Storied Stories

January 21, 2022Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Things Kids Say, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Adversity, books, Childhood trauma, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, hope, Institutionalization, library, Micro-fiction, Survival 42 Comments

childrens-library-ted-strutz

They climbed in silence, single file, the occasional foot scraping a bare concrete step.

Lindon pressed his lips. It helped stop the trembling. This was his first ‘trip’ off the ward and he wanted to look around. To look at others for their reactions. But new or not, he’d learned enough to understand that it was better not to. He kept his head low.

A scent hit him. Like Grandma’s house. Last month. Eons ago. He blinked.

The stairs ended. He looked up. His eyes grew.

His heart, too.

A room of books.

Stories. Escape.

He knew he would survive.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo prompt © Ted Strutz

The Gall

January 8, 2022Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Adversity, Betrayal, Cruelty, Deceit, Flash Fiction, Home, Homelessness, Micro-fiction, Temerity, Weekend Writing Prompt 16 Comments

(Photo: Abigail on Unsplash)

She steamed and paced and stomped and stewed.

The temerity. The audacious liberties he’d taken.

It was one thing to sell the house.

Another, to have removed her name from the deed.

To have kept the change hidden.

Her parents’ house, no less.

The place of hers – not his – childhood.

Cruelty was why she’d left him.

But this?

He, vacationing on islands.

She and the children, homeless.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Temerity in 69 words.

The Gift

December 11, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Adversity, Current events, Flash Fiction, Hidden, History, Micro-fiction, Secret, Smuggle, Trafficking, Weekend Writing Prompt, Work 23 Comments

(Photo: Jennifer Burk on Unsplash)

She was not there.

Of course, she did the work. She wiped the sinks. She did the wash. She peeled the taters. Washed the floors.

But she was not there.

Not when people stopped by. Not where there were any windows open or any blinds up.

She’d been smuggled to them as a child.

A gift.

From someone.

To the man and lady of the house.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Smuggle in 66 words

Wild Away

December 5, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Breathing Space, CCC, Childhood Adversity, connection, Finding a way, Flash Fiction, Foster Care, healing, Home, Micro-fiction, New Beginnings 12 Comments

ccc160

Margot leaned closer to examine the stake. Her smile grew.

The child should be called Gretel, with such clues.

Then again, Margot was no evil stepmom. Or at least, not evil … The two of them couldn’t help not being biologically related.

Not any more than the girl could help being wild.

The social worker believed the latter a hindrance. Understandable, perhaps, given how many placements the child had lost. The system found it inconvenient to have a lass with more wilderness than tameness, who needed space and took it. Knowing Grenadine’s history, how could they not see why she’d tolerate no leash?

“This child will run away,” the social worker had warned when Margot said she’ll have her. “You’re so rural, you’d have no help keeping her contained.”

Margot had no plan to do so.

The child was free. The sticker meant that she’d be home by dinner.

For Crispina’s Crimson’s Creative Challenge

No Reflection

November 13, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Adversity, Ancestors, Family, Flash Fiction, Historical trauma, History, Micro-fiction, Mirror, Recognition, Weekend Writing Prompt 41 Comments

(Photo: Pixabay)

The full-length glass was bedecked in heavy gilded glory. A forest of paintings crowded around it, their layered oils glistening in the candlelight.

She stopped and stared back at the faces. Unsmiling figures in stiff postures clad in roiling silk and velvet cloths.

Perhaps they ought to have felt familiar. The line of jaw, the slant of brow, the coil of hair above a hooded eye. She had seen all those before. She could again. If she just let her eyes glide toward the mirror.

She would not.

Know them.

Her ancestors.

Her captors.

Both.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Mirror in 95 words

The Scene Setter

November 3, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Professional Development, Reflections, Speech Language Pathology, Things Kids Say, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Adversity, Being heard, Childhood Adversity, Childhood trauma, Communication failure, Friday Fictioneers, Giving voice, listening, Telling without words, Through children's eyes 57 Comments

jennifers-legos FF

“And then what happened?”

The soft-spoken woman in ugly tweeds shifted in her chair, and Thomas knew he was in trouble. He almost told. She expected him to. She was nice so he’d do what she wanted.

They all wanted to trick him. Especially those pretending to be nice. So he’d do stuff. Make mistakes. Be punished.

Thomas fiddled with the pencil. He wanted to pull Santa’s head off. Instead, he drew circles.

He hated circles.

He put toys inside them.

Made the toy-boy lie down. Ran him over.

“Well,” the woman sighed, “perhaps you’ll be more talkative tomorrow.”

Note: Dedicated to the brave children who find a way to tell, even when they tell without words, even when those around them may not see that they are, indeed, trying. May you find someone who understands.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo: © Jennifer Pendergast

Not Granted

October 23, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Asking Questions, Current events, Facts Matter, Lies, Poetry, Politics, Right from Wrong, Spin, Truth, Weekend Writing Prompt 30 Comments

(Photo: Christophe Hautier on Unsplash)

Do not take any of it

For granted.

Words that oft repeat are not

In of themselves

A fact,

Just because they are told

With sneering emphasis.

Beware of those who judge

A question

As treason,

As something one must

Automatically

Dismiss

Or risk being called

Disloyal

To a person,

For having fealty to the Truth

And the backbone

To speak.

So, yes, do

Question

Empty statements.

Do withhold permission

To deflect

Blame

From those who harm,

To those who point out

The abuse.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Question in 84 words

Untenable

October 16, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Adversity, Current events, Hard times, History, Human Rights, Migration, Poetry, Prejudice, Refugees, Seeking safety, Weekend Writing Prompt 27 Comments

the-new-york-public-library-pwoTQl2xuM8-unsplash

(Photo: The NYPL on unsplash)

They didn’t plan to bring

With them

A legion of

Trouble.

They only wished

To find,

For their

Loved ones,

A measure of

Escape.

A new home where

They could

Be safe.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Legion in 32 words

Forgotten Power

October 14, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Adversity, Better times, Cafe, Flash Fiction, Flower girl, Forgotten, Friday Fictioneers, hardship, Micro-fiction, Photo prompt 50 Comments

brenda-cox-merry-go-round

She took another sip of coffee. A small one. To make it last.

A dreary morning meant the outdoor cafe wasn’t busy. Still, the waiter would surely clear her table as soon as her cup ran dry. He’d already deposited the check to flutter underneath the saucer. Hastening her to remove the eyesore of tattered bags and unkempt hair from the establishment.

Her chest tightened and her hand trembled. She forced in a deep breath.

She used to own the place. In better days.

She could still see it, riding through her mind’s eye. Her colorfully beloved Flower Power Cafe.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

A Heart of Stone

October 8, 2021October 8, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Adversity, CCC, Determination, Flash Fiction, Grief, Hard work, heart, Micro-fiction, Photo prompt, Siblings, Tenacity 12 Comments

ccc152

“All you have is this little wheelbarrow?”

Marsha nodded.

Shelly shook his head.

“I don’t mind how long it takes,” the despair in Martha’s voice was overshadowed by determination. “And anyway, this won’t be too heavy.”

Shelly shrugged. “You’d change your mind after you make a few trips pushing this rusty thing uphill against the wind.”

In the weeks that followed Marsha wondered more than once if her brother had conjured the wind just to spite her. Dust and grit found purchase in her eyes and throat. Her palms grew red, then raw, then rough.

And still, she pushed the loaded wheelbarrow through gravel and scrub brush and small canyons of cracked earth that manifested overnight upon the path she forged across the steppe.

Slowly the grave-marker took shape.

“I’ve brought the stones from our creek, Mama,” she whispered as she placed each carefully. “Your heart will never again thirst.”

For Crispina‘s Crimson’s Creative Challenge