Her Vision

December 7, 2022Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Adversity, Childhood trauma, Expectations, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Micro-fiction, Secrets, Self Discovery, Tenacity, Vision 43 Comments

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

Hanging In

October 4, 2022Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Adversity, Creative writing, dVerse, Finding a way, Hanging on, hope, Life paths, Poetry, Quadrille, Unknown 18 Comments

(Photo: Ray Fragapane on Unsplash)

They didn’t know then

Or still

What track life will

Bring.

Yet they hold on,

By bootstraps

Hoping

For just enough breath with which to

Sing,

To the sun

That would rise,

To the hope

That would

Cling.

Till dawn will

Another story

String.

For dVerse Quadrille Poetry challenge

Indefinitely

October 1, 2022Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Adversity, belief, Creative writing, Current events, Deceit, Faith, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Micro-fiction 39 Comments

Photo credit: © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

They didn’t know when Power would return.

When they’d be allowed to leave.

Only that it would have to.

Because it had been promised. And they’d been raised to listen. And believe.

The grid was down. The streets were bare. The shelves that once were filled to the brim were naked in the lanterns’ glare.

It mattered none.

When they had faith.

Power had said, before he left, the back of the car packed with goods he “had to take to the needier elsewhere,” that they were meant to wait, “indefinitely, if need be.”

An test of faith.

Till death.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Not His Kind

July 2, 2022Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: Adversity, Finding peace, Flash Fiction, healing, Home, kindness, Micro-fiction, Relationships, Starting over, Weekend Writing Prompt 33 Comments

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(Photo: Daniel Diesenreither on Unsplash)

When he first saw her, he thought, no way!

After all, he preferred the quiet kind who’d let him listen to the crackle, to the silence, to the breathing of the cabin’s logs.

He thought her flippant. Voluble.

Disrespectful of tranquility. Wasting words.

But she’d been sent, and his household needed a woman.

So he endured.

Till he heard her soothe a monologue of comfort into his orphan’s ear.

And his heart turned dear.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt of Flippant in 74 words.

The Lost

June 30, 2022Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Adversity, CCC, Cult, despair, Flash Fiction, Micro-fiction, Photo prompt, Rescue, Trauma, Tyranny 9 Comments

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It wasn’t the hunger. Or the cold. Or the worry that their bruises won’t have time to heal before another layer made lace of the colors on their skin, to serve a lesson in horror and morals for their kin.

It was, more than anything, the despair.

The utter loneliness within.

The feeling that there will never be another way to be. Another way to live. Another place to be.

For the Commune was The Law, and The Law was The Faith, and The Faith was the whip and the rope and the cellar’s dirt floor.

The Law was everything.

Until.

That day when someone – who some later said was of the lost who were forbidden to be let back in – breached the fences. Ignored the “No Entry” sign circling the fields. Climbed through the grasses.

With a lens. And later, with the law.

For Crispina’s Crimson’s Creative Challenge

Inside Job

March 17, 2022Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Adversity, Encourage, Finding a way, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Make the most of it, Making do, Micro-fiction, Survival 25 Comments

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“It doesn’t matter what it looks like on the outside …”

“Yea,” Elianna intoned, “it’s what on the inside that matters.”

“Exactly,” Jennifer winked. To be easily discouraged was a privilege of the young. Something time cured. Or tanned into tough old leather. She chuckled.

“What?” Elianna sounded wounded.

“I was laughing at myself, Eli.” Jennifer tested the length of her chains. Sink to bed to door. “We can do not a thing about that horrid gate or those who guard it, but let’s put some elbow grease into this door and make our inside view a good deal better.”

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo prompt © Brenda Cox

Stable Home

March 9, 2022Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Things Kids Say, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Adversity, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Home, Making do, Micro-fiction, Priorities, Seeking safety, Stable, Survival 42 Comments

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They thought it mattered to him that it wasn’t fancy. That he’d care it was damp. Or old. Or cobbled together from what materials could be found.

They were wrong.

All he ever wanted was a roof that did not leak, a hearth that could be lit, food enough to fill his belly, safety in his sleep, a bed that did not bite, walls that did not threaten to collapse about his ears.

The cabin was all that.

And more.

Sure, it had housed horses, and smelled of them, sometimes.

It only made it more a home.

A stable home.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo prompt © Lisa Fox

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

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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