Rock-a-bye Rock

May 14, 2025Na'ama Yehuda Funnies, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Apprentice, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Just for fun, Lullaby, Making it work, Micro Fiction, Stubborn 43 Comments

“You must rock them or they’ll never hatch.”

Emilio sighed. His arms ached. This wasn’t what he had in mind when he’d traded a cushy private school spot for an ATM position.

Early mornings, late-night assignments, mediocre food, bedbugs. A ton of work, literally. Zero glamor.

He’d quit but this would give his parents the last laugh.

“Apprentice-To-Magi?” they’d chortled when he told them he’d signed on. “Muddy misery and miserly masters. You wouldn’t last a week!”

He grit his teeth, planted his feet, and rocked, singing under his breath, as he’d been instructed: “Rock-a-bye-rocks, in a crib box …”

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo by the lovely Dale Rogerson

Oceana

September 29, 2023Na'ama Yehuda Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Childhood Adversity, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Making do, Making it work, Micro Fiction, Nostalgia, Ocean, Sailing 23 Comments

They never understood, when they “put her into care,” that she already had all she needed: a trundle, a trunk, a life-vest, as many friends as any needed. Sure, she’d fallen overboard, but only in stormy weather, which meant all hands on deck to sound the “Lassie Overboard Alarm” and save her.

For years she pined. For the salt air. The open space. The freedom. Even for the callouses that Papa said were part of a sailor.

Now grown, and anchored by children of her own, the sea remained away.

But she could bring it home.

Create her Oceana.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo prompt © Jennifer Pendergast

Mostly Between

August 24, 2023Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Job, Making it work, Meditation, Micro Fiction, Photo prompt, Relationships, Responsibility 14 Comments

“I gotta go,” Ari stuffed a sandwich into her mouth with one hand and a sweater into her bag with the other.

“Wait!” Ella’s eyes remained on her phone’s screen.

“Can’t.” Ari grabbed the keys. “I’ll be late for work.”

She left before Ella said another word, or at least, without hearing it.

They needed her job. Ella, per usual, was “between jobs.”

And I’m mostly between heaven and earth, Ari chuckled. She got into the car, shifted gears, and took a deep breath. Meditation was a crucial part of acrobatics. Even if it was not Cirque, but only shark-diving.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo prompt: © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Amenities

July 8, 2023Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Funnies, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Amenities, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Honeymoon, Making it work, Micro Fiction, Photo Fiction, Relationships 42 Comments

“Told you there’d be amenities!” Bob beamed.

Raquel looked around the campsite. Mud. Mess. And Misery. She bit her tongue. Only herself to blame. She should have known.

“When something is too good to be true, it is too good to be true,” her Ma always said. And of course, her Ma was (always) right.

Ma also told her that Bob was bad news, a bunch of trouble, and would never amount to anything.

True on all three counts.

She took a deep breath. She made her bed, and she was gonna lie in it. Even in a tent.

For Friday Fictioneers

A Matter Of Scope

October 12, 2020October 12, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Quotes, Reflections, Writing Tags: Arts and Crafts, Botany, Creative writing, dVerse, Flash Fiction, Historical fiction, Making it work, Micro-fiction, Prosery, Quote, Relationships 35 Comments

(Photo: Anna Sullivan on Unsplash)

“It was never a matter of reach, but of scope,” Morris mouthed the words around his pipe.

Ethel harrumphed under her breath, but gently. She had to take care to not move the petals or she would have to restart the lot, and there was nothing she disliked more than having to redo tediousness. Be it in business or in marriage.

“Cannot see what you find in him,” her mother had criticized her daughter’s choice of man.

“Perhaps we look at him through the wrong end of the long telescope of Time,” her father had chuckled in knifing disapproval.

“Too long a telescope it must be,” her mother had deadpanned.

Her parents were both gone now. To the shorter end of cholera. Left Ethel and Morris the house. And a failing botany business which they were slowly but assuredly pressing into sought after art.

Prosery quote: ‘We look at him through the wrong end of the long telescope of Time’ (Hummingbird, D.H. Lawrence)

For the dVerse prosery challenge