Month: October 2024

Posted in Challenges, Fiction, Flash Fiction

Gone in a Flash

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

#unicornchallenge – October 18, 2024

Photo Prompt @Ayr/Gray

She knew they shouldn’t be here, but Jim was insistent that they visit this club that had great rock and roll music, It was on the South side of Chicago in the U.S. It was a rough part of the city.

She gave in after he assured her it would be safe. It was a thrilling taxi ride from their place to the street where the club was located. The streets were teeming with people. All ethnicities, She didn’t see anything worrisome. Just a lot of very diverse people having a good time.

The taxi pulled up in front of the club. They found a table very near the stage. It seemed like the music included all of her favorite songs.

It was closing time and they started to leave. They got to the door and she felt a tug on her arm. She turned and the world went dark. She heard lots of fighting and screaming around her. She realized she had on a hood. She kept calling for Jim having no way to know he had been knocked out and put in a nearby van.

She was pushed into a taxi and yanked off the hood. Another passenger was sitting there.

After they started to move, he looked at her and said, “Sorry about your luck with your date. He was the one with the money.”

There was no answer when she called Jim’s cell. The police had no luck. Jim was gone in a flash.

Thanks to C.E. Aye and Jenne Gray for hosting the #unicornchallenge!

Posted in Challenges, Fiction, Flash Fiction

Destiny

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

#FridayFictioneers – October 17, 2024

Photo Prompt @ Lori Wilson

It had been a wonderful trip. She had finally arrived in her favorite city. The last stop. She was looking forward to seeing a special person. They were to meet in a bar there.

She left dinner early and started to walk toward the bar where they had always met. That was so long ago.

She stepped to the door. When she saw him, her nervousness drained away and she started to smile. It had been 20 years. So much had happened. He turned and saw her while raising his martini glass to his lips. He stopped halfway.

Thanks to Rochelle for continuing to host #FridayFictioneers.

Posted in Non-fiction, Politics

Judging and Society

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

#keepitalive

How often in your life have you judged someone, perhaps not even realizing what you were doing? I think we all may be guilty of judging others without full information or even the right to do so. Judging is only part of what is tearing our country apart in the U.S. There are many other factors but judging our friends and neighbors for their political and personal beliefs ranks right up there at the top.

In the last eight years, U.S. society has become more polarized than at any time since the civil war from a political perspective. It’s very much an atmosphere of us versus them. During this time, many of us have lost friends and even family because one or the other of us were judged harshly for their political beliefs. The political beliefs that each side holds couldn’t be more different. One side wants to maintain the progress of the U.S. and try to improve it. The other side wants to take us back to the past and even worse, establish a fascist regime. We all have friends on both sides of this argument.

What do you do if you are on one side and a friend is on the other? Do you judge that friend for their political beliefs and in the process, you realize you may lose that friend? The number of people in the U.S. over the past eight years that have lost friends and family because of our political divisions has become innumerable.

What is the solution? Can you maintain a friendship with someone on the other side of an issue or many issues? Can you just not bring that into your conversations? Can you refrain from judging your friend even though you don’t agree with them? Believe me, it’s difficult since almost all the conversation currently is about the politics of the U.S.

I don’t have a solution, but what works for me is just talking to my friends as always but avoid the politics discussion if possible. I realize that will never solve anything, but I’m starting to wonder if judging people based on their political beliefs is becoming entrenched in our culture. There may be no turning back.

Thanks to Sue W and Gerry C for hosting the #Keepitalive Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge Judge!

Posted in #unicornchallenge, Challenges, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Uncategorized

A Trip Back in Time

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

#unicornchallenge- October 10, 2024

Photo Prompt @Ayr/Gray

She stopped for a moment to catch her breath. Her evening constitutional had been challenging today. It was wet and foggy. She wasn’t sure how far she had come.

The old woman gazed up the hill that bordered her walking path. Two children, wrapped up warmly, were playing on the side of the hill. It reminded her of when she and her siblings had played on the same hill.

Her mind wandered and she was suddenly one of those children and her brothers and sisters were with her once again. They were all running down the hill and ending up in somersaults at the bottom. She laughed as she saw herself come in fourth out of fifth.

Clyde came in first as always and poor little Allis was last. They all ran back up the hill, falling and tumbling as they went. Next, she saw herself in a game of hide and seek. They hid behind the scrub or whatever they could find.

Finally, they tired and flopped down on the side of the hill to rest. She and Bonnie, her older sister, talked of how dusk was coming and their mother would be calling for them soon. She could clearly hear Bonnie’s voice.

The old lady felt a gentle touch to her elbow and looked around. It was her caregiver and she had come to find her. The relief was obvious on the caregiver’s face.

They smiled at each other and she said, “Mother, I’m hungry.”

Thanks to C.E. Ayer and Jenne Gray for hosting the #unicornchallenge!

Posted in Challenges, Fiction, Flash Fiction

Milk Cow Blues

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

#unicorn challenge – October 4, 2024

Photo Prompt @ Ayr/Gray

She got out of bed and trudged through the living room. The place had been trashed. She supposed it happened last night. She was having a hard time remembering. She was so glad their daughter had been at a sleepover.

As she made her way through the house, it dawned on her that he was gone. His bed hadn’t been slept in. She opened the closet and his clothes were gone. A shelf in the bookcase was cleared out.

It was Monday, she remembered. The milk man delivered milk on Monday. She smiled and thought that they wouldn’t need half the milk they used in the past.

She felt embarrassed. It was 1975. The divorce rate in the U.S. was low. Divorce was still a social stigma. Most couples just stuck it out, supposedly for the sake of the children. Her own opinion was that couples married too young and didn’t wait to find the right person. That surely described her.

He’d asked her for a divorce last night. She agreed, but he raged and blamed her. She laughed when she thought of the milk on the porch and the old song, “Milk Cow Blues,” popped into her mind. She remembered part of the lyrics and it seemed she was living that song. She would not need as much milk delivered in the future. She walked to the door to bring in the milk and try to get back to her life.

NOTE: “Milk Cow Blues” was written back in the 1930s, but my favorite version is by Aerosmith

Thanks to C.E. Ayr and Jenne Gray for hosting the #unicornchallenge!