Flash fiction

Friday Fictioneers – A hole in the ground

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 (C) ROCHELLE WISOFF-FIELDS

A hole in the ground

‘Take cover! Take cover!’ yelled the young man as he rushed between the market-stalls.

Yasmeen sighed. Her stall had only a few basic goods, which she had to sell to feed her children.

‘Ali. Ali!’ she called. Her daughter, Layla tugged at her skirt and pointed. Ali was fifty metres away, playing football. Even as Yasmeen watched, her neighbour emerged, grabbed her own son and Ali, and dragged them into the comparative safety of her house.

Yasmeen scooped up Layla and ran indoors, terrified by the scream of the low flying jet.

One second later, its bomb obliterated the marketplace.

Inlinkz – click here to join the fun!

Friday Fictioneers – Anything’s possible

PHOTO PROMPT (C) DALE ROGERSON

Anything’s possible

“Why did you bring that wretched ball along?” grumbled Gerald. “I want to walk hand-in-hand.”

Grinning, Peter kicked the football away. It soared, then plummeted into the half-frozen creek.

Gerald clicked his tongue but said nothing. After all, Peter was holding his hand now.

“I’ll go fetch it,” said Peter.

“You’re barmy! Look at the ice!”

But Peter was already out of his sneakers.

One step, two steps, three steps, pick up the ball and back to shore.

“See? Anything’s possible.”

He kissed Gerald hard on the mouth.

“Now, let’s go tell our families that we’re a couple, huh?

Click here to join the fun!

Friday Fictioneers – Betrayal

BETRAYAL

I stand in the torrential rain, half-concealed by a bush, looking into the hotel. The sky weeps passionate tears, blurring my vision.

Dan sits at the bar; he’s waiting for that girl, I know he is.

And there she is. Sleek hair, perfect smile – and those heels must be four inches!

My hair dangles in rats’ tails, trickling water down my neck.

Dan kisses the girl lightly on the lips, and draws her across to reception.

Right. I’m going to stop this. I square my shoulders and march in. Dan’s hangdog expression tells me all I need to know.

Friday Fictioneers – Wilderness of Passion

I’m sorry to have been more or less missing from Friday Fictioneers. I’m especially sorry for those who kindly read and commented on my story and received no response. Sadly, this was because my mum died at the end of July. The combination of grief and the need to deal with the funeral etc rather pushed out my regular activities. I’m afraid this may continue for a while, but for this week, at least, I’ve written a story, and here it is.

Many thanks, Rochelle, for hosting this challenge. To any newbies, the challenge is 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!

Wilderness of passion

It was a strange place to meet a tiger; Acton High Street is not conducive to tigerish behaviour. I still had most of my lunchbreak, so I followed him into a bar.

He patted the seat next to him. My breath came fast. My heart pounded. How beautiful he was, how passionate; how dangerous.

I went with him to a Premier Inn, my body savannah-warm in his arms. I cried out in triumph.

Finished, he tossed me the room key. ‘I’ve settled the account,’ he said – and left.

My wilderness of passion was, for him, merely a commonplace suburban infidelity.

Inlinkz – click here to join the fun!

Friday Fictioneers – Prince Charming

Prince Charming

Dillon saw Sally blink with surprise. Her mouth twitched.

‘You’re asking me out?’ she said.

Hot-cheeked, Dillon looked at the ground. ‘If you like,’ he muttered.

Sally laughed. ‘I’d rather date a frog,’ she said, and skipped away.

Desire, despair, mortification, Dillon’s feelings twisted him. He could hardly see; but he could hear.

They were laughing. The girls were laughing. The girls were laughing at him. Anger oozed like crimson blood from the cut of a razor.

‘But I love her,’ he thought. ‘I can’t hurt her.’

He slunk home to his bedroom – and wept.

Inlinkz – click here to join the fun!

Friday Fictioneers – Second-hand romance

Second-hand romance

“I want a bride.”

“Do you mean the dress in the window? I’m afraid it wouldn’t fit you – it’s only a size 10.”

“I don’t want a dress, I want a bride.”

The shop-girl giggled. “Is that a proposal?”

“Of course not; I mean a mail-order bride, a Filipina say. I’ve got plenty of cash, and I’m generous. I’d be a great match.”

“Perhaps Mum could help you.”

The shop-girl led him into a back room, where an old woman held a folder of photographs.

“These are the women currently on our books,” she said. “But remember – we’re a second-hand shop.”

InLinkz – click here to join the fun!

Friday Fictioneers – Get Well Soon

*PHOTO PROMPT (C) ROCHELLE WISOFF-FIELDS*

Get Well Soon!

The helium balloon nodded in the gentle breeze from a fan.

‘Get well soon!’

Liz Nightingale’s eyelids drifted open. She saw the garish good wishes and smiled; she and her grandson, Oliver, had always shared a taste for irony.

Her phone was ringing but Liz didn’t have the strength to answer. The nurse noticed and held the phone where Liz could see it.

There on the screen was a new born baby, protesting her first breaths.

‘We’re calling her Liz, after you,’ said Oliver.

Liz smiled. Her first great-grandchild, and so beautiful.

Gently, with no fuss, her heart stopped beating.

InLinkz – click here to join the fun!

Friday Fictioneers – Money on Trees

Money on Trees

There were fifteen of them, moving stealthily through the jungle. Carlos was nervous, aware that Jose was watching him; judging. There were riches ahead, but there were risks, too. Every man carried a weapon. They’d laughed at Carlos when he said he didn’t have a gun.

The terrain was rough. The overgrown paths, winding like animal tracks, became muddy as they approached a cataract.

‘Put your feet exactly where I put mine,’ said Jose.

Sweating, panting, terrified, Carlos crested the waterfall, and there it was. Money on trees; a coca plantation.

‘You can afford a gun now,’ laughed Jose.

InLinkz – click here to join the fun!

Friday Fictioneers – Well off out of it

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.

InLinkz – click here to join the fun!

Friday Fictioneers – Might Have Been

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…

InLinkz – click here to join the fun!

Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leaves

Flash fiction

Friday Fictioneers – A hole in the ground

Friday Fictioneers – Anything’s possible

Friday Fictioneers – Betrayal

Friday Fictioneers – Wilderness of Passion

Friday Fictioneers – Prince Charming

Friday Fictioneers – Second-hand romance

Friday Fictioneers – Get Well Soon

Friday Fictioneers – Money on Trees

Friday Fictioneers – Well off out of it

Friday Fictioneers – Might Have Been