No Thoroughfare

November 13, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: Call to action, CCC, Creative writing, Danger, Flash Fiction, Micro-fiction, Monsters, Seeking safety, Warning 10 Comments

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“Mama, come quick!”

Marybeth lifted her eyes from the soapy water and straightened, rubbing her aching back with a dripping hand. Luke’s face was flushed. The boy was excitable, and she was of a mind to scold him for being over-dramatic, but something in the whites of his eyes stayed her tongue.

“What is it?”

“Just come, Mama, please!”

She sighed and wiped her hands on her apron. “Come where?”

“The back. By the woodlands,” Luke ran ahead, turned, returned, and grabbed her hand. Hurrying her.

“Slow down, boy, nothing to be gained by spraining ankles.”

He inhaled as if to argue, but did not. Good lad.

They walked.

What on…?

She grabbed his shoulder and felt him shiver.

Whatever had gone through had to be monstrous.

The sun found a cloud. A shadow grew. A full moon was soon to follow.

Ankles be damned.

They turned and ran.

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

Their Homecoming

November 12, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Determination, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, hardship, Homecoming, Micro-fiction, Stormy seas, Tenacity 41 Comments

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The seas were rough but that did not deter them. Wet ropes dug deeply into palms, the ripples in rough fibers matching the wiry muscles that strained in their necks, shoulders, arms.

Endlessly, the night dragged on. The ocean swelled and sunk and breathed and coughed all around them.

Still they kept their posts, secured to heaving decks with belts and makeshift harnesses.

When darkness finally waned and dawn returned, the contours of the mountains rose alongside them.

They shook the salt from reddened eyes and readied for the final passage.

Their boat was broken, but their hearts were home.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo prompt © Ted Strutz

Finding Fido

November 6, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: CCC, Flash Fiction, hope, Loss, Lost, Micro-fiction, Pets, Photo prompt, Puppy, Taking action, Writing prompt 23 Comments

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“Still nothing,” Sally said as soon as Damian came through the door.

His shoulders sagged. The whole drive home he’d hoped for news. He didn’t dare imagine beyond that, but his arms ached and his cheeks felt cold without the welcome of unabashed wriggles and wet kisses.

And to think he’d never wanted “a beast in the house.” To think he’d been so set against it.

Little did he know that a furball in a giant velvet bow would burrow deeper into his heart than anyone before it. Including, if he was honest, the two-legged.

“I taped more flyers,” Sally filled the silence. “And called the vets … just in case.”

Damian nodded over the tightness in his throat.

“Mary is so sorry …” Sally pressed on. “She didn’t mean to leave the door unlatched.”

“I’ve to go,” Damian grabbed his gun. “I must find Fido before the dark does.”

For Crispina’s Crimson’s Creative Challenge

She Was Busy

November 6, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Things Kids Say, Writing Tags: Building, Child's play, Construction, Creativity, Flash Fiction, Focus, imagination, Micro-fiction, Sand, Weekend Writing Prompt 21 Comments

(Photo: Dallas Reedy on Unsplash)

She was busy. She had no time for chatter. For sand to slide idly through the hourglass.

The day was short.

Each moment was precious. Each second, opportunity.

Her focus never wandered.

Each section had to have its exact place.

Every addition, calculated.

There were walls and gates and many fences.

There’d be knights and royals to showcase.

Moats and pits of fire.

She was, after all, building an empire.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Empire in 70 words

Complement of Condiments

October 20, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Funnies, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Diner, Eating out, Eccentric, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Micro-fiction, Order, Photo prompt, Siblings 43 Comments

“It is not acceptable, you see, when they forget the main …”

“…complements.” Ingrid completed.

“Indeed.” Iris’s gray head bobbed emphatically, loose bun nodding and escapee wisps trailing.

Ingrid touched a hand to her own hair, confirming the tightness of her French braid. All was in order. Good. Iris has always been unbecomingly lax with locks’ management and Ingrid could never understand it. Especially not when Iris was so particular about her condiments’ orderly array.

“I’ll get the hot sauce, then.” Iris turned toward the diner’s kitchen. “And have them hand me some mustard and mayo, while they’re at it.”

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Time Lines

October 16, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: CCC, Childhood memories, Flash Fiction, Forest, Growth, memories, Micro-fiction, Photo prompt, Revisiting, Siblings, Trees 4 Comments

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The forest floor cushioned their steps. She inhaled the scent of tree and sap and hidden wet. She had forgotten the caresses of fallen leaves and ancient bark under her feet. A flash of sun painted a memory – a small girl running barefoot in the woods, knobby knees peeking under a faded calico dress. Oh, how she had loved that dress!

“Here.”

Albert’s voice called her back into the present. He’d grown old and grumpy. It made her wonder what others thought of her. Eccentric? Obstinate? Silly? Dumb?

She followed her brother’s pointed finger and her heart quickened. A dark line circled a tree.

“Here, too.”

She turned. A fainter line hugged another tree.

Albert faced the first trunk and lifted his arms. His fingertips grazed the line.

She did the same with the second tree. Perfect fit.

Their birth-marked trees had grown exactly as tall as they.

For Crispina‘s Crimson’s Creative Challenge

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

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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

Little Brother

October 9, 2021October 9, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Funnies, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Uncategorized, Writing Tags: Allegory, Chores, Flash Fiction, Growing up, Hard work, Just for fun, Micro-fiction, Personification, Siblings, training, Weekend Writing Prompt 34 Comments

(Photo: Jan Kopřiva on Unsplash)

When he grew up, he was going to be like his big brother.

Tall. Proud. Sturdy. Up to the task.

For now, he had to comfort himself with the benefits of smaller stature.

Getting into nooks and crannies, fitting where his brother could not bend or fold to reach.

When he grew up, he was going to be like his brother.

Heavily bristled. Proudly mustached.

Meanwhile, Brush put his still-short-bristles to good use through many chores.

This way, once grown, he could graduate to being a Broom.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Brush in 87 words

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

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“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