Friday Fictioneers – Jacob’s Ladder

~ neilmacdon
PHOTO PROMPT © J Hardy Carrol

Sparks arc, zigzagging up between the conductors. Mr. Henderson thinks he’s demonstrating properties of electricity. In fact, he has opened a door.

I peer closer. But I’m not learning about short circuits. The air crackles with brimstone and I see tiny angels ascending the ladder to heaven. For a moment, the heavenly kingdom becomes visible.

The seraphim, in high voices that only I and dogs can hear, chant “holy, holy, holy.”

Their Lord is angry. They issue my instructions and, with grim determination, I steel myself for the task.

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

69 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers – Jacob’s Ladder”

    1. Thanks so much. As for the novel, it was inspired by the scandal about undercover policemen having relations with their targets. Not entirely coincidentally, the Under Cover Policing Enquiry begins hearings in November

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    1. No, sorry. It’s just another Friday Fictioneers. The first words of my novel are “Waiting is the mother of change. The hard wooden bench aches my buttocks, making a torment of the wait. These seats assert the court’s grandeur, offering only the most austere comfort. I squirm, and scratch my beard. But the skin is tender and newly-shaven. Change. I am no
      longer bearded, no longer Zami.”

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  28. I like the idea of opening a gateway or door into heaven sparked by an energy field. If only Faraday had realised earlier, the use of the word brimstone, I think, dates the event in the 1800 -1900 period. Great imagination.

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