PHOTO PROMPT © David Stewart Luggage double-checked? Yes Passports and tickets? Yes, all in my attache. Hotel reservations? Yes, adjoining rooms off of the pool. Stop-mail and newspaper delivery notices confirmed? No, but Mary will collect them daily for us. Kids’ bags double-checked? Yes. Billy tried tried to pack Hermie. The school knows they will…
Category: fiction
#FF — home is heaven
PHOTO PROMPT © Brenda Cox A lump of dirt presses into Mei’s ribs. Slabs of sunlight between the alley shed’s slats light strips of her hollow-cheeked face as she curls behind old tires. What will Jinn, her ten-year-old son, scout out and bring back to her today? Jinn comes home late after scavenging dumpsters and…
#FF — read the fine print
The fog has rolled in. Forever summer has ended. I watch sunset through calcified memories captured in a warped globe of fragility. “Martha!” I am shaken from reverie. There is an urgency to Fred’s voice that makes me hurry my slipper-padded steps to the back bedroom. Fred has fallen. There’s visible swelling on his forehead…
#FF — The Middle Ground
PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot Unless you live in our ‘hood or do business in it, you avoid it. It’s a place that makes the news, which always tolls loss. It’s a place where you either huddle behind deadbolts or play hard in the streets. Few walk the middle ground. Barry arrives at nine sharp…
#FF — Town Hero
PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook i. Locals learned historical context of the rubble in grade school. As adults it meant a draw for a dependable stream of tourists who came to visit, gawk, selfie-snap, overeat, and buy made-in-China souvenirs to take home to their envious families. Woke marketing recast it in an ugly, oppressionistic light….
#FF — Tenth Anniversary
PHOTO PROMPT © Bill Reynolds Today is the tenth anniversary … of her leaving. He’s not sure why he’s programmed his phone to beep for it every year. It’s not as if he doesn’t have a reminder each time he steps outside or looks from his northern window. Mary was in the barn, brushing Jinn….
#FF — One Glass of Wine
PHOTO PROMPT © Fleur Lind Half of Mina’s friends cautioned her to decline the prize and the other half didn’t. She had entered and won WBLD’s limerick contest, where a home-cooked dinner was first prize. The Count, a national celebrity in Transylvania, hosted a knockoff version of “Kitchen Nightmares” where all recipes included fresh kill….
Tao-Talk 