Friday Fictioneers – On the Run

~ neilmacdon
nyc-jill-wisoff
Photo Prompt © Jill Wisoff

Something weird was happening. I just didn’t know what. Since we left Dad, life was odd. We moved three times in twelve years. And each time, Harold was there too.

Mum promised to explain, now I was old enough. She met me in a motorway services, with Harold in tow.

“We’re on the run from the Mafia,” she said. “Your father crossed them.”

Harold gave me a bracelet. A transmitter, so he and other agents could always locate me. He told me to be wary of doubles, people who looked like friends but were really bad guys.

I mean, what would you do? This was my mother.

 

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

77 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers – On the Run”

  5. I read a true story like this. The person was on the run their entire life and discovered when she was in her late twenties that it was all a weird delusion from the guy who was “Harold” in your story. Her mother totally believed this guy and spent her entire life waiting to join the shadow world…

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  19. I didn’t quite get the last line Neil. Does this mean that his Mom is a double, or does he think that he is a double, or this is just his way of saying that his Mom, like all parents at that age, pretends to be his friend but is really his enemy (teenage angst basically)?

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    1. Wow! I didn’t think the paranoia that far. In my mind he’s telling her to trust her mother and him, but nobody else. And she thinks he’s nuts, but if her Mum believes it …….

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  32. And what happened to poor Dad? I mean they left him and are on the run, but did he meet a bad end? A story that leaves us thinking.

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  33. This reminded me of a story where the bloke was totally deluded and convinced the woman to run all their lives. The kids suffered as a result until they were old enough to discover the truth, I don’t think the mother ever discovered she’s been duped into becoming part of this man’s fantasy. Nice one Neil

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  36. Scary story, but really fits the picture. I’m not sure if it is good they waited until the narrator was older ‘enough’ or not. Hope they were watching him/her like a hawk before. Great story.

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