Plenty Enough Of That

April 25, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Adversity, encouragement, Finding a way, Flash Fiction, Grief, Loss, love, Micro-fiction, Relationships, Support, Weekend Writing Prompt, Writing Challenge 17 Comments

Photo: E.K.

“I don’t know what we’ll do,” she sobbed.

He lifted her chin gently till the brown-speckled eyes met his. “We’ll manage,” he said, surety threaded carefully into his voice. He didn’t want her feeling as if she was weak for unraveling or wondering whether any of what she was feeling was excessive or unreasonable. It was not.

He didn’t have all the answers, either.

Only love.

He had plenty of that.

And it had to be enough.

“Everything’s a mess,” she sighed.

It was. And yet, it wasn’t. Not everything. Their care for each other had not a single tangle in it.

“It’s like this cotton field,” he breathed. “Raw fibers that are nonetheless brimming with nascent fabric potential. We’ll pick through our grief and weave love into a new life.”

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Fabric in 131 words

Totally Tina

April 24, 2020April 24, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: Best friends, CCC, Creative writing, delight, Fairies, Flash Fiction, Great houses, Just for fun, Micro-fiction, Perfect fit, Photo prompt 10 Comments

bluebell-yawning-tree CrispinaKemp

“Oh, but this will do! This will absolutely and completely do!”

Mattie grinned at her friend’s delight. If there was one thing you could count on when it came to Tina, it was exuberance. Roiling and contagious rivers of it. “I’m so glad,” she chuckled. “The Bluebells ensured this had your name on it.”

Tina walked around, unable to stand still and barely able to contain herself. Her voice jingled in the crisp spring air. “We’ll just need a ladder, of course. Marco could make one for me. And a bit of rain awning. I’ll ask Sheri to sew one. I’m sure she has some spare water-proof material that her magical fingers can persuade to cooperate.”

The tiny figure twirled, skirts flying in the sunlight. “Oh, Mattie, you are the best best best friend anyone could ask for. I can’t wait to move in! This is the perfect fairy house!”

For Crispina’s Crimson’s Creative Challenge

Man In The Straw

April 23, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Things Kids Say, Writing Tags: Bedtime stories, children, Creative writing, Family, Folklore, grandparents, Micro-fiction, Photo prompt, questions, Things Kids Say, WritePhoto 10 Comments

Photo: Sue Vincent

“And the man in the straw danced and danced …”

“Till the morning came and changed his chance?”

Thomas stroked his granddaughter’s head. She never tired of the story. Her favorite, and she knew it by heart. As he knew her many expressions, the myriad of small sounds she made as she dreamed each night.

She was his favorite. His only, but still his favorite. No one could convince him otherwise.

“Grandpa?” the child burrowed deeper into her blankets.

“Yes, Pumpkin?”

“Do you think the man in the straw ever wanted to be something else?”

He felt his eyes widen as he glanced down at her. Her eyes were open, too. Gone were any traces of the soft daze of moments before sleep.

“What do you think, Pumpkin?” he returned the question, uncertain whether what he’d read into it was indeed in the child’s mind, and unwilling to insert his own assumptions into what may well be a different query altogether.

There were many things to wish were different. In the folktale. In life, too. He often wondered if she so loved the old story exactly because it spoke of vulnerabilities and challenge, of facing fears and finding fault and making do and fighting on. All things she’d know more than enough of.

The child nibbled momentarily on her lower lip. “I think maybe he sometimes wanted to be the man in the spiral. Or Fire. Or the mask. Or the stag.”

“Hmm …” he nodded, hoping she’d say more, wondering if she would. There was a depth to the child. Currents he did not always understand or believe he ought to. An Old Soul, his beloved Mara had said of the newborn even in the few days she had with the child before the angels called.

“But,” the little girl sighed, curling up so her back rested against her grandfather’s thigh as he sat on the edge of her cot. “I think he knew he was the Man In The Straw …”

The pause lingered. The child yawned.

“… and that he was meant to dance and dance …” she whispered, her breath deepening, her eyes closed. “… till morning came and changed his chance…”

For Sue Vincent’s WritePhoto

Elbow Grease

April 22, 2020April 22, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, House hunting, Just because, Macabre, Micro-fiction, Photo prompt, Real Estate, Surprise, Unexpected 49 Comments

Photo prompt © C.E.Ayr

“It’s been a while since they lived here.”

I nodded. The place was filthy. A bit stinky, too.

“Nothing a little elbow grease won’t fix.”

I wished she would shut up. The property manager’s eagerness to sell the place was obvious. Her neglect of the place was, too. She might’ve spent a bit of elbow grease before showing the space.

No matter. The sorry state of the cottage might lower her price to my range.

“Why aren’t these garbage bins outside?” I ventured.

“Oh,” she fidgeted, “those are … um … kind of urns. They’d wanted to be buried in them, indoors.”

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Not Obsolete

April 18, 2020April 18, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Current events, Do your part, Have a voice, Micro-fiction, Obsolete, Poetry, Politics, Resist, Stubborn, Vote, Weekend Writing Prompt 9 Comments

Photo: Jorge Lopez on Unsplash

“I am not,” she insisted,

“Obsolete.

Or not yet.

Not as long as I can

Vote,

And thus

Use my

Voice,

To oust threat.”

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Challenge: Obsolete in 24 words

Not Ready To Launch

April 17, 2020April 17, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Funnies, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: Be prepared, Boating, CCC, Change of plans, Flash Fiction, Just for fun, Launch, Micro-fiction, Photo prompt, Writing Challenge, Writing prompt 14 Comments

Photo: Crispina Kemp

It was going to take some training, but he was going to have his crew ready in time for the summer. Earlier, if the weather decided to cooperate.

Sure, there were issues of sea-worthiness in both prospective staff and designated vehicle, but he’d made up his mind and would not be blown off course. There were rivers to cross, lakes to traverse, seafaring and fishing to consider.

To be on the safe side, he collected piles of floaters. Not the glass “witch balls” his grandfather had left in the attic, but the highly visible red plastic ones.

“This way if you drown,” he told the kids, “it’ll ensure the Coastguard can find you before the toothy fish do.”

“After such an introduction,” his wife noted, knitting needles clicking in time with her rocking chair, “what did you expect? Of course they chose to train with Cousin Bob, the bush pilot.”

For Crispina’s Crimson’s Creative Challenge

From The Rooftops

April 15, 2020April 15, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, City life, Creativity, Dance, expectation, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Micro-fiction, Photo prompt, Planning, Rooftop, Sleepless 55 Comments

Photo prompt: © Roger Bultot

It was going to be epic.

He could hardly sleep. His feet itched. His toes tingled. His fingers yearned to move.

“Count sheep,” his girlfriend grumbled. His tossing and turning was keeping her up, too.

“I can’t,” he breathed into the nape of her neck. Smelling shampoo and a hint of laundry softener.

When dawn finally neared, he crawled out of bed, exhausted and exhilarated, both.

He checked the locks and clocks. He stretched. Warming up.

His dream was coming true. The details. Permits. Plans. It had felt insurmountable. Yet here was the final countdown for the City-wide Rooftop Dance.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

What Is Allowed

April 14, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Ban, Challenges, connection, Current events, Flash Fiction, hope, life, love, Making do, Micro-fiction, Poetry, RDP, Writing prompt 8 Comments

Photo: Smadar Halperin-Epshtein

They didn’t know what they could do. What’s left of what they had.

So they rode the day in minute steps, a hand in tender hand.

They sought the light as morning came.

They danced into the night.

Because they knew no ban could

Fully

Take away

What is allowed.

For RDP Tuesday: Ban

According To Plan

April 13, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: Creative writing, dVerse, Escape, Flash Fiction, Getting Away, hope, Micro-fiction, Planning, Prosery, Quote, Working together, Writing prompt 54 Comments

Photo: Jon Sailer on Unsplash

So far all went according to plan.

Part serendipity, part preparation, part desperation. Sheer stubborn, too. She needed all of it.

She slunk around the building, her heartbeat almost drowning out the hum of voices reverberating in the air. She used to find the monotone of prayers soothing. Now it was the buzz of wasps.

Thomas had promised to keep any from straying. Promises were at most hopes in the Commune, but indeed the path seemed clear. Where normally there would be at least one man leaning against the door in fake calm that nonetheless effectively barred the exit, there was naught but empty space. The guards imbibed.

She quickened her pace. She’d have to time it perfectly. The once-daily pass-by train was her only chance at freedom. The rails shook. No one left and no on came on the bare platform. She leaped.

Prosery prompt quote: “No one left and no one came on the bare platform.” Edward Thomas

For the dVerse Prosery challenge: Edward Thomas

The Truth

April 12, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Adversity, Creative writing, Flash Fiction, hope, Intuition, Micro-fiction, Moral compass, RDP, Secrets, Truth, Writing Challenge, Writing prompt 10 Comments

Photo: Randy Laybourne on Unsplash

There was something she didn’t share, but knew.

She held it, close, against her heart. A snuggle for her spirit. They could not take away what they did not realize she understood.

So she hid her comprehension. Her perceptions. Her realizations that what was presented as truth, was not.

Real Truth, that which resonated with her soul, was different. It sang.

She’d been quite young when she’d learned how to discern the babble from the song. It hadn’t been easy to maintain Truth, to blanket her face with masks of complacent adoration. Still she labored at it, keeping hope afloat.

For the RDP Sunday prompt: Truth