Dress rehearsal

“After I dress can Lucy and I have ice-cream for breakfast”, 3 year old Clara demands. Lucy, her partner-in-crime wags her tail on cue.

“No”, I say firmly immune to their charm.

“Why isn’t Lucy wearing a dress?”

“Because dogs don’t wear clothes”

“Why don’t dogs wear clothes?”

“Because they have fur and hair and all that”

“I have hair too. See mommy. ”

“Clara, humans are expected to wear clothes.  Put this on”, I hold out her dress.

“Why are we expected to wear clothes mommy?”

Lucy and Clara look expectantly at me eyes wide. Do they rehearse this?

“Chocolate or Vanilla?”

—end —

This 100 word story  was written for the 100 word photo challenge. More details about this challenge can be found at:

https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com

PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

Click on the Froggy below for other amazing takes on the same prompt by fellow “Friday Fictioneers.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Balanagamma

“…to kill the demon, who’s holding Princess Balanagamma captive, you need to cross seven oceans and seven mountains to reach a cave… there will be a parrot , in a golden cage, wring it’s neck to kill the demon…”, Grandma was telling us the Indian folk tale ‘Balanagamma’ for the thirtieth (maybe fortieth) time.

In the dark  her words spun  images of  distant forests and treacherous paths.  I wondered why mother never tells us bedtime stories.

The wheel of time turns.

“Again, Again!”, my children say.

Mother says…”Balanagamma was a beautiful princess…”

I wait my turn to tell the tale.

–end —

Some stories are best told by grandmothers.

This 100 word (true) story was written for the 100 word photo challenge. More details about this challenge can be found at:  https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2016/06/01/3-june-2016/

Thanks to Piya Singh for this week’s photo prompt.

Click on the Froggy below for other amazing takes on the same prompt by fellow “Friday Fictioneers.”

Social monogamy

One word after the other. One line after the other. I can do this. Aspiring author Rob O’Mallard was willing himself to write but after two lines his thoughts wandered to the birds lined up outside his window.

What a peaceful and uncomplicated life these birds have! How romantic that they mate for life! 

That thought led his eyes to his baby’s hook nose. The O’Mallards never had a hook nose.

“I’m as monogamous as those birds  you romanticize”, his wife had sworn on her father life.

Still something bothered him. His thoughts wandered again.

The third line was never written.

–end —

I read a story as a child of a bird killing itself when it’s mate was shot by a hunter…science supported the story with it’s observation that birds mated for life…it was so romantic and then DNA technology  came along and ruined the romance:

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/21/science/mating-for-life-it-s-not-for-the-birds-of-the-bees.html?pagewanted=all

PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot

This 100 word story  was written for the 100 word photo challenge. More details about this challenge can be found at:

https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2016/05/04/6-may-2016/

Click on the Froggy below for other amazing takes on the same prompt by fellow “Friday Fictioneers.”

One more casualty of war

Everyone dreams to become something growing up- Doctor, fire-fighter.

Joe’s dream was not to become …a casualty of war.

That  desire, his sole aim in life,  kept him alive when  war rampaged all around him, burning all his possessions to the ground.

He didn’t let the horrors of war keep him awake at night. He laughed, loved, worked and sired his family tree as if his soil had never met blood.

Joe neatly arranged the used matchsticks. He might need those for fuel ,he thought, if there was a  war.

“…war changed him…”, people whispered behind his back.

— end —

This 100 word story  was written for the 100 word photo challenge. More details about this challenge can be found at: https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2016/04/27/29-april-2016/

PHOTO PROMPT © Mary Shipman

Click on the Froggy below for other amazing takes on the same prompt by fellow “Friday Fictioneers.”

Growing rich with grace

Shanti came from a humble background. Grew up on the border of being poor and middle-class.

Life got better with each passing year and decades later she was on the border of being middle-class and moneyed-class.

On her retirement day she hit the jackpot on the lottery and found herself smack in the middle of the moneyed-class.

You can spot her easily. She’s the one in backyard summer parties sweating under the folds of her garish silk dress and a network of gold jewellery wrapped around her neck when all around her lounge in plaid cotton and laugh at her.

— end —

This exactly 100 word story was written for the 100 word photo challenge. More details about this challenge can be found at: https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2016/03/23/25-march-2016/

PHOTO PROMPT – © Ted Strutz

Click on the Froggy below for other amazing takes on the same prompt by fellow “Friday Fictioneers.”

Precious trash

He had shoved her in the dungeon and locked her up in a cage.

Outside he had stationed two burly guards with strict orders to be vigilant.

He came back two days later expecting to see her spirit broken.

“You are a useless piece of trash”, he spits at her still insolent gaze.

She knew she had to cower, feign hurt, slink around the cell apologetic for every breath, if she wanted to be free.

  “How can I feel like trash when I’m guarded like a precious gem”, she chuckled ,choosing true freedom.

—end —

This less than 100 word story was written for the 100 word photo challenge. More details about this challenge can be found at : https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2016/03/09/11-march-2016/

PHOTO PROMPT – © Emmy L Gant

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Tethered to the past

How do you run away from your past when it’s tied firmly to your future?

“He is my BF Dad. I know him like the back of my hand”, she had said as Robert revved the car engine impatiently in her driveway.  The lines of worry  on her father’s face- the map of her future. She was 19 then.

She glances a peek at Robert as they drive back home. On his granite profile wrinkles run like a maze.

She looks at the back of her hand…was that mole always there? is it new? why hadn’t I noticed it before?

— end —

BF – stands for “Best Friend”. I noticed the BF19 in the license plate of the antique car and used it as the base of this story. Exactly 100 words!

PHOTO PROMPT – © Al Forbes

More details about this photo-based writing challenge run by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields is available here:

https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2016/02/24/26-february-2016/

For other stories , written by fellow ‘Friday Fictioneers’ for the same photo-prompt, click the froggy below:

Cup-cake soldier

 

“I want a divorce”.

Senator Trumpet lowers the newspaper, appraises his wife Strumpet’s  hour-glass figure. Not too thin. Not too plump. Just the way the American public likes it.

“Why?  Want to go back to the meth-lab where I found you? ” he needles her.

He needs her, when he runs for the “Round office”, to complete his presidential image.

Strumpet isn’t the brightest in the block but she knows one thing…Trumpet for President means disaster. She isn’t  going to let that happen.

She cancels her gym membership. Eats cup-cakes for breakfast,lunch and dinner.  She’s proud to serve her country.

— end —

Disclaimer: All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

This week’s exactly 100 word story was inspired by the upcoming American Presidential election and the Photo prompt provided by Sandra Crook.

More information about this challenge can be found on Rochelle Wisoff-Field’s page:

https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2016/02/17/19-february-2016/

To read more stories on the same prompt, by fellow Friday Fictioneers click the froggy below:

The hundred and second use for Duct tape

I find the Sables shackled, whimpering through duct tape…all except baby Sable whose knees pop bubble-wrap with every crawl. Where was Mrs.Sable?

I find her soon holding a gun in one hand, baby food in the other.

“Why?”, I croak.

“Baby’s knees can bruise…”

“WHY?”, I point to the ‘shackled’.

“Oh that! I was tired of them fighting with each other…tired of being stuck in the middle unable to broker peace. No fighting at our home now. But enough about us dear neighbour…I heard something about a gift your wife gave your mother…”

“Does duct tape work?”

—– end —–

Disclaimer: No, I haven’t tried duct tape to broker peace between family members. But I wish it was that easy.

This exactly 100 word work of pure fiction was written in response to a 100 word photo-prompt based challenge conducted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. Picture courtesy of Ceayr: PHOTO PROMPT – © ceayr

Click the froggy below for other amazing takes on the same prompt by fellow Friday Fictioneers.

The Ice age

She is singing, eyes closed. Singing-along, to be precise. The  ipod, her conductor,  whispers sweet commands through head-phones. The room  drowns from the symphony  of her vocal cords. I clear my throat as a precursor to my rehearsed speech when inspiration strikes.  There’s only one way to talk to a singer like her: with music.

—

I get her an in-ear-monitor-headphone-thingie that singers use to hear themselves. She excitedly tries it right-away. My husband is excited too seeing my gift as the end of the cold war between me and his mother.

As she sings her expression gets frostier and frostier.

—end —-

Disclaimer: All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Also I  would never get my mother-in-law an in-ear-monitor-headphone-thingie in real life…that would be inhuman 😉

This exactly 100 word work of pure fiction was written in response to a 100 word photo-prompt based challenge conducted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. Picture courtesy of Rochelle’s husband Jan W. Fields.

Click the froggy below for other amazing takes on the same prompt by fellow Friday Fictioneers.