Friday Fictioneers – Dirty

~ Neil MacDonald
PHOTO PROMPT © Susan Rouchard

Something was wrong. The lamplight in the nook was warm and yellow as freshly churned butter. The grandfather clock allotted time with a reassuring heartbeat. But the world felt awry, dirty.

Then I saw it–the desk covered by packing boxes. Someone had moved into my life.

Angrily, I swept the boxes to the floor. “Whoever you are, get out.”

A voice I did not recognize, full of tenderness and sadness, said, “You don’t know me, do you?”

I spotted no-one and ran through the possibilities: Selective amnesia? Dementia? Trans-dimensional portal?

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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

49 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers – Dirty”

  4. Like Mr Binks’ comment, the unusual description of the ticking clock appealed to me – and for sure your protagonist’s over-reaction to the boxes signals a crisis. A quite fascinating take on an interesting picture.

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      1. I hear ya. I had a love-hate relationship with ours. On the one hand the chimes were familiar and gave a sense of space and time. On the other hand, especially when nights were not easy, I’d wonder if there was something lurking in that thing, and I could never quite watch when my mom wound the mechanism with the big key (needed to be done monthly).

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  14. ‘The lamplight in the nook was warm and yellow as freshly churned butter’.
    A great descriptive line that paints the picture perfectly.
    He is on a different dimension, is he the ghost? Or is his companion translucent and imaginary?

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  21. Love the description of the ‘nook’. And then the story took a turn I wasn’t expecting. So many possibilities here. I do hope the answer’s not dementia. A trans-dimensional portal would be much more interesting.

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  22. Rather moving, I feel. So many possibilities. I reckon it’s the spirit of a teenage love,

    but then I’m just a romantic (old) fool.

    Just love the 100 word restriction – it gives rise to such tensions and questions.

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