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!
Well off out of it
Magdalena watched as Jose vomited. His limbs shook. His eyes wandered. It was the second time he’d been poisoned by insecticide. Magdalena prayed he wouldn’t die.
At last the spasms eased. Jose lay down. He slept.
Magdalena slipped out of their hut and walked to the plantation office.
“You want your pay now, in cash?” The overseer’s face was ill-tempered.
“My husband’s pay, too. We must leave tomorrow; it’s an emergency.”
“You’ll have to make it worth my while…”
Magdalena scrutinised his leering face.
“Cash first,” she said.
Next day, she and Jose were on the bus back to Nicaragua.
Autumn Leaves 
Exploitative wage labour and sexual harassment on top. Well-protrayed, Penny
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Thank you for your kind comment, Neil. I’m pleased you thought it was well portrayed.
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A powerful story of exploitation
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Thank you for your kind comment, Michael. Yes, it’s exploitation, and it’s driven by supermarkets.
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A tough read, but no doubt happening around the world just now. Troubling and effective writing Penny.
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Thank you for your thoughtful reading of my story. You’re right that this is happening, principally in Costa Rica with Nicaraguan workers. It looks to be mostly driven by our supermarkets. Many workers are poisoned, some of them fatally.
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Your story sounds much closer to truth than fiction. Exploiting workers has been going on for a very long time. Nobody seems to care enough to do anything about it as long as they have their perfect produce in their perfect stores.
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Lisa. I’m afraid you’re right; this story is based on fact. Unless we become very politically active, it’s hard to know how to make a difference. I try to shop ethically, but retailers don’t provide details of the provenance of their goods so what do you do?
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Human exploitation is big business. This fine but sad story is but one of many spread across the world.
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Thank you for your empathic comment, Bill. You are right that human exploitation is big business – and what a tragedy that is.
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Powerful! I’ve recently seen a documentary about just that (except the sexual harassment which I’m sure is also part of it). People pay with their lives so we can live in overabundance.
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Thank you for your encouraging comments. We can try to shop ethically, but it’s hard to find the information on which to base our actions.
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I am glad they were able to get out of there.
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Thank you for commenting, Frank. I’m glad, too. I don’t expect Jose would have survived a third poisoning with insecticide.
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Run Magdalena with your hubby as fast as you can.
Evil lurks in that place. Powerfull write, Penny.
Have a great day.
Isadora 😎
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Thank you for your very kind comment, Isadora. I’m glad you thought the writing was powerful.
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And well out of it, too. Powerful testament to exploitation of the worst kind.
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Thank you for your kind comment, Sandra. I fear exploitation like this is all too common.
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Dear Penny,
With one leering expression of the overseer, we know the price she paid. Well written and gut wrenching.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle
Thank you for your perceptive comments. Magdalena is a smart and pragmatic woman, and her love for her husband is very great.
Shalom
Penny
xx
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Magdalena. Strong, smart, in love with her husband. I hope that leering creep enjoyed his short moment.
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Dear Linda,
Your reading of Magdalena’s character is exactly what I hoped for. Thank you so much for the comments.
All the best
Penny
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A piece of fiction with its roots in something that is still, sadly, occurring.
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Thank you for your kind comment, Keith. Although this story is entirely fictional, I could believe that it’s true even in small details. This sort of exploitation occurs in vast numbers across the world.
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Maybe they should never have left their own country. Out of the frying pan, into the fire. Sad but true situations.
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Thank you for commenting, Oneta. Maybe you’re right that they wouldn’t have suffered this particular horror, but human exploitation is everywhere. Nicaragua is an extremely poor country, with very few opportunities. Indeed, it would have been an Nicaraguan supplier of workers who arranged the work for Jose and Magdalena. And at first view, it looks as though they should have been alright. The wages seem to be decent. But they’re expected to work 80 hours a week. If they use more protective clothing than the overseer deems necessary, the cost is deducted from their wages. They are obliged to work nightshifts. In the dark, you can’t see and avoid the snakes; 3 people died in one year through such snake bites.
Poverty like Jose and Magdalena’s is baked into the global model of trade, and it’s next to impossible for them to escape.
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Penny, I recognize the truth in what you say and I see the temptation to escape the bad conditions. But the able bodied citizens of some of those countries need to rebel against the tyrants in their own lands. I know talk is cheap, especially if the guns have been confiscated. America fought a war of rebellion. Where would we be if she had not. Of course, she had guns. As I said, talk is cheap. But there has to be an answer beyond the confines of America.
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Peace be with you, Oneta. 🙂
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Peace ~ or may you find yourself starving, shelterless and hopeless, as our own American big money concerns have left whole populations all over the world.
Let your child be wasting away for lack of food and medicine, while someone tells you it’s your fault for seeking out a little hope.
Shame on you.
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Dear Ana
I think it’s obvious that my story deplores the conditions under which Jose and Magdalena worked. I agree with you that it is multi-national corporations who are responsible – which makes all of us who benefit complicit in these crimes.
Nevertheless, I doubt whether the violent solution suggested by Oneta would work.
Remember, too, that this is a site for writing short stories; I have no wish to start a war of words with anyone.
I will, therefore, wish you peace, Ana
Penny xx
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Exploitation at its worse.
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Thank you for your comment, James. Yes, this exploitation is appalling.
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An extremely story so very well written. Desperate people seeking to survive, or make their lives better, are the most vulnerable to abuses. Thank you for your story and bringing to light this specific issue. If we know, we can act accordingly.
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Dear Brenda
Thank you for such a compassionate comment. Yes, we can all act to improve social justice when we know what the problem is.
Shalom
Penny
xx
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The tragedy of their situation and Magdalena’s determination to overcome it are brought to life in this. So powerfully portrayed – the dialogue, the overseer’s ‘leering face’ – brilliant.
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Thank you for your very kind comment, Margaret. Human determination can accomplish a great deal.
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Thanks for this thought-provoking story about sexual exploitation. Sadly, this is the reality for a lot of women.
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Thank you for your supportive comment. I fear events like these happen every day. How can we stop them happening, I wonder?
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Wonderful.
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