A Day In A Life Seeking Joy – Fiction

Time again for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers.   Thank you, PJ, for sponsoring this and for all of your hard work on our behalf.  Please follow lil froggy for more stories.

This week’s photo prompt is provided by H.R.R. Gorman. Thank you H.R.R.!

A Day In A Life Seeking Joy

When I woke up this morning, I felt wrapped in an aura of joy. What did I care that my 4-year-old had jumped up and down on our bed until he was sure I was wide awake? What I did notice, though, was his somewhat “I know I’m in trouble” grin talking to me.

Dear Marie Kondo ~

I want to make this as short as possible. When I woke up this morning, this is what awaited me in my 4-year-old’s room: Help!

Stella from New Orleans

Dear Stella ~

Oh! This is a very easy messy one to handle. Take each piece of toilet paper and fold it in threes. 

Marie  

Ellespeth   ♥

Morning Dew Long Ago – Flash Fiction

Time again for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers.   Thank you, PJ, for sponsoring this and for all of your hard work on our behalf.  Please follow lil froggy for more stories.

This week’s photo prompt is provided by Yinglan. Thank you Yinglan!

Morning Dew Long Ago

That day,  on the way to school, my brothers and I walked into some police fencing. I told them it was just a simple fence, but they insisted it was some sort of police fencing. So, I climbed the chain linked fence. Just beyond where I landed were streamers of what looked like toilet paper. They were wet and heavy from the morning dew.

“Someone finally wrapped ole man Johnson’s yard!” I called out. It did look like that to me.

My voice giggled and caught on the wind and landed in my brother, Evan’s, ear. “You come back here right now, Heather,” Evan yelled.

“You come back here right now, Heather. Do ya hear me tellin’ you?” Evan shouted again.

I did hear him but someone had taped my mouth shut and I couldn’t reply.

Ellespeth

So Speaks The Greater Santa – Flash Fiction

Time again for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers.   Thank you, PJ, for sponsoring this and for all of your hard work on our behalf.  Please follow lil froggy for more stories.

This week’s photo prompt is provided by Akshata Ram. Thank you Akshata!

Happy every sort of everything to everyone ♥

So Speaks The Greater Santa

Greater Santa: What do you mean you cannot see the very way I am greater than you?

Lesser Santa: You are flat. One sided. I am of all  dimensions. Plump. Filled with promise.

Rudolph: If I may interfere here…I am the light that leads you both.

Greater Santa: Oh jelly beans!

Lesser Santa: Oh candy canes!

Merry Christmas 🙂

Ellespeth  ♥

Beautiful Prison Bars – Flash Fiction

Time again for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers.   Thank you, PJ, for sponsoring this and for all of your hard work on our behalf.  Please follow lil froggy for more stories.

This week’s photo prompt is provided by Jade M. Wong.

We are grandparents!  A baby boy!

Beautiful Prison Bars

On the day I professed final vows, my father commissioned to have a lead glass door and upper window designed and installed at the front of the convent building. The metal grill work was especially exquisite.

“How do you like those for your prison bars?” my father asked me once the work had been completed.

We were sitting at the first level bay window of the grand staircase. Below us, outside, the convent’s spring garden was just about to bloom into its fullest glory.

“I will sit here often and think of you,” I replied.

“You didn’t have to do this. You know that, don’t you? That I wish you hadn’t?” Father had always been so against me entering the convent.

“I will sit here often, in silence, and think of you,” I replied.

“I have a right to my opinion,” he said.

I nodded, in agreement, and let him have the last word.

Ellespeth

Patent Pending – Flash Fiction

Time again for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers.   Thank you, PJ, for sponsoring this and for all of your hard work on our behalf.  Please follow lil froggy for more stories.

This week’s photo prompt is provided by Yinglan. Thank you Yinglan!  (I’ve used part of your name in my story Lan)

Patent Pending – A Love Story

“I think I’ve got it!” Heng exclaimed. He took his wife’s arm and led her into his workshop.

Lan, his wife, had been through this many times before. Heng’s inventions. She smiled and let him lead her.

There she saw a milk carton with an antennae sticking out of it. “What is this, Heng?” she asked.

“The Moo-zic!” Heng replied. He flicked a switch on the side of the carton.

Ellespeth

(w/c 75)

When The Mercury Goes Up – Flash Fiction

Time again for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers.   Thank you, PJ, for sponsoring this and for all of your hard work on our behalf.  Please follow lil froggy for more stories.

This week’s photo prompt is provided by Michelle DeAngelis. Thank you Michelle!

Here is the photograph and my story…Since my husband and I will be grandparents soon,  I must have baby on the brain 😛

When The Mercury Goes Up

Dad was calling for me from the catamaran. Our deep-sea fishing customers were ready to catch some Atlantic bluefin tuna,  but I couldn’t take my arms from around Charlotte’s waist.

“Catch a big ole fat tuna for our supper tonight,” she whispered in my ear.

“I will if you say it again.” I still couldn’t take my arms from around her.

“Catch a big ole fat tuna for our supper tonight,” Charlotte whispered again.

“Not that.  ” I nuzzled against her neck.  Inhaled everything sweet in my life.

“Oh! You mean the part where I just told you I’m pregnant?” she asked.

I lifted her up and swung her around and put her down gently again. We heard Dad cussing. We were laughing and whooping.

“Yes!”

Ellespeth  ♥

(w/c 122)

I Always Wear Red – Flash Fiction

Time again for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers. This week’s photo prompt is provided by wildverbs. Thank you wildverbs! Please click lil froggy for other stories.

Here is the photo and my entry:

I Always Wear Red

“Is that you, Millie?”

“Yes, Mamma.” I leaned over and brushed my lips against her cheek.

Fading glimmers of late afternoon sun filtered into her room.   The walls were a barely blush pink. The window was foggy.  Lace panels were flapping.

“Your Daddy just left.”

I sat on the easy chair next to Mamma. It broke my heart to see her this way. Daddy’s been dead 15 years.

Maybe she really knows it’s me. I’m wearing the bright red sweater she gave me long ago.

Ellespeth

At The Landing

Time again for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers.his week’s photo prompt is provided by Ted Strutz. Thank you Ted for our photo prompt!  Please click lil froggy for other stories.

Here is the photo and my entry for this week.At The Landing

It had been a long afternoon and we’d  just missed the previous ferry.  The kid was wired for a nap that hadn’t happened.  I needed a glass of wine.

Me:  If you sit still for just a second I’ll go and get you a cotton candy.

Child:  Coke, too?

It was some time later. I trudged back to our car with cotton candy and soda.

Child: Coke?

Me:  They only had Pepsi.

Ellespeth

(w/c 78)

An Afternoon After School – Flash Fiction

Time again for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers.  This week’s photo prompt is provided by Yinglan. Thank you Yinglan!  Please click lil froggy for other stories.

Here is the photo and my entry for this week.

An Afternoon After School

I was a young girl then.

Each day, after school, I walked to my father’s shoe store and sat in the storage room and did my homework. I dreamed about my future.

The day Father received the red shoes, she appeared. My brothers rushed to serve her and compliment her. All the colors in the room were muted. Even her lovely silk dress and the noise of time passing were muted.

“I will take these red shoes,” the lady said.  She kicked up her heel and smiled down at my younger brother.

He offered to box and bag them for her.

“Thank you,  but no,” she said. “I want to wear them now. You can send these old shoes to me later.”

I think her lips were red, too. Her skin was like ivory. Her voice soft and sweet – just as I imagined mine would be one day.

Ellespeth

When Mysteries Were Exciting – Flash Fiction

Time again for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers.    Thanks to PJ for hosting our gathering and to our mysterious photographer.  Please click lil froggy for other stories.

Here is the photo and my entry for this week:

When Mysteries Were Exciting

We sit here again. Each in a downy winged back chair. Just in front of the french windows. Outside lies the village. It is neither large nor small. A facade of walls behind which private moments, such as these, unfold.  The scent of kumquat blossoms drifts into the room.

You: Tell me the story behind your eyes just now.

Me: Mysteries used to be exciting.

It is the noon hour. A bright sun struggles its way into the alley’s curves and blind spots.

You: Was that recently?

Me: Do you mean the mysterious or the exciting?

You: Either.

Me: Oh! That was very long ago.

Ellespeth