Friday Fictioneers: Rainbow Faeries
This week, Madison Wood’s Friday Fictioneers has a picture prompt. We get to allow the prompt to stimulate our imaginations, and are allowed 100 words to express ourselves. I love these challenges – be sure to go check them out at the link. This week is about Rainbows, just look at this beautiful picture!
Rainbow Faeries (100 words)
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“It’s perfect!” said Purple.
The seven sister fairies all nodded in agreement. The rainbow was indeed perfectly beautiful.
“Our best yet” said Indigo.
“Uh oh,” said Blue “I think we messed up.”
“What’s wrong?” asked Green.
“Nothing’s wrong.” said Yellow. “Look at how it’s blended, the colors are spectrum perfect.”
“I agree,” said Orange. “We followed the formula perfectly, I’m sure teacher will give us a top grade on this.”
Red pointed behind them. “We must have added too much energy.”
The seven sister fairies turned to look. They broke into giggles and spoke as one,
“We made an echo!”
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Friday Fictioneers: Wednesday
I’ve missed a couple of Friday Fictioneers, and I admit I’m not doing my best work, but this one came to me from the picture prompt, so I decided to post it. My mind is going sixty directions, but I tried to focus it for just a moment. Be sure to click on the link for Madison Woods’ fiction response this week. In the comments section you will find links to other Fictioneers and their creative responses.
This weeks picture inspiration (slightly cropped for emphasis) for 100 words:
Wednesday 100 words
Every Monday and Thursday, after his doctor-ordered “health walk” he would come to this quiet place to sit and plan the rest of his day, lazily. No rush now, He’d never thought he’d live out his retirement alone.
On Tuesdays and Fridays, she came here to her favorite place, to sit in the fresh air, letting the sun ease her rheumatism. Sometimes she’d read a book. Mostly she just enjoyed the morning air. No one to rush home to, but she didn’t mind. Not really.
One week it rained heavily on Monday and Tuesday. That Wednesday, they met.
Perfect timing.
Saturday Centus: Windfall
It’s Celebration time at Jenny Matlock’s place! Why, Because today is the 100th Saturday Centus, a Saturday Centennial!!
To celebrate, Jenny is going back to where it started, the very first ever Saturday Centus, and we are to use that very first ever Prompt for our 100 word Centus. The funniest part is that Jenny, who has taught us to write tight, started out with a very, very, very wordy prompt – 53 words, to be exact! So instead of repeating the prompt twice, I will start with it, and then add a short —- line between the prompt and my continuance. Also, in celebration, I made very very sure that my continuation was exactly 100 words, in honor of this great day.
So, without further ado…
Windfall (153 words)
My untied shoelace changed my life. As I leaned down to re-tie it, I kicked away a few leaves. When I turned my head slightly to look where the leaves had been, I was astonished to see a rubber-banded wad of hundred dollar bills nestled in a little indention in the muddy ground.
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Windfall! my heart sang.
“Trouble…” whispered a voice.
I picked up the bills. Maybe I should check it out.
I stopped by the bank. “Someone paid me with this,” I handed the teller a bill, “Can you tell me if it’s counterfeit?”
She took the bill to a man in the back. He examined it, then entered the serial number in a database.
The teller brought it back. “It’s real.”
I left the bank, my heart hammering. Windfall!
“Trouble…” the voice insisted.
“Shut up.” I said.
A van pulled up. Three men jumped out.
“Oh, crap.”
“I told you so…”
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Fiction Faction: Cheating Death
Quill Shiv has offered us another episode of Flash Fiction Faction. The prompt this week is a quote:
Truly the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. –Anonymous
The idea is to use the prompt for inspiration, however it might do so, and write something that it inspires in us. For Quill’s piece as well as the other participants, just click on the link above.
While much of my fiction tends to be dialogue and action, I took a different route this time, more of a telling than a showing. Why? I don’t really know, perhaps it was the nature of the quote itself. Anyway, this is what it inspired in me…
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Cheating Death (672 words)
Charles Masters Garrety was a rich man, perhaps one of the richest in the world. He was also an old man, eighty-seven this month. He was in perfect health, all the fitness money could buy; trainers, doctors, dieticians.
But time was catching up with him. He was slowing down, had been for awhile. He had outlived all of his children and even two grandchildren. But his joints were beginning to ache infernally and it took him longer and longer to limber up when he rose in the morning.
Charles Masters Garrety was terrified of dying.
He wasn’t a religious man, he didn’t believe he would suddenly wake up one night and find himself in a pit of fire and brimstone. And he certainly knew he wouldn’t find himself floating amongst the angels – wouldn’t want that anyway, what a boring way to spend eternity.
His terror came from the unknown, the eternal question, does something of us linger after death, or is it just the end? The thought that the body could die, and his spirit might linger in limbo was even worse than it just ending. He hated thinking about it. He still had so much to do, years of unfinished business.
People were living longer and longer now, why in another 50 to 100 years, 87 might still be considered as young. But he didn’t live in the future, he lived now. And all the money in the world couldn’t buy a man any more time.
Or could it?
Ten years before, Charles Masters Garrety had bought out a research facility, fired all but the best scientists, hired some more, and put them to work on a special project. The concept itself wasn’t new, the idea of cryogenics had been around for years now, even some success in early experiments. But most of the research had dried up for lack of funding. Except for Cryo-Futures.
The team had come to him several weeks ago. They had succeeded in preserving a chimpanzee for over 5 years and had recently brought it back to life. No tissue degeneration, no brain damage, in fact, the chimp was in perfect health. They had told him they could suspend him for 50 years, or more, however long it took for genetic research (another of their projects) to find the longevity gene and figure out how to apply it.
Many meetings with lawyers and department heads and technicians and scientists had ensued, and finally everything was ready. Tonight Charles Masters Garrety would be eased into a cold sleep, and awake in the future, able to live many more years.
…………………
It was time. Charles Masters Garrety could feel his heart beating steadily in his chest. The doctor had given him a mild sedative. He had almost refused, but now was glad he didn’t. This was his last moment of life in this present time. When next he woke, he would be meeting strangers, new scientists will have taken over for these, many of whom would be long dead. The idea fascinated him.
They helped him into the cryo-chamber, naked as the day he was born. He could feel the cool air circulating around him, getting colder, so slowly, barely even noticeable. He felt his heart slow as his eyes closed, heavy and insistent. Soon he would be asleep, suspended in time, and the next time he opened his eyes, he’d be in a whole new world. His breath slowed along with the heartbeat, and he wondered if he would dream during these long years? His mind drifted, and he observed as if from far away that there was no longer a perceptible heartbeat, no breath moving in and out of his lungs. It was as if his body was gone, no sensation, only thought.
His mind was suspended in darkness, floating in a sea of black. Awake and aware.
Realization drifted in like a dark whisper in the night. No dreams to come, just fifty years of waiting.
Awake.
Charles Masters Garrety screamed silently into the limbo.
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Flash Fiction Faction – Evidence
Quill Shiv has started a Flash Fiction Faction challenge that allows for slightly longer posts, etc. so I thought I’d try it out. Click on the link to see what she and others are doing this week.
The Prompt:
I didn’t go the extra mile, but I did use 8 of the words in this little tale. Hope you enjoy it.
Evidence 347 words
Mike pinched the tweezers carefully. The strand of hair was almost invisible against the dark wool of the sweater. He tugged gently, finally pulling it free, and held it up like a prize.
His assistant clapped her hands, almost jumping with joy. Not the most professional behavior, but it could be excused. Carol was young, and new to all this.
“Is the root connected?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said, “the hair follicles are perfectly intact. We’ll have all the DNA evidence we need, assuming this is from the killer.”
“Well, that’s up to the DA to decide, isn’t it? I’m sure he’ll be overjoyed with this new evidence.”
Mike just nodded, not wanting to get into a discussion of circumstantial versus hard evidence. She had a lot to learn, and he didn’t feel like being the one to teach her. She had been assigned to him after that last fiasco when the board threatened to fire him for manufacturing evidence. The presumption of innocence had never even entered their minds. They’d had no hard evidence, but the distrust was there just the same. They kept him on, but assigned him this “babysitter” young enough to be his daughter.
“The owner of this hair could be innocent,” he said carefully. “Or not. It’s not our place to judge. We collect evidence and give it to the lab to analyze. End of story. Speaking of which, you need to get this hair to the lab, pronto. And don’t let it out of your sight, we have to preserve the chain of evidence.”
She hesitated. “Maybe I should wait. After all, there might be more evidence to harvest. And I really do want to learn from you.”
Mike rubbed his temples against an oncoming headache. Her behavior pretty much confirmed it, she was assigned to him not as an assistant, but to watch him.
“Fine.” he said, forcing a pleasant smile. This was not the time to raise suspicion. It had been a real trick to get that hair in place without her noticing. It would have to be enough.
100 Word Challenge & Friday Fictioneers
Okay, due to lack of time, I ended up combining a couple of challenges here, I hope you don’t mind. The first is the 100 Word Challenge for Grownups, hosted at Julia’s Place, and the second is for Madison Wood’s Friday Fictioneers. You don’t have to read both, but they are kind of a two part tale all in one. I think each could be fine as a 100 word drabble (I learned a new word!) I tried to make them open and close in ways that they could be independent, but at the same time, they were inspired together and so kind of fit together. Don’t forget to click the links and see what others have done.
Here are the Prompts:
phrase prompt this week:
“but I turned it off”
And for Friday Fictioneers, a photo:
Oh and btw – this is based on a true event.
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100WCGU (Prompt: “but I turned it off”)
Strange Things (part 1) (100 words)
Janet walked into the kitchen, squinting at the brightness of the overhead light. “But I turned it off …didn’t I, Bo?”
“whuff” Bo answered. He nudged her hand.
“Patience,” she ruffled his ears, “I’m getting it.”
She bent into the fridge, reaching into the back for the baloney. When she closed the door, the room was in darkness.
“What the…?”
“whuff.” Bo insisted.
Absently, she tossed the baloney to Bo as she walked over to the light switch – it was down. She flicked it up, and the light came on. What’s going on?
Bo gave a low throaty growl.
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Friday Fictioneers (picture Prompt)
Strange Things (part 2) (98 words)
Bo growled at the kitchen door. Janet tensed. Bo never growled.
From behind the door came a strange mechanical sound followed by
“click”
then…
“Cuckoo!”
Janet laughed in relief, it was just the cuckoo clock, sounding the half hour. Bo followed her into the darkened hallway. She looked up at the old clock as it ticked off each second with a soothing rhythm.
Bo whined, not soothed at all.
“What’s the matter, Bo? It’s just the – ” she broke off, memory sending an icy chill up her spine.
The clock had been wound down for over a week.
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Flash Friday: Brothers
I’m posting this a bit early as I have to be out this afternoon, but will link to Madison’s page when I can. Meanwhile you can check out the rules for Friday Fictioneers . To read what others have done with this weeks prompt, go HERE.
I would like to quote this, which is on this week’s Prompt Page : 100-words isn’t a *rule* and some of us write more than that. My goal is to have The Friday Fictioneers use 100-word stories as an exercise in choosing concise phrases and strong verbs. It’s an excellent way to show your stuff to the world without exposing too much. It’s okay if you use more words, but if it’s much more let us know in the comments so we’ll know how to allocate our time if we’re trying to read all the posts.
I added that caveat, because this week, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t whittle my tale down to 100 words – this is the first time it has happened, but there was simply nothing I could omit. I even feel I omitted some of the “flavor” by cutting it down so much, but hey, that’s the rules, and I like to follow as closely as possible. Anyway, here is this week’s
Picture Prompt
And here is my tale:
“Brothers” 118 words (eeps!)
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Johnny peeked through the small hole between the rocks – what was his brother Mike doing there with those guys?
As he watched, one of the guys handed Mike some money. Mike slipped something into his hand, then ran off.
The guys walked by where Johnny was hiding, One of them said “I can’t believe you finally got him to sell you that card.”
That card? Mikes special limited series baseball card?
Johnny sat for a long time, getting madder and madder. Mike shouldn’t have caved. Johnny was gonna tell him what for! He rushed home and into Mikes room.
“Happy Birthday!”, Mike said, handing Johnny a new baseball glove. “Now I can teach you to play catch.”
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critique is welcome – if anyone has ideas how to make it shorter, or what might be missing, I’m open to hearing it.
Flash Friday: Green
It’s time for Madison Woods’ Friday Fictioneers to submit this week’s entry. If you’ve never participated, check out the link for the rules. Basically, each Wednesday we get a photo prompt that is intended to inspire us to write 100 words. On Friday Madison posts her own creative input, and we are invited to post links to our creative efforts in the Comments section. You can find this week’s offerings HERE.
This week’s photo:
My entry: Green – 100 words
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Karen swept the bone fragments off to the side, making room for a fire near the entrance of the cave. It would be chilly tonight. Mark was collecting wood. There was plenty of that around, dead trees with brittle branches, dry and fast to flame.
Their daughter Mira sat looking through a book. There had been a library at the last town they’d passed through. They had stayed a week, searching the town, hoping to find survivors…
“Mama, what’s green?” Mira asked.
Karen looked out at the grey and brown desolation. “Maybe someday we’ll be able to show you, honey.”
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Flash Friday: Alive
It’s Friday, and that means Madison Woods Friday Fictioneers are writing again. Each Wednesday Madison posts a photo prompt for us to write about. The only limit is, no more than 100 words. Then, on Friday, she posts her own flash fiction and we comment and leave our links for others to read. Madison’s page and all the other entries can be found HERE, so go take a look. If you want to try it yourself, check the rules on the FF link above. This week’s photo:
My entry, 100 words:
Alive
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Her senses were alive with contrast; hot sun on her face, icy cold water rushing over her bare feet, the rock’s warmth seeping through the fabric of her jeans, cool breeze caressing her cheeks.
Her mind was alive with contrast: Divorce papers / freedom papers; I’ve never lived on my own / maybe it’s time; I’ll need a job / I’ll find a job; I’ll never manage / yes I will;
Her heart was alive with contrast; hot stabs of anger, icy chill of panic, warm rush of hope, cool splash of joy. Free at last? Yes, and even better –
Alive.
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Saturday Centus
Well, I’m late as usual, don’t know why I can’t seem to keep to a schedule, after all, these things don’t take long to write, right? Just a hundred words. Ah, but reading the others after, that does take time, and is half the fun. This week was a tough one for me, not that I didn’t have the idea, just that I had no idea how to fit it into 100 words (plus 6 for the prompt) But I did it, 106 words.
To find the others, and see what this weekly challenge is all about, click on the image below and go visit the other Saturday Centus hosted by Jenny Matloc at her inspirational blog.
This week’s prompt: “the wedding was at the firehouse“
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The wedding was at the firehouse.
The bride was dressed in black.
Mac’s family of firefighters were in full uniform, standing in two rows, a walkway for the bride. Friends and family sat in the front, sympathy on their faces. Karen braced herself, then walked down that solemn aisle. No music played.
At the front, the Fire Chief took her hand and spoke, “Mac loved Karen more than life –”
The fire alarm wailed through the firehouse.
The Chief’s voice rose urgently above it. “In front of these witnesses, I hereby declare them husband and wife.”
Family wept.
The firemen rushed out.
Life goes on.
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in tuit 