The Reunion

December 15, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Basement, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Hidden, Micro-fiction, Photo prompt, Reunion, Taking chances, Visitor 64 Comments

The house was unassuming. Outdated decor and mild neglect, but nothing to write home about. That is, till they took the stairs to the basement, passed through what appeared to be a closet and headed down another and much longer flight into a stone walled damp. The steps ended with a heavy door: creaky metal hinges, old timbers, and the smell of aged oak.

Gabe’s heart threatened to sink.

Excitement was fine. Dungeons? Not so much.

How well did he know this man? College reunion be damned.

“Ta-da!” Bart flicked a switch.

A shrine.

To wine.

Just like old times.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo promot © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Not Fall

September 3, 2019November 12, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Things Kids Say, Writing Tags: Balance, children, Ditty, Fall, fpj-photo-challenge, Just for fun, Photo Challenge, Poetry, Rhyme, Summer, Taking chances 17 Comments

Photo: Philip Coons

Just you wait

And you’ll see

The real brave

I will be!

I will walk

With feet bare

From right here

To right there,

Without wobble

At all

I will cross

And not fall!

Note: It is WAY too early yet for me to do anything relating to the other meaning of the prompt word. So, nope … it was gonna be a “not” for me … 😉

For The Tuesday Photo Challenge: Fall

The Keys To Happiness

August 18, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: Calm, Creative writing, Finding peace, Flash Fiction, Florida Keys, happiness, Micro-fiction, New Beginnings, Taking chances, What Pegman Saw 41 Comments

Photo: Alfred Schrock on Unsplash

Two years, and he could hardly remember how he’d managed to survive before.

The rush. The never ending tasks. The constant worry. The being pulled a million ways by demands and the dreams of others.

He’d run on fumes for months on end, then crash and burn in ways that hurt not only himself but also the ones whose lives were closest. All those bridges he’d burnt.

It was the last burnt bridge that had paradoxically saved him. It became a light from burning embers. He’d flown out to care for an ailing uncle, but in truth just to escape the consequences of another interpersonal disaster. He expected to discover his uncle, who’d been the family’s previous pariah, on death’s door. What he did not expect was to find him so content.

“Live here,” were his uncle’s last words. “Need little. Use less. The Keys saved me. Claim your turn.”

For What Pegman Saw: Florida Keys

Be The Judge

July 20, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: Creative writing, Dreams, Flash Fiction, hope, Judge, Micro-fiction, Relationships, Taking chances, Weekend Writing Prompt 9 Comments

Photo: Dvora Freedman

“You’ll be the judge of it,” he said.

He held the door for her and she hesitated a moment before slipping into the passenger seat. She buckled in part out of habit and part as security against the anticipated whiplash of yet another disappointment.

He drove in silence and she was grateful for it. They were beyond words by now, anyhow.

Roadside scenery shimmered by through a sudden squall.

“We’re here,” he said.

She must’ve fallen asleep.

“Say yes, and I’ll sign the papers,” he breathed.

She blinked. How did he find her dream house?

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Judge in 95 words

What If?

June 5, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Abandomnent, Adversity, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Micro-fiction, Photo prompt, Rejection, Siblings, Taking chances, Writing prompt 60 Comments

Photo prompt © Ceayr

“Are you sure this is the house?”

“It says 345.”

“What if it’s the wrong number?”

“It’s not.” She unfurled a sweaty fist to show him the piece of paper and its slightly smudged pen marks. “It says right here.”

“What if you wrote it down wrong?” His eyes met hers, mirroring her apprehension and amplifying the seeds of doubt that tightened shoots of worry in her stomach.

She shook her head, courage evaporated.

It was one thing to flee their miserable surroundings. Another entirely to knock on the door of the father who’d rejected them even before they were born.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

A Delicate Dare

May 23, 2019November 12, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Beautiful, Bloom, flowers, Hiking, Lens-Artists, Photo Challenge, Photography, Poetry, Spring, Taking chances, Tenacity, Trail 11 Comments

Photo: Na’ama Yehuda

Their small heads

Rise proud

In mid-trail.

Delicate and fierce

They stretch their

Full miniature scale.

The risk they take

Of being

Stepped on,

Dwarfed by delicious

Access

To sun.

For the Lens-Artist Weekly Photo Challenge: Delicate

Life Abridged

May 7, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Bridge, Childhood Adversity, Decisions, Flash Fiction, Micro-fiction, New Beginnings, Pittsburgh, Taking chances, What Pegman Saw, Writing Challenge, Writing prompt 8 Comments

willie-fineberg-unsplash 10th st bridge Pittsburgh PA

Photo: Willie Fineberg via Upsplash, 10th St. Bridge, Pittsburgh, PA

She waited.

One more step and she’d have gone more than half-way across, but she found herself unable to move further. She sat on the asphalt, frozen by cemented legs.

So she waited. It was early, but sooner or later something will come by and she’d find out the price of her betrayal.

All her life she’s been bordered by this bridge, the yellow metal rising like a sun in her horizon: untouchable, unapproachable, dangerous.

They were raised to never cross it.

“Evil lives beyond this bridge,” her father had preached in daily sermons in their basement, the family huddled on aching knees and wreathed by incense, fear, and smoking wicks. “Leave here and your soul will be eternally forsaken. Abandon my teachings and you will not be saved.”

Well, she’d had enough. She could tolerate no more of his invasive ‘instruction.’

And she was ready.

To not be saved.

For What Pegman Saw: Pittsburgh, PA

Courageous Connections

April 27, 2019November 13, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Bridge, Connections, Courage, fpj-photo-challenge, Life paths, Papua New Guinea, Photography, Poetry, Taking chances, travel, Trust 11 Comments

Photo: Ofir Asif

Like a rickety bridge

Over fast,

Troubled water,

Calm your heart

As you cross

To what awaits

Being told.

Trust connections

You fear but

Cannot test or

Strengthen,

With no promise

They won’t pull away,

Break,

Or fold.

Like a rickety bridge

Over fast,

Troubled water,

Take a chance,

Make a step,

And weave new paths

To your old.

For the Tuesday Photo Challenge: Connections

Into The Horizon

February 9, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Reflections, Writing Tags: Change, Horizon, Micro Poetry, Micro-fiction, Past and Future, Taking chances, Unknown, Weekend Writing Prompt, Writing Challenge, Writing prompt 6 Comments

Photo: S. Levenberg

There was a gap in the horizon and she was going to walk through it even if it meant a pass into another world. Even if it proved a portal to a completely different side of life.

There was a gap in the horizon and it beckoned her to come inside. To walk away from all she’d known and all she could no longer understand, and into what she didn’t know, but may arrive.

For the Weekend Writing Prompt: Horizon in 74 words