Friday Fictioneers – News

~ neilmacdon
lamps
PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

I was cooking breakfast, bacon sizzling in the pan, when they called to tell me you were dead. Had been dead for four years. Perhaps murdered. The gears of time slip, and the past crashes into today with the force of a motorway pile-up. Events concertina, throwing up mountain ranges and dredging shadowed valleys.

If only I hadn’t. Or you didn’t. I search the Internet for four-year-old details. A marriage gone wrong. A property dispute. A failed police investigation. The news runs out as attention shifted.

The bacon starts to crisp and burn. I serve-up just in time.

 

 

Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here.

53 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers – News”

  8. Oh my, you got me with this one. I lost a very good friend last year, heard about it months after she had passed away. A stupid argument and stubbornness on both sides and we didn’t talk anymore. And then all of a sudden it was too late.

    Great take on the prompt -as always.

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    2. Me too. Luckily her family kept me informed and I was able to attend her funeral but sill… so many years wasted over something I’ll never get the answer to.

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  11. The language in this sings!

    The gears of time slip, and the past crashes into today with the force of a motorway pile-up. Events concertina, throwing up mountain ranges and dredging shadowed valleys.

    So much “sound” in this while I imagine that the one receiving the news is going all blank. Hope this makes sense.

    LOVE your submission this week.

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  14. I agree with the comments that there was some beautiful language and word choices in this story. It made me want to go back and re-write my story.

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  22. I was taken into the story from the very beginning. I love the visual you created. Sad, but these things do happen more often then people think. Moves, separations, everything about life can create moments like these. I can’t find the perfect words to describe how wonderful this was to read.
    AND … wouldn’t mind reading more. : )
    Isadora 😎
    p.s. I could smell the bacon. Wjo doesn’t like bacon?

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  24. The imagery is wonderful in this story, and the voice is intriguing. I tend to agree with a couple of other commenters that the guilt he’s feeling might be about more than just a dispute. The ‘failed police investigation’, the words ‘serve’ and ‘time’ in the closing sentence – all make me wonder. Very good.

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