Friday Fictioneers – Window

~ neilmacdon
meep-by-the-window
Photo Prompt © Jean L. Hays

Inside every head there’s a world. Simon’s skull was like that–when he looked at you, he wasn’t seeing what you did in the mirror

“Why don’t I raise the blind?” Natalie would always say when her brother stared out the kitchen window, “so you can see better.”

With weary patience, he’d explain the screening pattern of the fabric revealed how things are.

“There goes Mrs Abercrombie,” he said. “She’s one of the lizard people. Her eggs are blowing behind her like leaves.”

Natalie realised just because a thing doesn’t exist this doesn’t make it untrue

 

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

78 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers – Window”

  8. You’ve found the small quirks of behaviour that make Simon come alive for the reader. For example “weary patience” paints him immediately as one of those people for whom their own truth is so obvious that they are blind to anybody else’s.
    There is something mirror-like about the window in the prompt, so I particularly liked “when he looked at you, he wasn’t seeing what you did in the mirror.” It’s not just a vivid and precise way of saying that his mind processes what he sees differently, it’s a lovely assimilation of a half-hidden aspect of the prompt.
    Nice write, Neil!

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  16. Oh, this is just superb. I love it’s oddness, which still makes complete sense. I love the relationship between the siblings and their characters – all of which comes across in your 100 words. And I especially like how Simon sees Mrs Abercrombie. Perfect.

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  20. Simon was, of course, quite right. A recent fossil find confirmed we’re (or some of us) descended from lizards who lived at the time of Gondwana and Laurasia. Thus a prophetic story.

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  34. You slanted view on fiction and the world never cease to impress me Neil. All your stories are so always your own and that’s a wonderful thing. Unique and clever take on that screen

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      1. I think it took me a while to develop my own – and if I had to define it I’d find it a struggle. But I know I have my own voice, for good or ill. And you most definitely have your own too Neil. Always a pleasure

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  35. It must be me because, although can read this as nonsense, and from the comments others see Simon as having a good time, I take away a sense of sadness. His ‘weary patience’ painted Simon as suffering hallucinations that he doesn’t necessarily take pleasure from because of the inability of those around him to see or share the same.

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