Just To Rub It In

 

“You should have let them check it first.”

“It’s not that bad,” Stephen tried.

“You always act as if you know everything,” Martha pressed. “Five more minutes and they would have found the glitch.”

Stephen shrugged. “I’ll fix it.”

“Like you did the hole in our sky?” Martha retorted, satisfied with how his hands tightened on the steering wheel. At least he was getting a taste of the frustration he was causing.

“Now our daughter will have to grow up with a partial simulation,” she added. To rub it in.

“Our simulated daughter.”

He always did get the last word.

 

 

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo prompt © Fleur Lind

En Route

 

“Mind your step.”

I nodded. I’d waited too long for this to end my chance with a twisted ankle. The stairs were strewn with leaves and refuse.

“Leave no sign. It will be dark.”

I dipped my chin again in acquiescing. I’d promised that no matter what, I would not make a sound. I hoped the thunder of my heart between my ears did not transmit over the earpiece.

“Walk down.”

I did. Tried not to think about the booby traps.

If I made it in one piece, the door would open. To tunnels. To the safety of the Under-Town.

 

 

 

 

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo prompt © Roger Bultot

 

 

Impressed

 

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(Photo: Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash)

 

Impressed, she was.

The image etched into her mind.

The angle of his neck,

Head bent over the

Guitar,

Engraved

Onto her heart.

 

 

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt of Engrave in 23 words

 

Her Vision

 

 

She tried. But still she could not see.

Not the way she should have. Not the way others expected her to. Not how they could. All crisp lines and sharp edges.

There was no focus to her sight. No defined hues.

No boundaries.

No wonder others thought she had no need for any.

She used to think it was her fault. Her eyes a reflection of failure.

She’d seen a doctor since. In secret, but at least this one was hers to hold in confidence.

Her optic nerve had never fully formed.

But her heart, she now knew, saw perfectly.

 

 

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo prompt © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

 

Sweet Redress

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(Photo: Hannes Wolf on Unsplash)

 

She didn’t mean for it to happen. Or she did.

She was no saint.

Sure, decades have passed. Much water under bridges.

A better person would have let it go.

Not Linda.

Not when Marilee had deliberately spilled nail polish onto Linda’s gown on competition day.

Twenty years of rumination.

Until … Marilee’s brand new car.

Linda gifted a young neighbor with spray paint.

An aspiring painter with bad aim.

Sweet revenge.

 

 

 

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt of: Revenge in 72 words

 

Her Own Shadow

 

Evening light filtered through partially open curtains. Outside the porch’s floorboards sighed. A car’s engine coughed into life. The scent of crushed leaves and motor oil drifted on an errant breeze.

She sighed.

There will be time to sort through the tangled mess inside her heart, to sweep up shards of life, to breathe out the echoes of words she wished to never have heard.

Not yet.

For the moment, she just sat.

A shadow of her former self.

In a house that wept emptiness.

And let the space behind her eyes

Hold her as she waited

To be found.

 

 

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo: © Dale Rogerson

 

Madam Toole

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Photo: Mick Haupt on Unsplash

 

Madam Toole

Had a rule:

No one sitting

On her stool.

That chair

Was her

Jewel.

 

 

 

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt of “rule” in 16 words

 

Greenhorn

 

“A pile of junk,” she had called it.

“My pile of junk,” Tim had responded, knowing then that if it came to choice, it would not be her he’d choose. And not because he cared for wheels and metal more than for flesh and blood. If Daria could not see why Poppa’s beloved Greenhorn was worth saving, she could not see worth where it sat.

Flesh and blood. Heart and soul. Memories and family.

His only. Family.

Daria found a man with a Jaguar.

Tim renovated Poppa’s car.

Found Miranda.

“A classic!” she exclaimed.

Flesh and heart. Worthy of Poppa’s car.

 

 

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo prompt © Brenda Cox

 

 

 

 

Singled Out

 

 

He didn’t mind.

Not really.

She tossed him out, she did. A punishment. For being “self-absorbed” and “unmotivated.”

Fair blame, it was. If needing quiet time was selfish, and if not finding it important to climb the never-ending escalator of social comparison, spelled lacking motivation.

Emily liked that stuff.

He did not.

A mismatch more than an actual problem.

For him.

He’d have to find better insulated housing before winter. But in the interim, the camper offered everything he needed.

Shelter. Nature. Quiet. Calm.

Perhaps he’d send Emily a thank you card. Next time he was in town.

 

 

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo prompt © Bill Reynolds

 

Unlocked

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(Photo: Deann DaSilva on Unsplash)

 

She knew she never should have let it run

Amok.

Should have kept it

Always

Locked.

But she wobbled

At the sight of keys under the

Rock.

It ran,

Before she could even feign

Shock.

 

 

 

 

For Sammi’s weekend writing prompt of Amok in 35 words