Tag: #flashfiction

Posted in #unicornchallenge, Challenges

The Runaway – #UnicornChallenge – April 12, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

The two boys hopped on the freight train as Cadot, the old Ojibwen man, watched. It was a dry, windy day, typical for these Dust Bowl days of the 1930’s in America. Even though the most profound effects were in the Midwest, most of the country was affected in some way.

The two boys were from a poor white family in town. They came out to the area around Cadot’s cabin near the railroad tracks to pick blueberries. Northern Michigan was renowned for its blueberry crop. The boys picked the berries for money to support their family.

After picking as many blueberries as they could carry, the boys would hop on a passing freight train and sell their blueberries at every stop. They would ride another freighter back.

One day, the older boy came to pick blueberries alone. Cadot asked where his brother was, and he replied that he had left home after they had fought. The boy was 15 years old. 

Almost ten years passed. The Dust Bowl was over, and World War II was firing up. Cadot had a visitor, and it was the boy who left home. He had come home to join the Navy. He had been sending his family money from Baltimore. When the boy left, Cadot grieved and didn’t expect to see him again. 

After the war was over, there was a knock at the cabin door. There stood the boy, now a man, home from the War. His seven-year-old daughter was with him.

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

Posted in Challenges, Friday Fictioneers

The Old Homeplace – #FridayFictioneers – April 12, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

Photo Prompt @ Susan Rouchard

The old house was going to be destroyed. Industrial development. She barely got there in time before it became a victim of the wrecking ball. 

They stopped work for her so she could retrieve what she wanted. She had to be quick. She ran from room to room, snatching and grabbing.

She ran into the nursery and there were her books. Her childhood lived in those books. One of the workers helped and she packed them up. Nancy Drew. Huckleberry Finn. More.

She loaded them in her car as the memories battered her brain. Thinking of her family, she cried.

Thank you to Rochelle Wisoff for hosting Friday Fictioneers!

Posted in #unicornchallenge, Challenges

Hotel California – #UnicornChallenge – April 4, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

“It looks like a crypt,” he said to himself as he got off the bus. It was the correct address for the hotel his buddy had directed him to when he arrived in town. He had traveled across the country, the whole of America, to play with a band here. 

He had no money, but his buddy said that wouldn’t be a problem at this establishment. He pushed open the heavy door. It was dirty and dark inside. It smelled. There was a hotel counter on his right with a bell and a dim light. He rang the bell.

A Goth-looking girl materialized behind the counter. She remarked they had been expecting him. She directed him to what she called a room, but it was just a space, with a dirty cot and a wash basin. The girl invited him to happy hour. 

He sat down on the cot and thought about leaving, but he had no money. He wandered down the hall to the place the Goth-girl directed him to for happy hour.

He walked in to order a drink but stopped dead in his tracks. The people were all in Goth attire and makeup and they were dancing an odd dance. He had a bad feeling. He’d find somewhere else.

Grabbing his stuff, he went up to the hotel counter to check out. No one was there, but there was a small sign. It said, “You can check out any time you like but you can’t ever leave.”

For your listening pleasure:

”Hotel California,” by The Eagles

Thanks to CE Ayr and Jenne Gray for hosting the Unicorn Challenge!

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 #unicornchallenge

The Glory Days – Unicorn Challenge March 28, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

She liked bars. She didn’t drink or smoke. She didn’t go home with strange men. She was simply a people watcher and some of the best opportunities were in bars, but these were the boring 2020s. Everything was so politically correct, so sanitized that nothing was fun anymore.

Back in the 70’s, when rock and roll and women’s rights were shiny and new, everything was fun. There was no such thing as political correctness. Men and women were busy experiencing live music in bars and relating to each other in a way that had never been possible. They were high on life. The downside was that they were high on other substances too. They didn’t know much yet about the downsides of those substances, including liquor. Those were the Glory Days.

She looked around this bar stuck in a corner of the airport. Bright lights, men only except for her. She couldn’t hear the music over the intercom because it was too soft. The men were quietly talking to each other, but certainly not to her. They even looked like they were practicing political correctness. She preferred to laugh. She didn’t think she’d have much fun people watching in this place. 

Even people her age had bought into the whole new sanitized world notion, except when it came to politics. That was where you found the passion, but none of the fun. The entire world was at stake. 

Time to go. She would put on her headphones and drift away.

Thanks to Jenne Gray and CE Ayr for hosting the Unicorn Challenge.

Posted in #JSWChallenge, Challenges, Fiction

Hope -JSW Challenge March 26, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

Elena, a victim of recent unimaginable loss, came from her home in the mountains to visit her aunt. The hope was that she would start to heal. On the second day of her visit, she saw a copse of trees nearby. She started up the wide path to explore. The landscape seemed so flat and boring to her.

The trees were very sparse compared to the forest where she lived. She found something compelling about them. She started walking up the wide path thinking that it was curious her mother and father had never brought her here to visit. They didn’t like to be gone from their home for very long. It turned out that was a wise decision. She had just lost them both, at the same time, to a terrible car crash. Tears started streaming down her face at the thought and she could hardly see where she was going.

Elena reached the tree line and immediately felt more at home. There wasn’t far to walk and remain under the trees. Ahead, she could see a grassland. She was crying so hard that she stumbled. As she picked herself up, she noticed something odd. Near her, there was perfect circle made up of mushrooms. Inside the circle, the grass was dying and looked as if it had been trampled. Even in her grief, it dawned on her what this was. It was a fairy circle.

Elena turned to go back to her aunt’s house, and she heard something. She felt a sort of noise and vibration that seemed to come from underground. Then, she heard, very faintly, singing and she realized the vibrations were in time with the singing. 

The fairies were singing and dancing under their circle. The only word she could decipher was, “Hope.”

Thank you to A Writer’s LIfe for hosting the JSW Challenge!

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 Challenges, Fiction, Flash Fiction

The Memories – #The Unicorn Challenge March 22, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

The island’s biggest harbor was one of her favorite places to go. Every winter, she and her husband visited that magical island in the sun. The harbor to the west that faced the sound was the most fun. She loved to look at all the boats and feed the pelicans who seemed to have an innate sense about when the boats would arrive and fish scraps might be available. They flocked to the pier. 

The island was surrounded by mangroves and there had only been one big harbor built. In the evenings during the warm winters, many of the seasonal visitors gathered at the harbor since it was one of the best places to watch the sunset.

Tonight, she had a special purpose to be at the harbor. She was boarding a dinner boat where she would meet her love. They would cruise around the island and she would get to luxuriate in his company for a few hours. As she boarded the boat, a wave of happiness enveloped her. Dinner was calamari and grouper and they thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful food and conversation.

As the boat pulled into the harbor, she turned to him but found herself alone. It had happened again. They had taken this cruise so often in past winters that she kept imagining he was with her, not only on the cruise but everywhere. She had lost him earlier that year and now she remembered. Being accompanied by memories, she supposed, was better than being alone.

Thanks to Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr for hosting The Unicorn Challenge

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 #JSWChallenge

Hot Commodity – JSW Challenge 3-12-2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

They thought they had concocted the perfect plan. The smaller of the two men, Dave, was a hot air balloon enthusiast and entered the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA almost every year. His partner in crime, Bill, was just along for the ride and had helped Dave transport the stolen gold bars as far as the balloon festival. 

The balloon fiesta was in the fall of the year in warm, dry New Mexico. As Dave and Bill approached the venue, the skies were blue and there was a slight breeze. Dave’s balloon was already secured there, deflated, but ready to be aired up. Dave had made plans to steal the gold bars and then transport them to his secret place in Mexico using his balloon. 

Dave had stolen the gold from his supervisor’s home vault while she was on vacation. He had lucked into finding the combination for the vault by hacking her laptop.

They aired up the balloon and gradually loaded the gold bars into the wicker basket. Then, they were off. Dave thought the balloon was a bit sluggish as it tried to get off the ground, but he blamed the calm wind. The balloon gradually rose, but slowly and not to the height that Dave expected. As the wind further calmed, Dave became alarmed since the balloon started losing altitude. Dave suddenly realized the problem was the weight of the gold. 

Below the balloon, they could see the Rio Grande River. The balloon was falling rapidly no matter how much hot air Dave pumped into it. It slowed and plunked down right in the middle of a shallow in the river. When Dave and Bill looked up, there was the Border Patrol on horseback on the bank, just waiting for them.

Thanks to the JSW Challenge and A Writer’s Life!