Fiction Friday: Caledonia

Posted on December 26, 2014 by treshabarger

Friday Fictioneer Challenge: Write a 100-word story based on the photo.
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Friday Fictioneer photo prompt. Copyright Bjorn Rudberg

Caledonia

Quintus woke with a vision: The Emperor Septimius Severus would not return to Rome, but would soon take his last breath beneath the northern sky of Britannia.

At dawn, Quintus broke his fast at his post on the Antonine Wall. His vision weighed heavily on his mind, for dangerous times followed an emperor’s death. He knew Rome was lost to him forever. Fleeing was risky; staying possibly even more so. To the north lay Caledonia, the only land not under Roman rule.

The next sunrise found his post abandoned, but with the news of the emperor’s death, no one noticed.
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The photographer is Bjorn Rudberg and his story is The Emigrant.

Fiction Friday: Family Reunion

Posted on December 19, 2014 by treshabarger

The Friday Fictioneer Challenge: Write a 100-word story based on the photo.
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Friday Fictioneer photo prompt. Copyright Douglas M MacIlroy

Family Reunion

Good, a nice crunchy cockroach. I hope it will be enough for the family reunion. I can’t remember who all is coming. Let’s see, 175 of my children, 327 grandchildren and 809 great-grandchildren. All those munchkins! I’m just going to call everyone Sweetie and Honey.

Guess it’s too much to expect everyone to behave for a few hours. Sheila won’t; she kills and eats her husband soon after they arrive; it’s always so embarrassing. (A new husband each year, too. Where does she find them?) The kids run all over, ripping up my web and then . . .

Oh, there’s the doorbell!
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Fiction Friday: Stolen by the Storm

Posted on December 12, 2014 by treshabarger

Friday Fictioneer challenge: Write a 100-word story based on the photo.
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a creekbed with a bridge over it; recent rains left twigs, branches and lots of trash under the bridge. Friday Fictioneer prompt. Copyright Sandra Crook

Friday Fictioneer prompt. Copyright Sandra Crook

Stolen by the Storm

Lindy knew what the creek bed would look like, under the bridge: rocks, branches, trash. She filled several bags with plastic bottles, broken toys, torn clothing, and any metal objects she could find.

In her shop, she built the trash into treasure, naming each piece “Stolen by the Storm” with the storm’s date. Lindy sold every piece she ever made, wondering if any buyers recognized some of the scrap components as their own. Did they purchase the artwork out of guilt, then, or were they happy to find a piece of their life that the storm had taken from them?
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Fiction Friday: The Soul of the Garden

Posted on December 5, 2014 by treshabarger

The Friday Fictioneer challenge: Write a 100-word story based on the photo.
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Friday Fictioneer photo prompt. Copyright Janet Webb

The Soul of the Garden

Running steps thunder atop the path. Little arms push through brittle twigs and branches as white puffs of breath ascend and dissipate. Ice falls onto hats and coats, melting when coming in contact with children’s faces and hands. Echoes of their laughter seep into the leaves, stems and trunks, sinking through the roots, igniting a spark of time, of change, of warmth, of hope.

This message travels beneath the frozen earth, down and across, across and down, reaching all life in its suspended, wintry state. The soul of the garden awakens to the music of children’s laughter. Spring is nigh.
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Fiction Friday: The Bookmark

Posted on November 28, 2014 by treshabarger

The Friday Fictioneer challenge: Write a 100-word story based on the photo prompt.

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Friday Fictioneer photo prompt. Copyright Randy Mazie

The Bookmark

Gasping, Tom wobbled onto the grass, the world around him whirling in streaks of green, blue, and white. He managed only a few more steps before dropping the book, falling face down onto it. No one noticed as he quit breathing. If Tom had taken the time to open the book while still in the library, he would have found the bookmark, the one he’d given his wife, Helen, as a souvenir from one of his trips, the one she forgot to remove when returning the book they were both so very interested in, titled: How to Poison Your Spouse.

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It's a long story …

a light-hearted look at life by Tresha Barger

Category Archives: Fiction