our break-up, we still move in the same circles; I can always hear news of her activities.

Today, I wait in the gallery above the lobby of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I should have a clean shot from here. The exultant arches supporting the roof flee my presence, diminishing into the distance just as my joy has done. Why did Laura leave me?

There she is! I ready myself.

Damn! Someone’s blocking my line. Move, you idiot!

He moves.

I squeeze the shutter release.

87 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers – Clean shot”

    • Dear Josh
      Thank you for reading and commenting. Yes, we all have cameras with us all the time now. But the camera in the story is an SLR with a big lens…
      With best wishes
      Penny

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    • Dear Susan
      Thank you for reading and commenting. I’m glad you loved the phrase about the exultant arches, because I loved the arches. It’s a gorgeous building!
      With best wishes
      Penny

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    • Dear Anita
      Thank you for reading and commenting. I really like your idea that he’s her photographer, taking publicity shots. I’m afraid my idea was much more mundane, the former lover turned stalker.
      With best wishes
      Penny

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  10. I really liked how you could feel his conversation while he was busying following up with here (creepy) but felt his inner monologue and reminded me of how the process of breakups can be quite ongoing for some folks –

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    • Dear Alicia
      Thank you for reading and commenting. I’m glad you enjoyed the twist. As the reader, you have the fun of deciding whether mayhem follows eventually. My own view is that at present, although obsessive, you could describe his feelings as love; I imagine him wanting her to be happy, and wanting to share just a little in that happiness by photographing her.
      With very best wishes
      Penny

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      • I agree, no mayhem follows and it sounds so good like you describe and explain, Penny. It would be very interessting to read the story from the perspective of Laura. Did she love him once, does she love him still, why did the partnership not last, was is a real partnership?…will she be happy with his decision to love her from distance, to take part from distance?…what did she want for her and his life….hahaha…yes, the other side is always a different story and the same story at the same time. But you only can know one perspective 100%, unless you are god or the all knowing narrator…: )..I am askig myself all this questions because I think he is worth to share her life.

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    • Dear Notestowomen
      Thank you for reading and commenting.
      I’m glad you found the story suspenseful, and that you were relieved it was a camera after all!
      With best wishes
      Penny

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    • Dear Dale
      Thank you for reading and commenting. I’m glad you enjoyed the imagery. The man certainly does need to move on, but will he be able to, I wonder? He’s pretty obsessed…
      With very best wishes
      Penny

      Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Sandra
      Thank you for reading and for your helpful comment. I’m glad the ‘fleeing arches’ worked; they struck me as being such an important element of the photoprompt.
      With very best wishes
      Penny

      Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Russell
      Thank you for reading and for your kind comment. I imagine he has a pin-board filled with beautifully arranged photographs of Laura, and with a vase of flowers in front of it that he constantly refreshes.
      With best wishes
      Penny

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    • Dear Sarah Ann
      Thank you for reading and for your interesting comments.
      I suppose the sniper feel of the photo comes from the elevated and isolated position from which the photo is taken. It’s a ‘God’s-eye’ view of the crowd. Thank you for your nice remark about the arches.
      With best wishes
      Penny

      Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Bjorn
      Thank you for reading and commenting. As the author hasn’t told you, you can imagine whatever you like for the photo…In my mind, though, the jilted lover has taken (another) photo of his beloved in a situation that was characteristic for her when she was his partner. He has a shrine to her in his spare room.
      With best wishes
      Penny

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  43. You tease! I completely fell into your trap. 😀 Beautiful writing, Penny. These arches were catching my imagination as well.

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