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!
NYC – Storm Warning
It’s overcast, hot and humid, and a severe storm is forecast. But that will be later; I don’t need to hurry under cover.
From my café table, I marvel at the diversity of language. English, Yiddish, Polish, Arabic; hustling, speaking secrets, whispering words of love; even, in this city of Mammon, proclaiming the words of God. What a wonderful city it is, whose polyglot citizens live and work crammed together, rubbing shoulders, proud yet tolerant!
Heavy raindrops fall without warning. Even as I move towards shelter, there is an explosive brilliance. I topple. It’s growing dark. I can’t see.
Autumn Leaves 
Very atmospheric, I could feel the storm brewing in the sky and on the ground.
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Thank you for your kind comment, Iain. I’m pleased you could feel the storm brewing on the ground.
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The build up to the storm, well, I guess the MC was not prepared when the human made storm blew in…
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Thank you for your kind comment, Trent. Which of us is ever ready when catastrophe strikes?
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Wonderfully written, Penny. I felt her relax into her seat, a little too nonchalant about the storm brewing all around her.
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Thank you for your perceptive comment, Dale. She was indeed relaxing – and how can we stay alert at all times without going bonkers?
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True enough! It would be rather taxing!
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So often just when you are counting your blessings tragedy strikes. I think her trust in her environment will lead to being helped and carried to a safe place.
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Thanks for your kind comment, Lisa. I think you’re right that people will want to help her.
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Penny, you are very welcome.
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Tempus fugit? Or defective weather forecasting? Another pint and she’ll have worked out where the blame lies
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Thank you for your kind comment, Neil. The storm certainly took her by surprise.
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hopefully, it wasn’t a bomb explosion that caused her to topple.
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Thank you for the thoughtful comment, Plaridel. The text doesn’t specify whether it was a bomb or a lightning strike. Both were in my mind.
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You can’t always tell when the storm will arrive.
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment. You’re right that lightning can strike at a distance from the rain.
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It’s strange isn’t it, how quite often catastrophe strikes at the moment when you are most appreciative of what you have or what is around you. Something quite unnerving about it. Well done.
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Sandra.
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Dear Penny,
Your story fires on all cylinders as it touches all the senses. I could smell the air, the many different foods, and hear the various voices in their own languages. You had me back there in the midst of the throng in NYC. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thank you for your lovely comment, Rochelle. I’m glad my story caught a little of the cosmopolitan nature of NYC.
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You can’t get a forecast for everything.
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Thank you for your kind comment, Liz. I agree – forecasting is never entirely precise.
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the storms come unnvited
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Thank you for commenting, i b. Sometimes storms are the price of living with the advantages of a particular location, don’t you think?
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Well done, Penny. Not my atmosphere of pleasure or pride, but the growing darkness can mean so much. 🙂
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment. The growing darkness is a matter of concern, isn’t it?
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Yes it is. And in the long run, inevitable.
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A storm that spoilt the moment. It happens too often for some.
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Thank you for your perceptive comment, Keith. You’re right; whether it’s natural (a storm or explosion) or metaphorical (being jilted, for example) it’s hard to avoid all the storms of life.
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Oy! I’d give you a hand if you needed one, which is another thing most people don’t know of NYC – we are pretty good at helping each other. And … we are also pretty ‘good’ at having those sudden out of the blue thunderstorms. Less so being struck by lightning, being hardly ever the tallest thing around in a skyscraper town … 🙂
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Thank you for such a lovely comment, Na’ama. Citizens of NY have a great sense of solidarity and pride in their city, don’t they? It’s good that this often spills over as helping each other.
Shalom
Penny
xx
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I think many people have a sense of solidarity with their community. It is often not called on until something is wrong or someone needs help, but, yeah, people can be very good to each other. Just as – as evident in the world today – be very very bad to many people they don’t even know, just because they feel they have the right to Gulag them.
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Great description of the crowds and their conversations, and the sudden arrival of the storm dispersing them. The ending takes it all to a new level – could be more than just a rainstorm that’s brought such darkness and confusion.
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Thank you for your perceptive comment, Margaret. You’re right to suspect that the event could have been more than just a rainstorm. (The synagogue in the photo prompt has been considered a potential target for terrorism).
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Yes, unfortunately with such a wide diversity of people, we have to share their problems.
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment, James. Diversity can bring problems, but it can also bring great vibrancy and energy to a society, don’t you think?
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I agree Penny, but this is a complex subject.
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