The street looks peaceful doesn’t it? Palm trees, white fences, boys on bicycles going to school this morning. Could be almost any street in Florida. It’s not almost any street. It’s my street.
I live here alone. A 55-year-old lady. Retired. Trying to make ends meet on a small pension and my savings. I’m not nearly old enough yet to quality for social security. I had to retire early because of my vision. I’m legally blind. I’m also scared.
This used to be a wonderful place to live. I knew all the neighbors. We had a nice community. Then the hurricanes came and people moved away. I can’t afford to move.
My neighbors moved and some left their houses empty. Squatters moved in. Those boys on the bicycles? At night, they are part of a gang. They terrorize us by going up and down the street and stealing everything they can find. They spray paint our houses. The police have tried to catch them with no luck.
I don’t have anyone to help me. My family is gone now. What do people like me do? No money to go to a safer place. Is there a safer place?
Photo Credit to C. E. Ayr
Thanks Susan and SundayPhotoFictioners for the prompt!
The Write Scribe 
Wonderfully bleak Rosemary, well crafted tale.
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Thank you!
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This question haunts many of us in different parts of the world – Is there a safer place?
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Maybe we should make one.
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I wish we could – a place safe in all aspects – physical, emotional, financial.
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Bleak indeed, and no sense of hope for her.
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Very bleak still beautifully written.
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Very dark, but unfortunately, very real. And brilliantly told I might add.
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A bleak tale. A cry for help tale. Surely one of those neighbors in that once tight knit community could be able to help? Nicely crafted, Rosemary. I knew there was a reason I have been following you for so long.
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I’m a photographer and I also was a youth director. I don’t know how you can label these adults as kids. Nor can I grasp what lead you to believe that these cyclist, dressed in cycling shirts, lycra pants and wearing helmets could possibly be members of a gang. Nice fiction piece. May even pull at the strings of someone’s heart, but I don’t buy it.
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Prompts are supposed to stimulate your imagination, which is exactly what this one did!
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