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!
Wilted
You gave me a single red rose before you left for the special military operation.
‘I should be back within days,’ you said. ‘The rose won’t even have time to wilt.’
But that was months ago.
You brave men must feel as though you’re fighting all the world, when you see NATO’s weapons used against you by the Ukrainian Nazis. It must be terrifying; I don’t know how you can bear it.
I long for you to be home.
The rose will stand, wilted, in its vase, until I hold you in my arms again.
Autumn Leaves 
Wonderfully done Penny, we often overlook the opposite perspective. There are many victims and lost loves on the other side of this conflict too.
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Thank you for your perceptive comment, Iain. It seems to me that war is always a tragedy. The only people who can ever benefit are the rich, the powerful and the violent.
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I love that idea of the rose being there until the conflict is over – so heart breaking. Let’s hope there’s a fresh rose there soon. Well done for seeing the other side, Penny
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Lynn. It was the way the photo prompt made the flower seem so huge, dominating the room, that gave me the idea.
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War is not pleasant seen from any side…
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Trent. No, war isn’t pleasant at all.
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Living in hope. We tend to forget how many are forced to participate against their will in armed conflict.
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Thank you for thinking about the implications of my story, and for commenting, Keith. To be forced to kill against your will must be appalling.
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It’s important to understand that there is a Russian perspective and it’s not monstrous, This was a brave thing to write, Penny
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Thank you for your insightful comment, Neil. It is, as you say, important to understand that there is a Russian perspective; not because the Russian perspective is any better, but because war brings great misery to both sides. It’s ordinary people who suffer most.
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War is horrible for all the soldiers – on all sides. They are not the one making the decisions and are as much (well, most of them) victims as the ones they kill.
I like to think he will see the wilted rose…
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Dale. All those who are forced to fight against their wishes deserve our pity. I, too, hope that he survives to see the wilted rose.
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Provokative, Penny, well done. It is always good to look at things from the perspective of ‘the other’. It reminds me of the German people in Nazi Germany who didn’t want to know about the atrocities and were proud of their soldiers. I wonder how that Russian woman feels when she learns about what Russian soldiers did in the Ukraine.
(I’ve recently read a very interesting, but long article about what ‘normal people’ think in Russia, written by a Russian journalist. If you’re interested, I’ll pm you the link.)
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Thank you for your kind and thoughtful comment. I think the Russian woman would feel that her man could never take part in atrocities, and that civilian casualties were ‘collateral’. That was how the Iraq war was spun to people in the UK and the USA, and the public went with it. It’s much easier and less uncomfortable than feeling any guilt for the 100,000+ civilians that our forces killed.
Thank you for your kind offer to pm me the link for the article about what ‘normal people’ think in Russia. I’d be very grateful if you would do that.
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Dear Penny,
Poignant story. We can guess why he’s not come back. Well written.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle
Thank you for your kind comment. While there’s life there’s hope. I don’t suppose the Russian soldiers are getting much mail back.
Shalom
Penny
xx
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A story being played out all over Russia at the moment. And so many are only short-term conscripts too, eager to get back to their usual lives.
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Ali. Yes, it is a tragedy for Ukraine – but also for many Russians.
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Beautifully written, Penny. I have been researching and writing up the biographies of soldiers from WWI, and have just finished reading a novel set in 1915 where the son is killed in action. It is terrible thinking about all the loved ones and families worried out of their minds and yearning for their soldiers to return. I think it would send me mad, However, this also explains the frenetic knitting and fundraising that went on. The only way they could cope was to keep busy.
Best wishes,
Rowena
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Rowena. You’re right; the relatives at home are also victims as they suffer the stress of not knowing whether they’ll ever see their loved-ones again.
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War is a crime and the result of political incompetence, misguided pride and stupidity. There, i said it.
I may have misunderstood your story, I saw it as a sarcastic dig at the futility of war.
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Thank you for your passionate comment, James. I agree with you. The story wasn’t intended as sarcasm – more a sad reflection on the many victims of this conflict.
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Yes, it is only human to feel the suffering of all the victims of senseless wars.
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war is hell for both sides indeed. it should be banned for all eternity.
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Thank you for your emphatic comment, Plaridel. I agree with you.
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Topical and perceptively written. It is good to stimulate thoughts from a different perspective.
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Thank you for your kind comment, Forestwood. I agree that taking a different perspective is often helpful.
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A timely story from a different point of view than we see and hear normally. It was brave of you to tell. Well done, Penny!
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Thank you for your supportive comment, Brenda. I feel it’s enormously important to see the human cost of war for both sides in the conflict. The citizens of both sides pay a price, irrespective of who is the aggressor.
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Fascinating point of view. Peace is a fragile thing, and there are too many victims when it isn’t valued and protected.
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Margaret. Perhaps the first step towards protecting peace is to be emotionally aware that both sides pay a very high price in conflict.
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War is cruel for everyone. Nicely done Penny
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Thank you for your kind comment, Vartika.
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Yes war is all about suffering,
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We tend to forget that soldiers on both sides are merely pawns of the warmongers who control them and those left behind often suffer as much or more than those who go to war. Poignant tale, Penny.
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