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 on your page. Link your story URL. Then the fun starts as you read other peoples’ stories and comment on them!
PHOTO PROMPT © DALE ROGERSON
Last Run of the Day
It’s dark. The streetlights are on. My friends have all gone home for tea, but I can’t resist the lure of the snow. One last run on the sled.
The air smells cold. A car slithers down the road below. I dive onto the sled. The track is icy. This is my fastest yet!
I jam my leg into the snow, to pull the sled round and stop it.
Nothing happens. I can’t get traction, and I’m racing towards the road.
Time to bail out, arms and legs akimbo.
Safe in a gorse bush, I hear a crash from below…
Autumn Leaves 
Oh… I think his run-away sled crashed into the car below…….
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Dear Ivor
Thank you for reading and commenting. I’m afraid you’re probably right!
With very best wishes
Penny
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wow, is he in big trouble or what. At least he didn’t get hurt
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Dear Larry
Thank you for reading and commenting. Oh yes, the sledder is in big trouble now! I foresee months without pocket money…
With best wishes
Penny
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You evoked the winter scene well. I loved “the air smelled cold”.
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Dear Neil
Thank you for reading and for your kind words. Description always works best when taken from life, and I remember such childhood sledding very vividly!
With best wishes
Penny
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This sounds like a true story, Penny!
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Dear Josh
Thank you for reading and commenting. How flattering that you should think it a true story…
With very best wishes
Penny
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Oops. I’m sure this scenario is quite common. Hope no one got hurt.
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Dear Tannille
Thank you for reading and commenting. The gorse bush was fairly prickly…
With best wishes
Penny
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Hope no one was hurt by the runaway sled! Good story.
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Dear Iain
Thank you for reading and commenting. I hope you’re right – that sled was going pretty fast!
With best wishes
Penny
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Dear Penny,
Oh the impact of one decision gone awry. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle
Thank you for reading and commenting. I should imagine the driver was even more shaken up than the sledder!
With very best wishes
Penny
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Aouch! There is very little you can do on ice, except bail out. I am sure the car drivers is furious, best if he crawls deeper into the bush.
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Dear James
Thank you for reading and commenting. You, too, have experienced sledding on ice I suspect!
With very best wishes
Penny
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I had an experience like that when I was sliding downhill on a tea tray and a tractor appeared! Nice one Penny.
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Dear Keith
Thank you for reading and commenting. Your close encounter with a tractor sounds scary!
With best wishes
Penny
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it must be exhilarating and fun until the accident happened. 🙂
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Dear Plaridel
Thank you for reading and commenting. You’re right, I’m sure, that it was exhilarating and fun. I’m not sure the sledder was upset by the crash; it was just one of those things that happen…
With best wishes
Penny
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A few hundred quid’s worth of damage to the car, a broken sled and ripped to pieces by gorse. I bet it was fun right up until the end, though 🙂
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Dear Ali
Thank you for reading and commenting. Great fun, I fancy, and worth any amount of gorse scratches!
With very best wishes
Penny
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I hope it was just his sled that crashed and that no other vehicle as involved. I’d bet he’ll probably run home, hide and wait to see if any repercussions rear their head.
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Dear Fatima
Thank you for reading and for your perceptive comment. I think you’ve read the sledder’s mind. As Brer Rabbit said, “Lie low and say nuffin’!”
With very best wishes
Penny
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Sad that childhood adventuring sometimes leads to such horrors – kids just can’t see the consequences of their actions, can they? We envisaged – love your decriptions of the cold, the feel of that rush down the hill is so real!
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Dear Lynn
Thank you for reading and commenting so kindly. As children, we need the space to make mistakes, even those with potentially disastrous consequences. And nothing beats the adrenalin rush of sliding fast on snow! My protagonist was seriously scraped and scratched by the gorse bush, but did she care? Not a bit! I have a slight worry for the driver, but I doubt whether he was injured.
With very best wishes
Penny
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That’s very true, judging risk is part of growing up. If we don’t experience it we’ll all make very dangerous adults! Always a pleasure to read your writing Penny
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I like the way the the sledging adventure starts as snowy fun then becomes a dangerous helter skelter with no way to stop. Skillfully done Penny.
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Dear Francine
Thank you for reading and for your perceptive comment. It is, pretty much, a true story, and that often helps the telling!
With very best wishes
Penny
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Penny, I’m so relieved your MC wasn’t hurt! Just read Cathryn’s tragic story of a child being killed by his own dad’s car, and I seriously didn’t want a replay! As usual, your descriptions are spot on. I hope no one in the car was hurt by the runaway sled!
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Dear Linda
Thank you for reading and commenting. It’s very kind of you so say my descriptions are spot on. I remember sledding as a youngster very clearly, so I was more or less writing from life. No-one was hurt by the runaway sled, although the sled was broken into two pieces!
I thought Cathryn’s story was very good for someone just starting writing; one to watch, I think!
With very best wishes
Penny
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I agree. She writes from her heart.
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Well, there goes the sled!
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Dear Russell
Thank you for reading and commenting. Yes, that sled was busted into two pieces with struts pointing in all directions!
With best wishes
Penny
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Better a gorse bush than a car, I say! You’ve described my childhood (minus the bush – but probably another kind and thankfully, no cars!)
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Dear Dale
Thank you for reading and commenting. You know, I’m not surprised to hear I described your childhood – I bet you were wonderfully wild and adventurous, living life to the full!
With very best wishes
Penny
xoxo
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Well… here in the Montreal area (south shore) we had lots of places to go sliding and skating and whatnot. Was not big on sitting in front of the tv except on Saturday mornings! xoxo
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Hair-raising suspense there, Penny! I’m glad the sledder acted quickly and survived (even if a bit banged up.)
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