100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – week 191

Julia at http://www.juliasplace.org.uk gave us … would this be the day when life changed … as a prompt this week. Here’s my take:

December 21, 2012.

There are some who wonder would this be the day when life changed.

There are others who ask if all life will end that day.

Still more who say it’ll be just another rising and setting of the sun. A day to bring in the harvest, then eat, drink, smoke and enjoy making children.

It started off as a joke. Us calendar makers winding up the priests. Seeng who could come up with the most outrageous prophecies. But now the Mayan people themselves have started to believe us. 

Still. By the time 2012 actually comes around, no one will be that gullible. Surely.

  

 

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – week 187

Thanks Julia at http://www.juliasplace.org.uk for this prompt … …a blank page but what to write?…

Here’s my thought:

  

I couldn’t believe it at first. The cell lock disengaged with a click and the door swung open. I sat there for a while, just watching. Waiting.

No-one came. Silence crept in, swirled around. Gave me a push.

So I strolled out to find a deserted jail, panic on the streets and a worldwide computer failure. It didn’t take long to find out there was no record of anything I’d done. None.

Ok.

I’ve been gifted with a blank page but what to write on it? Hmmm. Shall I be good … or bad?

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – week 186

Julia at www.juliasplace.org.uk has given us this prompt, this week. …looking back, I remember…

I’ve decided to go with something different to my normal, quirky flash fiction. This week, it’s a memory from my twenties.

March 1992. Wet. Windy. Our wedding day went by so quickly. But looking back, I remember little things that are even sweeter now some of those people have passed away. We didn’t have much money. I made my dress and two bridesmaid’s dresses. My mother-in-law drove the wedding car. My husband’s father was his best man. Friends chipped in to make and serve us all a sit-down meal at the local parish hall for our wedding reception. Other friends packed our house to the rafters for the evening. It wasn’t big or flash. But it was filled with love. It couldn’t have been better.

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – week 185

Julia at http://www.juliasplace.org.uk has given us a very topical prompt this week with the Rio Olympics in full swing. The prompt was … With a little effort I wonder if I could do that? …

Here’s my take on it.

“Eastern art. 11am, Village Hall, followed by tea and biscuits.” That’s what the poster said.
I’m always up for a new challenge. There isn’t a martial art I haven’t tried. Taekwando, Karate, Sumo even.
I open the door and eleven pairs of eyes look up. Eleven grey-haired elderly ladies smile.
“Err. I think I may be in the wrong place.”
“Not to worry. While you’re here, you should have a go.”
She hands me a paper swan. “Origami, dear.”
Ok. Hmm. With a little effort I wonder if could do that?
I take a piece of paper and start folding.

 

 

The 100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups is back!

I just love these challenges. Thank you to Julia at who organises these, and everyone who takes part. Why don’t you have a go – you can find out more at http://juliasplace.org.uk/100wcgu/brexit-the-bayeux-tapestry/

The  theme this week is …and just when Harold thought it couldn’t get any worse…

So here’s my take on it …

Zoe held out her chubby little hand for Harold to admire the crushed daisy in her fist. Drooping. Sad. “Mmm, pretty. But don’t eat it.” He brushed away a couple of petals from her lips. “Nana will be back soon, and we’ll have lunch.”

Five minutes later, she had a handful of dirt to show him, smears around her chin. “Not in your mouth, darling. Urgh, dirty.”

A couple more minutes. Zoe held out her hand again. And just when Harold thought it couldn’t get any worse, she opened her fist. “Oh, a worm. Lovely.”

She grinned, mouth full.

“Ah. Half a worm.”

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups

Although I quite often write dark or ambiguously, I’m actually a very positive person. So the prompt that Julia at http://www.juliasplace.org.uk gave us this week, was right up my street.

…thinking positively made me …

The crystal sparked a kaleidoscope of colour as it twisted and turned on its string.
Not that I’d call it a string. No, it was a cosmic link to the All, in the same way as the crystal, far from being a lump of glass, was a conduit to the Universe.
Time for me to go in hard.
“One thousand dollars, Mrs Jones and the crystal will call your husband back to you.”
She delved into her bag, pulled out a fistful of cash.
I smiled. I had faith. Thinking positively made me a good living.

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week 181

2016 has been a bad year so far for taking some of our greatest entertainers. Alan Rickman left us last week, and in recognition Julia from www.juliasplace.org.k gave us the title of one of his films …Truly, Madly, Deeply… Here’s my take on the prompt.

She’s stood at the bus stop again. Early twenties, I guess. Blonde. Petite.

I doubt if she notices me. A man old enough to be her grandfather. I always slow down as I pass. Hope the lights change to red so I have a little longer to watch her.

She reminds me so much of my wife. The only woman I ever loved. Truly, madly, deeply, from the minute I saw her to when they put her in the ground.

I pull in at the bus stop, wind down my window. “It’s raining very hard. Would you like a lift?”

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week 179

Julia at http://www.juliasplace.org.uk gave us …We can be heroes… this week, in recognition of the passing of David Bowie. Here’s my take on it:

“Men, we stand here together on the eve of the battle. We can be heroes or we can be villains. As always, history will be written by the victors, and the victors will decide which we are.
The enemy masses just over that hill. But he won’t remain there. He will be amongst our wives and our daughters by sundown, if we don’t stop him now.
So I say again. We can be heroes. We MUST be heroes.
This a turning point for everyone on Mars. We must strike the Earth invaders down before they bring ruin upon us all.”

 

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week 177

I’ve gone dark this week to Julia’s prompt at http://www.juliasplace.org.uk which was …it has all ended well after all…

Dear Diary.  Since I started writing to you as though you were a real person, I feel as though I’ve really got a friend. Someone I can talk to. No one else understands. But you don’t judge, or frown, or comment. Or turn away in horror.

Today was a good day. I thought it was going to be a problem. Or rather that she would be. But it has all ended well after all. One nosy neighbour in the freezer, and one ex girlfriend safely under the patio.

Until tomorrow, Diary. Night night.

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week 175

A very interesting prompt from Julia this week at http://www.juliasplace.org.uk  “But shall we close the borders”

Hopefully you find this piece sensitive …

They started coming hundreds of years ago, brought over on a ship from a foreign land.

And they settled.

Unwanted, uninvited.

Spanish bluebells, big, showy. Interbred with the natives.

But shall we close the borders to them? Purge them from our patios, our gardens and woodlands? Rip up those that made this green and pleasant land their home?

No, it’s a big, wonderful world, with room for all that just want to exist in peace.

Live and let live.

Please.