Category: #FridayFictioneers

Posted in #FridayFictioneers, Challenges, Flash Fiction

Life in the City – #FridayFictioneers – June 7, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson
Photo Prompt @ Roger Bultot

The girl looked out the window of her high-rise apartment at the skyline of New York. She was placing her few keepsakes from home on the window sill.

Except the last one. The distorted glass. Ellie found it lying in the gutter of a New York City street.

She thought it was welcoming her to New York. A striking city that was a bit contorted like the glass.

There was a rattle and the glass slipped off its perch. It shattered. Ellie gasped and hoped that her life in the city wouldn’t shatter like that glass.

Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff for hosting Friday Fictioneers!

Posted in #FridayFictioneers, Challenges, Flash Fiction

Dog Gone – #FridayFictioneers – May 31, 2024.

Posted on by R.M. Carlson
Photo Prompt @ Mr. Binks

Maud had been working hard with her dog rescue group. Today, they were going to the carnival.

As Maud and the group strolled around the carnival, they gasped. There was a dog in a locked steel crate tied up to a fence. They released her.

They walked around with the dog and a man approached them saying she was his. Maud said that they had to rescue the dog.

“No problem,” said the man, “I don’t want her.”

The next day, the man was served with a demand to appear in court for animal abuse. He was the local veterinarian.

Thank you to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting #Fridayfictioneers! Thanks to Mr. Binks for the photo prompt.

Posted in #FridayFictioneers, Challenges, Flash Fiction

The Pie and the Festival – #FridayFictioneers – May 24, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson
Photo Prompt @ Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Mollie scurried around her kitchen, cooking for the festival in her town. Food from the southern US is often prepared differently than food from anywhere else.

Mollie couldn’t decide between entering her stack cake or a cushaw pie in the competition. Her neighbor was going to enter cushaw pie, but Mollie’s pie was her specialty dish.

The day of the competition came and Mollie’s pie won the blue ribbon. Her neighbor was angry and threw Mollie’s pie to the ground screaming.

Mollie learned that real friendship is hard to find and should be cherished and nurtured.

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Note: Cushaw pie is not common outside the southern U.S. A cushaw is a gourd and the filling is used to make pie. Many think it is tastier than pumpkin pie.

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Thanks to Rochelle for hosting the #FridayFictioneers challenge.

Posted in #FridayFictioneers, Challenges, Flash Fiction

The Violinist – #FridayFictioneers – May 17, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

The old lady trudged up the street to the church she had attended for more than 60 years. The light from the steeple caused the white church to glow. She climbed the stairs up to the steeple.

The violin was lying on the table. She opened a window for some cool air. 

The old woman started to play. She played Horner’s “My Heart Will Go On.” A crowd gathered on the street. They waited for her to come out to praise and thank her.

The steeple went dark. She didn’t appear. They looked for her, but she had vanished.

Thank you to Rochelle for hosting #FridayFictioneers!

Posted in #FridayFictioneers, Challenges, Fiction

An Eerie Smile – #FridayFictioneers – May 3, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

Photo Prompt @ Ted Strutz

All that’s left is that sock puppet,” Maisie said to her husband.

Bill replied, “I thought I threw it away. Was it your favorite?”

“Not really,” Maisie said. “ I don’t know why Mom boxed it up with my doll furniture. I thought I threw it out. Please put it in the garbage.”

Maisie and Bill were spring cleaning their house. Later, Maisie found the sock puppet on a chair in their living room. 

”Here it is again, Bill,” Maisie shouted out. Bill walked into the room, and they looked at the sock puppet.

It was smiling at them.

Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff for hosting #Friday Fictioneers.

Posted in #FridayFictioneers, Challenges, Flash Fiction

Changes – #FridayFictioneers – April 19, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

Photo Prompt @ Rochelle Wisoff

She stopped at a gift shop in the airport. She was looking for a gift for Amy, who she was going to visit.

Amy, her friend, wasn’t as welcoming as

usual. Amy didn’t seem herself and it was an uncomfortable visit. Amy was

critical and cold. She left two days early. After she got home, they didn’t

talk again. 

Several years passed. She ran into Clifton,

another friend from graduate school. She found out Amy had been diagnosed with

obsessive-compulsive disorder. Now she understood her criticism. 

Twenty years later, she still thought of Amy. The two friends never spoke again.

Thanks to Rochelle for hosting #FridayFictioneers!

Posted in #FridayFictioneers, Challenges

Destruction – #FridayFictioneers April 5, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

Photo Prompt @ Sandra Crook

She never tired of this view. Every night, she came to the lovely, long pier on the bay to watch the sunset. The sky turned to watercolors. 

The sun was down now, but she stayed on the pier for the companionship of the locals and to watch the nighttime water birds. 

It was her last night on the island. She thought she would be back next winter. In the coming summer, the hurricane made a direct hit on the island. It caused destruction to both the island and to her. She knew she would never see the magical island again.

*I cheated a little this week. This is a true story slightly fictionalized.

Thank you to Rochelle Wisoff for hosting #FridayFictioneers!

Posted in #FridayFictioneers, Challenges, Flash Fiction

Trapped – #FridayFictioneers March 29, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

Photo Prompt @ Dale Rogerson

She felt like she was strangling, suffocating in the drab, gray house. She imagined how it must feel in a mausoleum. It was emotional death to be trapped in this house. Someone from the outside would eventually find her, wouldn’t they?

He had made it palatable from the outside with the beautiful mural and bright floral colors at the entrance. Couldn’t they see the rudimentary wire gate?

She was locked in a small, sound-proof room, but she had almost pried open the lock. The lock clicked and she was free. When she reached the wire gate, he stood there laughing.

Thanks to Rochelle for hosting #FridayFictioneers and to Dale for the photo.

Posted in #FridayFictioneers, Challenges, Flash Fiction

The Old Man – #FridayFictioneers – March 22, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

Photo Prompt by Roger Bultot

The teenagers in the small town were fascinated by the old, abandoned building.  

They decided to check it out and crawled in through a broken window. It was dark and dank inside. They happened upon a man asleep on a cot in the corridor. He woke up with a start.

He started talking to them. When he was finished, he said, “Don’t be like me. Get an excellent education. Have a beautiful family. Live a good life.”

The next night, the teenagers went back to see the old man. There was no trace of him. Even his cot was gone.

Thanks to Rochelle for #FridayFictioneers!

Posted in #FridayFictioneers, Flash Fiction

The Mirage – #FridayFictioneers March 15, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

She ran along the water’s edge on the private island, her tanned legs pumping hard. Suddenly tired, she sat on the beach near the water to rest.

When she looked up, she saw him wading in the shallow water. She looked twice because he was a dim, gray image of himself. “Everything will be all right,” he said as he smiled at her.

He started walking away through the shallow water. As he got farther away, he became increasing dim and gradually disappeared. She didn’t understand. Her father had been dead for 20 years. Then, she realized she was smiling.

Thanks to Rochelle and Friday Fictioneers for the challenge and the photo prompt.