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!
Might have been
You have a pretty house. Sometimes I imagine I live there.
On Sunday, when your family dress in their best clothes for church, and then afterwards you all sit down together to eat roast chicken, plates heaped high with meat and potatoes and carrots and cabbage and fresh green beans.
On a summer evening, when, gin and tonic in hand, you cuddle Robert in the backyard.
At night, when the ghostly flicker of the TV illuminates the sitting room, and you leave the curtains open as the outside world disappears into shadows.
The things that might have been…
Autumn Leaves 
Someone always has to miss out, but I wonder if this person will end up doing more than just looking and wishing and decide to take more drastic action to get what could have been! Good work Penny
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Iain. Yes, I wonder if she will ever take action…
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Oh that’s deliciously creepy. I imagine all kinds of Gone Girl and bunny boiling stuff
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Thank you for your kind comment, Neil. Deliciously creepy is good.
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My guess is she is either a stalker or a ghost. Penny, you do a good job of bringing her wistfulness to life.
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Lisa. Yes, she could be a stalker or a ghost. I’m glad the wistfulness came through. She is a person to whom life has been unkind, and she is on the margins of society. A weak person, perhaps, but still deserving our compassion.
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You’re very welcome, Penny.
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it’s not healthy to keep pining for what might have been. for her own sanity, she must learn to move on.
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Thank you for your thoughtful and sympathetic comment, Plaridel. You are quite right that she needs to stop pining for what can never be. But does she have the strength for that?
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It is very creepy to think that someone from your past watches your every move without your knowing. The ‘stalker’ is on an unhealthy way to deal with their regret since they must have watched for some time.
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Thank you for your empathic comment, Gabi. It would indeed be creepy to discover that someone from your past was stalking you.
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The one that got away, and the one who refuses to stray.
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Thank you for your comment, Reena. Sometimes the difference between the one that got away and the one who refuses to stray is a hairsbreadth, a toss of the coin. There are winners and losers – and who ever thinks about the losers?
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You are right, Penny!
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Excellent mood here. Slightly creepy, slightly sad, slightly envious. But definitely not happy. Very nicely written, Penny.
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Thank you for such a kind comment, Sandra. I’m really glad you liked my story.
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…if only. Unrequited love can be the cause of many an outcome. Intriguing.
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Keith. My take on the main character is that she was once Robert’s girl friend, and was dumped – and never got over it. But I hope that in almost any reading of the story it will be clear that the divide between success and failure is very slender – the thickness of a pane of glass away.
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The saving graces of a vivid imagination. Well done, Penny.
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Thank you for commenting, Bill.
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I feel the sense of missed opportunity and loss. It is if a ghost is observing the world that has passed by.
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Thank you for your thoughtful and intriguing comment, James. “a ghost is observing the world that has passed by.” I wonder if that’s how it feels to be someone who has lost out and become destitute?
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A great angle on the prompt, it is a good job that I do not like green beans
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Thank you for your entertaining comment, Michael. How can anyone not like green beans???? 😉
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I don’t mind green beans once in a while, but my family really like eating them
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Such a rich mixture of feelings in this – the unsuspecting happiness and satisfaction of the household, and the envy of the watcher. We read all about the family, but we feel we know the watcher’s circumstances more deeply, even though you tell us nothing about him or her. So cleverly written.
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Dear Margaret
Thank you for such a wonderful comment. You’ve read to the heart of the story.
On a technical point, you say, “we know the watcher’s circumstances more deeply, even though you tell us nothing about him or her.” I think the reason for this is that I deliberately wrote in the second person. You, the reader, are Robert’s wife. At the same time, as the reader, you are naturally drawn towards the narrator, and the two perceptions merge into a single whole.
That’s what I intended, anyway!
With very best wishes
Penny
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That’s really interesting, Penny. Thanks for sharing how you approached this. It certainly worked out as you intended, and I really like the effect. It drew me right into the character.
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I’m afraid her sadness will overcome dher self-restraint. If she’s peeking into their windows, who know what will happen next?
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Thank you for your kind comment, Linda. I like to think that the stalker is fairly harmless. Still, the potential for trouble is always present.
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Dear Penny,
I can’t help wondering what the narrator might do next. She sounds like a stalker, one with an axe to grind. A voice that says, “It should have been me cuddling with Robert.” At any rate, well constructed story. So many directions things could go.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. You’re right that the narrator has a great deal of pent-up emotion. I wonder whether those who have slipped through the cracks of society feel like that about those of us who have been fortunate?
Shalom
Penny
xx
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A lovely look at someone longing for a home and family. Very moving.
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Thank you for your insightful comment, Eugenia. Being without home and family must be very difficult.
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Your use of imagery is amazing
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