I’ve missed a couple weeks, but will try to resume posting a weekly snapshot in response to Maria Antonia‘s photo challenge. Maria has again updated her bingo sheet with 25 new categories for July, August, and September. Check out Maria’s #2022picoftheweek to see how you can participate in this fun prompt. My photo represents “Flower Power”
The July 11, 2022 story challenge from Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch is to: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story inspired by the idea, “for a day.” What is so special about the action, person, or object experienced for a day? Go where the prompt leads! Submit at Carrot Ranch by July 16, 2022.
In addition to the flash below, I have another response in 99 words and Six Sentences HERE, which borrows a setting and character from previous prompts.
At Day’s End by D. Avery
“Did you see this?”
She hadn’t. She sighed, looked at him over her book.
“I know what I would spend a day with.”
“What?”
“Who, really. You.”
“You are spending a day with me.” Another one, she thought. Another endless, aimless day. She tried to find her place but was interrupted again.
“I’d cherish a day with the old you.”
“Don’t you mean the young me?”
“Sure, you when you were younger.”
“So you want a younger woman?”
He looked at her uncertainly. “Just you. When you still loved me.”
She bent her head to the tear blurred page.
Be sure to go to Carrot Ranch to read the complete “Freedom” collection from last week. And there’s always the Ranch Yarns with Kid and Pal’s responses HERE.
This week two prompts led me back to a mystical shop that first appeared HERE as a Six Sentence Story. A month later the What-You-Seek Boutique was again featured as a setting for a Carrot Ranch prompt. The current Carrot Ranch prompt is to, in 99 words (no more, no less), write a story inspired by the idea, “for a day.” So here is one take in 99 words and six sentences.
Denise, of GirlieontheEdge, will open the link Wednesday at six for Six Sentence Stories that feature the word “exchange“.
The Exchange by D. Avery
“What you’re looking for is certainly here, but is it what you need?” The twinkle in the old man’s eyes turned sharp as he cautioned, “Consider the cost.”
“Someone or something from my past to spend a day with? — that’s a priceless gift.”
“To revisit what was for what might be,” he said, handing her an old mirror, “Giving up a present day, still charged with possibility— it’s a costly exchange.”
The mirror was identical to one she’d had as a little girl, the one that had once belonged to her grandmother. “The past is for reflection, not reliving.”
At long last and maybe too late, I have six sentences in response to this week’s Six Sentence Story prompt, “labyrinth”. The prompt word put me in mind of walking labyrinths and also of the art of the Tohono O’odham. While inspired by the Tohono O’odham’s ‘Man in the Maze’ the following is not meant to be a retelling of their I’itoi or U’ki’ut’l stories, but is more of a walking meditation to help straighten out my tangled serpentine thoughts.
Do go to our hostess’ site, GirlieontheEdge, and read others’ labyrinthian tales of six sentences each.
The Path by D. Avery
She appeared then, appeared as a mountain revealed when the mists lift, appeared as a pebble revealed in a palm when a fist opens, and she smiled then, knowingly, knew your unspoken words: I have lost my way.
Her gentle laughter was dappled sunlight and there in her hands was an endless rope, woven with each experience you’ve ever had, braided from your stories, and she held the rope, her hands wide apart, wide as the mountain, wide as the world, that you might see how long is your path.
She laughed again, said A straight path, however long, can never lead to the center, and she snapped the rope, and it fell before you in a labyrinthian coil and you again set upon your way as the mists again descended.
This path is long and winding, with abrupt turns seeming to thwart progress. But you can see where you have been and you gain patience with each step; acceptance replaces expectancy as you journey on.
Then a step takes you to a tree cloaked mountain, to where a tossed pebble leaves ripples in the center of a sun dappled lake, and you know that it is all yours, that it is you, that even the gentle laughter you hear is your own.
The June 20, 2022 story challenge from Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch is to: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about what freedom feels like. Whose point of view do you use? Does the idea of freedom cause tension or bring hope? Let the reader feel the freedom. Go where the prompt leads!
My first response to this prompt is a Double Ennead, the 99 syllable form created by Colleen Chesebro. The second response features fictional characters that you may recall from other flashes.
In Sight by D. Avery
Freedom is first brave steps
finding one’s bearings
following a star blazed path— sight in darkness.
Freedom is the light
you’ll never lose your way.
*
Freedom is essential
feeding your spirit
it satisfies your needs and you do not want
Freedom is bold faith
you’ll always have enough.
*
Freedom is rock solid
sure-footed comfort
of knowing you are loved without conditions.
Freedom is the love
you receive and you give.
Planting Ideas by D. Avery
Hope planted the little flags where her dad directed, starting with his grandfather who’d served in WWI and ending with his ancestors who had fought in the Revolution.
“And now a parade!”
“That’s right Hope, the Bicentennial Parade. Celebrating two hundred years of freedom.”
“Did your ancestors fight for freedom Mommy?”
“Always, Hope.” She paused to look down the tree-shaded slope to where a small marker stood just outside the cemetery fence. “But we lost.”
“Everyone’s free in America, Mommy.”
A feather drifted silently down from a towering maple. Picking it up, she wondered at the power of myths.
Be sure to go to Carrot Ranch to read the complete “Danger Zone“ collection from last week. And there’s always the Ranch Yarns with Kid and Pal’s responses HERE.
For Maria Antonia‘s #picoftheweek photo challenge I am crossing off the “Earth Day” square on the bingo sheet. On April 22, official “Earth Day”, I was in a part of the country that looked as if it was another planet, but even in the southwest turtles were important symbols. Now I am home, enjoying familiar sights and events, such as turtles coming up from the ponds to lay eggs in the soft roadside gravel.
Check out Maria’s #2022picoftheweek to see how you can participate in this fun challenge using the bingo sheet as a prompt.
The June 13, 2022 story challenge from Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch is to: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about a danger zone. It can be an exciting plot-driven story (think “story spine”) or a situation a character must confront. Play with different genres, and use craft elements like tension, tone, and pacing. Go where the prompt leads! Submit at Carrot Ranch by June 18, 2022.
Danger Zone by D. Avery
The reporter put aside the binder of articles and commendations, all citing the husband’s legendary calm and commonsense, unflappable even under fire.
“I’m interviewing you.”
“Me?” She pulled nervously at the long sleeves she wore even on this warm day. “There’s nothing to tell.”
She wouldn’t tell how she holds him when he shakes and cries after a harrowing shift. She wouldn’t tell how she endures his punches when he’s in a drunken rage.
“Every time he leaves for work, I fear for his life,” she offered.
She wouldn’t tell how she fears for her own at his return.
Be sure to go to Carrot Ranch to read the complete “Stacking Stones“ collection from last week. And there’s always the Ranch Yarns with Kid and Pal’s responses HERE.
The word this week from GirlieontheEdge, our Six Sentence Story hostess, is “stroke”.
Be sure to go to the LINKUP to enter your own Six Sentences and to read and comment on other stories.
The Stroke by D. Avery
The problem with strokes, her brother used to say, is they don’t kill people, a creed inspired by their father’s stroke, and she understood it as a caring statement, not as callous as it might seem.
No, for together they had witnessed what a prolonged death looked like, what a life trapped in an unspeaking, unmoving body entailed for the family as well as the patient. Both she and her brother knew what their father would have wanted but they’d all been rendered powerless, overwhelmed by emergency responses and subsequent medical interventions that would not heal and restore, would only maintain the basic bodily functions of a once robust man who gradually shrank into unbearable despair with each day that he survived to endure the effects of his stroke.
There’s a line, her brother used to say, that once crossed, it’s too late, once you’re in the hands of the doctors they will keep lungs breathing and hearts beating and call that life even when speech and mobility are gone.
She missed her brother’s voice, but she could hear it in her mind, knew what he was telling her with his eyes, saw the slight nod of affirmation as she followed his silent command, tears forming as she approached his immobile form clutching the pillow. He did not need to speak out loud for her to know that his were tears of gratitude.
For Maria Antonia‘s #picoftheweek photo challenge I am crossing off the “Starts With An M” square on the bingo sheet.
Check out Maria’s #2022picoftheweek to see how you can participate in this fun challenge using the bingo sheet as a prompt.
The June 6, 2022 story challenge from Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch is to: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story that features stone-stacking. How does the activity fit into a story? Who is involved? What is the tone? Do the stones have special meaning? Go where the prompt leads! Submit at Carrot Ranch by June 11, 2022.
History Stacked Against Us by D. Avery
“I’m not sure yet what I’ll do with these larger stones.”
“I have no idea what you’re going to do with any of these rocks Gramps.”
“Getting ready. These here? Perfect for chucking by hand. These ones? They’ll fit in a slingshot.”
“Oh. Then how about a catapult for the larger ones? Gramps, are you feuding with Mr. Nelson again?”
“No, that’s done.”
“Then why the piles of stones?”
“You’ve heard of World War I?”
“Yes, and I’ve heard of World War II. What’s that got to do with you stacking rocks?”
“I’m getting ready for World War IV.”
Be sure to go to Carrot Ranch to read the complete ” Memorial” collection from last week. And there’s always the Ranch Yarns with Kid and Pal’s responses HERE.
ShiftnShake 