Friday Fictioneers – Broken Threads

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 - Broken Threads 190327

PHOTO PROMPT© Sandra Crook

Broken Threads

Martha squatted in the only room that was still intact in the derelict house. Even the druggies had gone, leaving behind their mess and their stink. Martha moaned as the muscles of her abdomen tightened.

The Loom of Creation faltered. The Creator fused broken threads together, working frantically to keep the weave continuous. A spindle of charcoal thread was empty. Consternation! He had no more of that colour! He seized the nearest spool and spliced in a gold thread.

Martha, exultant, hugged her flawless new-born to her breast. She rose up and walked to the hospital. Her child would live!

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54 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers – Broken Threads”

    • Dear Abhijit
      Thank you for reading and commenting. She is happy to be a mother. I doubt whether it’s an unalloyed joy to be the parent of a golden child, though.
      With very best wishes
      Penny

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    • Dear Rochelle
      Thank you for reading and for your kind words. I did rather try to cram everything in, I’m afraid! I don’t often try my hand at fantasy, so it was a bit of an adventure for me.
      Shalom
      Penny

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    • Beautiful story Penny. The Creator’s intervention seems to have altered her world and outlook for the better. I like the ambiguity og the abdominal cramping. I was sure she was on the verge of vomiting from the smell, but instead it was something much finer and more upliftiing. I read it not as a fantasy, but as God intervening and what a nice way to portray a deity, as a weaver. Who was it, the Fates in Greek mythology, who were always measuring, spinning or snipping threadsthe thread of life?

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  9. Penny, so that’s why things happen the way they do! Next you can write a story about the thread delivery person who wants to make things easier on humans and only delivers gold and silver threads. 🙂 Nice story.
    -David

    Liked by 1 person

  14. A lovely outcome for Martha, though I worry slightly that my fate could depend entirely on how much of the “good” colours the man upstairs has left when he starts fiddling with my life thread… 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Ali
      Thank you for reading and commenting. Yes, the story does make our fate seem a little capricious, doesn’t it? Although I wonder whether it’s any more capricious than the world of the blind watchmaker and the selfish gene.
      With very best wishes
      Penny

      Liked by 2 people

    • Dear Francine
      Thank you for reading, and for your very kind comments. I’m delighted that you chose to comment on the contrast between the natural and the supernatural, because I tried very hard to ground the story in the real, difficult, often sordid world, while allowing for unexpectedly beautiful outcomes.
      With very best wishes
      Penny

      Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Alice
      Thank you for reading and commenting.
      I really appreciate comments for all sorts of reasons. The main reason of course is that I can learn from them how to be a better writer; I’ve had some super help from my FF friends, and I’m very grateful for it. But another enjoyable facet of receiving comments is the light they shed on the implicit content of a story.
      I deliberately wrote the story so that any significance was down to the reader, but, believe it or not, I’d never thought of the new-born as a hero. I’d been looking at the gold thread as virtue – or perhaps simple sheer good luck – but a hero…It’s an excellent reading of my story, and I’m delighted you commented!
      With very best wishes
      Penny

      Liked by 1 person

  27. Lovely idea, and well executed. One little life made whole – I’m wondering if the Creator’s loom can do the same for the planet, which seems to be unravelling faster than any of us can mend it.

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  28. Just wondering if there’s still trouble ahead for that little one – a slip in the thread can lead to complications. Lovely writing, Penny, from the grubby birthplace to the frantically spinning creator. Fantastic

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  29. Wonderful story weaving with mythical proportions. If only the charcoal thread would be replaced with the gold thread for everyone…

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