Distant furnaces wink through rips in night’s curtain—an army camped on the horizon. I love the dark skies of this remote place—stars, moon, the … The Milky Way’s gone!
I take a pull on my beer, tamp my pipe, and consider explanations. Our galaxy can’t vanish, I know that. Don’t I?
A space-time warp has ripped our planet from its moorings? Improbable. A cloud precisely obscuring that wash of a hundred-billion stars? A mote in my eye?
By shifting my gaze, I could test that last possibility. Yet I can’t make my head move. The whole Milky Way can’t be gone.
.
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
Neil MacDonald Author 
Nothing would surprise me these days. Sometimes I have to be careful not to test myself on what I think I’m seeing and reading.
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The pixies are getting restive, aren’t they?
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Surely it is simply obscured by something! Nicely done.
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Thanks so much, Dale
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🙂
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Dear Neil,
I wonder what the disappearance of the Milky Way would mean to our planet. Frightening prospects.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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It’s probably just a speck in his eye
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I want our Milky Way back. It’s a great chocolate bar. 😀
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The fudge content was pulling the spiral arms out of alignnment
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Haha love it.
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What exactly is in that pipe? And how many of those beers has he consumed?
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Nicotiana glaucum leaves
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Well, if it was Cannabis sativa it would explain a lot…
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I have a feeling if our galaxy literally vanished, we wouldn’t be around either.
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Ah, but we are SPECIAL
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Pah, we know so little about the universe really, who’s to say the Milky Way can’t disappear if it feels like it?
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Quite a lot of astrophysics actually, but I’m a writer and I spit on astrophysics
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“Distant furnaces wink through rips in night’s curtain” what a wonderful opener. I can feel the MC’s gnawing anxiety. There have been so many forced adjustments, there comes a time when everything — even The Milky Way — becomes tentative 😦
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Thank so much, Jade
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You’re welcome, Neil.
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If the universe is held in place by gravity, I wonder; where will we land. Fantastic first line.
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Thanks so much, James
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Apparently nothing is permanent. Make the most of every day.
Good story,
Tracey
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If the Milky Way disappears, can we please get on the Chocolate Milk Way? 😉
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I can’t see why not. I’ll have a word with Charlie
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Excellent! Always wanted to try that elevator. Any chance?
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What a frightening thought. I think he had too many beers .
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We can only hope that turns out to be the explanation
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If he’s been drinking milk, not beer it might never have gone away.
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That’s a point that may occur to him eventually
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it looks like he had too much to drink already. time to go to bed. 🙂
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If onl he realised that
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Maybe it’s time to hide that 6-pack.
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You could be right
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Ooooo creepy and mysterious. I love it. I wonder…
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Thank so much, Laurie
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I was thinking, like other commenters before me, that the explanation is in the contents of his pipe. 🤔 Whatever the explanation, it’s an awe-inspiring moment.
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Thanks so much, Margaret
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Yikes! Very crisply painted scene.
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Thanks so much
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From another perspective, aren’t we part of the milky way?
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We are, which makes its disappearance all the more perplexing
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I adore how all your thoughts spill out beautifully, love so many of your lines especially ‘A space-time warp has ripped our planet from its moorings?’ – let’s just hope he has something in his eye 😉
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Thanks so much
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Maybe it is a dream. Pinch yourself.
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Nah. Stories that start in medio somnii are forbidden
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Yes, the thickness of the cloud is hiding it … nothing else. 😁
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you sound a little anxious
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