Friday Fictioneers – Rooming House

~ neilmacdon
derelict-building-sandra-crook
Photo Prompt © Sandra Crook

Molly’s house had many rooms, and you got the room Molly thought you deserved. Also, it has to be said, the room you could afford.

If you were specially favoured, she invited you into the grand salon with its sweeping staircase and chandeliers. Waiters circulated with flutes of champagne. And the ladies and gentlemen whirled in the dance.

I know because I peeped through the window once, but was never invited in. In the east wing where I had my dank room, snipers hunkered behind crumbling walls, and tanks rumbled through the corridors.

 

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

76 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers – Rooming House”

  3. The room he deserved. That seems a bit harsh if he is, as I read it, a veteran suffering from PTSD. Although ‘ the room you could afford’ is probably pretty close to the mark. Good one, Neil.

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  12. Actually, I think most of us are in the West Wing. Neil, that is a brilliant piece of writing. I hate allegory, but I love this one. It’s gobsmackingly good. The audacity of your topic is astounding – and you pull it off! I’m lost for words.

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      1. Re-reading my comment, I should have made it clearer that I meant we mostly have rooms adjacent to the Grand Salon, and maybe actually are part of it. The West Wing could too easily have been confused with the East Wing.

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  21. I’m rejecting the metaphysical and going with the physical, loving the idea that snipers and tanks rolled along the corridors as our narrator peeks enviously at those more favoured. Wondering what he did to deserve this treatment though! Nice one Neil

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  33. “For dust you are and to dust you will return” — Molly can’t take her wealth with her. Your story demonstrates so well the futility of war, as well as highlighting the lot of the haves and have-nots. Although there’s often a tendency to assume that all wealthy people are bad, which isn’t always the case, although Molly sounds a bit of a high and mighty type without much to redeem her.

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  35. This story really jabbed me in the gut with the ending. There are so many ways I can see to interpret this and they are all good. It speaks to me especially of how sometimes the ones we should respect most are the ones we think of least.

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