Photo: © Russell Gayer
“We don’t go There,” Mama always warned. “Ever.”
“There” was beyond the fence. Where the embankment locked in perpetual shadows and where the yellow cliffs rose shining in the sun and where the scary things lived and mortal danger was certain to find you.
As a child I never questioned the relative flimsiness of the wire fence and how it possibly prevented such pervasive awfulness from invading the compound.
It wasn’t until much later that it occurred to me to wonder whether both the fence and its electric bite were there to keep us in.
For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers
Na'ama Yehuda 
Fences and borders work both ways. Nice observation.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed! And oftentimes one may not know they are in a gilded (or electric … ) cage till they realize what they’ve been told to fear may not be what they really should be afraid of …
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good question
LikeLiked by 1 person
Or … realization …. 😉
LikeLike
Na’ama Y’karah,
Things aren’t always what they seem, are they? Fences work both ways. I felt the electric shock of her realization. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, dear Rochelle!
Indeed things can often be very different than what one is made to believe they are. Part of growing up includes questioning supposed axioms about reality, rules, and reflexive old-tapes … but this does not make it an easy growing-up, especially in those cases where one realizes they’d been systematically misled. A lot more to patch up then. Thank you for this comment! 🙂 Na’ama
LikeLike
Shocking revelation. Authentic observation. It hurts to come of age!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed it can, especially when one realizes that part of it includes coming to terms with deliberate betrayal. Thank you for the comment!
LikeLike
Nice! I wonder how many others will start to have the same thought. Revolution may be coming!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perhaps … though human nature is that many – in captivity or not – do not question what they’re told. That said, if enough do, change can come.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Exactly so.
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂 And sometimes more literally than at other time …
LikeLike
Good one… One can imagine the perspective of a child raised in captivity who wouldn’t even realize they were caged until by some chance the reality is revealed… need a sequel for that. 🙂 ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Jelli,
Indeed, children will believe the reality they are told (they have no other frame of reference when very young) no matter how incredulous. Some never question it. Some – captive or not – begin to wonder whether what they’re told is all there is or if there is more to reality than meets the eye and had been stated to them.
Re: sequel … a few other people on twitter and facebook had stated the same … so, who knows … there may just be one … 😉
Thank you for the comment!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fences works in both directions… the same is true for walls.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed, and often times walls ans fences aren’t quite as necessary as one is told they are, especially when those are pushed in propaganda as meant to protect one from a supposed ‘invasion’ when in fact they’re meant as an altar to power, greed, and fear-mongering.
LikeLike
Love the way you did this. Until you are old enough to understand, you are being protected… or are you?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sometimes you may think you are … but other times a little nagging thought begins to collect mismatching statements and wonder about reality and a worm of doubt may start forming alternative hypotheses to what you’d been told. Some act on these. Some crush them because doubt and change may involve confrontation and they aren’t ready for it. This is true especially for any closed society/community/family, where authoritative ‘rule’ is meant to override independent thought or questioning. What one is told is often not what is truth, but what is meant to control. … Thank you for the comment, my dear Dale!
LikeLiked by 1 person
So very true…
LikeLiked by 1 person
xoxo
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fence is made to keep people in. How successful it is in the long run is debatable.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed! My thoughts exactly! 🙂 Na’ama
LikeLike
A matter of perspective. A well developed, clever story. =)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Brenda! These micro-fiction bits can be a ‘miss’ sometimes, so I’m so glad you found it worked! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very good story, and so true. Sometimes it’s an electric fence that separates people, sometimes it’s the fences they build in their heads and hearts. Blind belief never tears these down.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well said! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person