PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot
There is a seat, a special seat. I won’t say where that diner is, or you’ll hunt out the chair. Sit in it and the world goes kinda flickery, customers fade to wraiths. A sensation in the pit of your stomach like an express elevator, and then you’re there, whenever you feel you want to belong.
For me the destination is always 1953 – happy and obedient children, proud and diligent families, genial neighbours, convertibles with chrome and fins. For Paul, 1965 and a supercilious cook giving him that look, hissing “no negroes.”
Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here.
Fancy sharpening your skill with writing exercises? The Scrivener’s Forge offers a new exercise every month to hone one aspect of your craft. Take a look at this month’s exercise on character and world-building.
Dear Neil,
Interesting, this week we went for the same year. Mine takes place in 1953, too. 😉 Your diner sounds fascinating. I’ll stay away from 1965 though. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thanks, Rochelle
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This is such a great seat – pleeasse tell me where it is! Seriously, this is such a good idea for a story. I’m a little confused as to why Paul feels he ‘belongs’ in 1965, because that sounds like a positive thing. I presumed he wants to get back at the cook?
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Perhaps he feels guilty or deprived not to have been part of the Selma freedom march
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Oh, I took it that you didn’t really have a choice where you went. That “the chair” just took you where it felt like you should go…..
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Excellent, in a lot of ways.
Stephen King’s 11/22/63 was an interesting take on how a modern viewpoint would see the past. Our white (and, in my case, male) perspective definitely dominates perceptions of history.
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Thanks so much
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Fascinating! Like J Hardy Carroll, this too reminded me of 11/22/63.
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Thanks so much
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Why are we always dreaming of the past? If we could retain all our memories I’ll bet we could place moments even in the fondest times that are not ideal. I liked this Neal and know it is the way with most people. So many things have changed over the decades that can never be again.
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Thanks, Joe
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I loved this Neil! For it’s boldness, and the magical element you weaved into it. I might need that chair though, not to relive moments, but maybe to go back and do some things differently. 😉
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love this for the hint of maliciousness
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This story makes one think, the past is certainly not all roses. I really liked what you did with the prompt.
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Thanks, Michael
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A most interesting seat. Hmmm… wonder where I would want to go back to?
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A truly lovely idea! Well, lovely and awful, of course, depending where you want to go. I was going to write a civil rights story too, but chose a different path. Loved your take, Neil
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Thanks, Lynn
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My pleasure 🙂
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Nice take, would love to have a shot on that seat and see where it took me. Expertly done.
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Thanks Iain
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Hmmm, what year would I like to revisit… maybe 1973, before my world was destroyed. Love the story and where it took my thoughts. 🙂 ❤
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Thanks so much
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I felt that I would prefer the present to the past actually… but maybe it’s just me.
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I truly like where you took the prompt. A bit mystical, a lot magic with a sprinkling of history on top.
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Thanks, Alicia
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Thought-provoking story. I think I too would rather the present than the past.
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Thanks, Sascha
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Well, done. That chair sounds amazing and I wish I could find it…I think.
xx Rowena
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Thanks, Rowena
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Loved your “time management seat ” The ’50s: middle-class America in its finest hour. So much was right and so much was wrong. These days it’s the opposite. 😉
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Ain’t that the truth!
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Yes, we did have the same thoughts. I wonder how many others. I haven’t had time to read much yet.
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Love the mystical, whimsical feeling of this piece. It is so though provoking – why 1965 for Paul, where would I go?
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I don’t know that the chair allows you to choose. It may be much more like the sorting hat at Hogwarts
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Oh then I’m not sure that’s a ride I would want to take.
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Hmmm good or bad, the past is gone for a reason… time doesn’t stop. Good tale Neil
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A seat to avoid methinks. if I can find one that gives me a glimpse of the future then maybe. Interesting and very different take.
Click to read my Friday Fiction
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Nostalgia for the future? Is that the origin of “the future ain’t what it used to be?”
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Well, Neil, I lived through 1953 and that’s an idealistic view of it. I was twelve so remember it well. The Korean War didn’t end until midway through. Also, that viewpoint sounds like the propaganda passed out by the popular TV family shows of the time. There were good times of course and we didn’t see the amount of dope that came along afterward. People still had their troubles, though, and I wouldn’t want to go back. It was a good story and good writing, though. 🙂 — Suzanne
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Thanks Suzanne. Yes, that was really the point I was making about memory.
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Love this idea and your descriptions of 1953 – those happy and obedient children. I have an eerie sense that the chair is in control and choosing where you end up and I don’t want to sit in it.
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The chair reads your dreams but makes its own judgement
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The lunch counter at Woolworth’s perhaps. Right to the point with this one. I liked it very much.
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Thanks, Honie
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Oh I enjoyed this tale very much!! A Stephen King genre for sure…It made me reflect and I would love to go back to 1956.
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Your seat is booked
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What a beautiful story! Feels like both metaphor and the reality of the story. Reminds me of Stephen King too–11/22/63.
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Thanks, Emily
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The good old days? It all depends on your point of view. Great story.
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Thanks so much
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An interesting seat, shame he won’t tell more people where it is but then, there is only one, I suppose
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And nothing good would come of its widespread use
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Time traveller’s feelings, without that biological disorder/disease that the time traveller’s wife had. I am so enjoying reading your flash fiction, Neil.
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