Willie and Gene

Friday Fictioneers is a weekly challenge to write a complete story in 100 words or less based on a photo prompt. Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting this challenge and Russell Gayer  for this week’s photo prompt.

Photo Credit: Russell Gayer

Give me land, lots of land, under starry skies above. Don’t fence me in….

Music blared through the open window of the ’65 Ford, accompanied by the scratchy voice of Wildcat Willie. The old crooner nearly made it big, once upon a time. The next Gene Autry, the called him. Then fate turned on Willie, ending his career faster than a minnow could swim a dipper.

Willie faded into the sunset, with the help of his 357.

But as the story goes, the old ’65 still glides along the Texas highway as Willie and Gene  sing without mercy.

 

Don’t Fence Me In was released in 1934 by Gene Autry. Lyrics by Robert Fletcher and music by Cole Porter. A reference to Wildcat Willie is made by Roy Rogers, who sang the song in the 1944 movie Hollywood Canteen. My Wildcat is purely fictional.

 

 

Advertisement

The Wall

Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Fictioneers. The goal is to write a complete story using 100 words or less based on a photo prompt. This week’s story is a rework of a longer piece I wrote a year ago. I don’t know what is more challenging; writing a completely new story or editing a longer story so it maintains the essence of the original. Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting this challenge and J Hardy Carroll for this week’s photograph. If you would like to add your own story, or read other stories like this, head to Rochelle’s Friday’s Fictioneers.

Photo Credit: J. Hardy Carroll

Ziggy sat on the edge of the couch, mesmerized by empty space between the steeple clock on the mantel and the ceiling above. Her tail twitched as a guttural growl erupted from deep inside her throat. Ziggy’s odd behavior concerned her owner Charlotte. A recent bee sting had sent her daughter Adeline into anaphylactic shock. Another occurrence could be deadly.

Placing Adeline against her shoulder, Charlotte examined the wall. Relieved to find nothing there, Charlotte turned her back to the clock, facing Ziggy.

“Silly cat. There is nothing….”

Charlotte’s words were cut short by Adeline’s screams of terror.

Alliance

Friday Fictioneers is a weekly challenge to write a complete story in 100 words or less based on a photo prompt. Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting this challenge and Gah  Learner for this week’s prompt.

Photo credit: Gah Learner

Harold curled his body into a tight knot, holding the bed-covers close. The room felt cold as a refrigerator and it was only October. What would December bring?

Next to him, Harold’s wife slept unaffected by the freezing air. He thought back to the early days of their marriage when on cold nights they snuggled to keep each other warm.

That was before The Change.

Now, no matter how cold it was outside, Harold’s wife insisted they sleep with the window open.

All Harold could do is wrap himself in blankets and pray for Summer.

The inspiration for this story (with slight deviation) comes from a quote by George Bernard Shaw

Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can’t sleep with the window shut and a woman who can’t sleep with the window open.

Hope

PHOTO PROMPT © Carla Bicomong

The ship went down quickly. Those who could made for the life rafts; the rest jumped overboard. I was one of the lucky. The night air chilled my skin, but I never noticed the cold. A woman next to me grabbed my hand and held too tight. Thank God I thought. If I felt pain, at least I was alive.

No one spoke. A line of yellow lights glowed ahead no one wanted to break the spell.

Friday Fictioneers is a weekly challenge to write a complete story in 100 words or less based on a photo prompt. Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting this challenge and Carla Bicomong for this week’s prompt.

Word Count = 78

Justice Insurance

PHOTO PROMPT © Yvette Prior

My eyes lock on the coffee table, littered with cigarette buds.

DNA.

Nearby lay the victim in a pool of blood. Just like my last case.

That should have been an easy win, except for that sleaze-bag’s attorney.

Lack of evidence my ass.

Now a killer walks the streets. That is not something I can live with.

I picked up the gun by the victim. This is no longer a suicide. I place a cigarette bud in the ash tray.

Justice Insurance.

Outside, I call the evidence team.

“Bag the table,” I said. “Everything we need is right there.”

Friday Fictioneers is a weekly challenge to write a complete story in 100 words or less based on a photo prompt. Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting this challenge and Yvette Prior for this week’s prompt.

Wishes

Friday Fictioneers is a weekly challenge to write a complete story in 100 words or less based on a photo prompt. Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting this challenge and Ronda Del Boccio for this week’s prompt.

PHOTO PROMPT © Ronda Del Boccio

Amy had one wish…solitude.

Her hectic life kept her busy morning to night.

Always doing something for everyone else, never herself.

She often dreamed of running away, someplace quiet, and peaceful.

Taos sounded nice.

The speeding car came out of nowhere.

Everyone said Amy was lucky to be alive.

Quietly they whispered, she might not be so lucky after all.

What kind of life was it to exist on a breathing tube, paralyzed from the neck down?

Through the small space between the planters on her window sill, Amy silently watched the world go by.

Wishing for anything but solitude.

Ben Revisited

Friday Fictioneers is a weekly challenge to write a complete story in 100 words or less based on a photo prompt. Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting this challenge and Sandra Crook  for this week’s photo prompt.  

PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

Ben flattened his body into the corner, desperate to blend into the wall. Before long, the invaders would claw their way into the room.

If only I had killed the first rat that invaded the garden shed, Ben thought. Winter was oddly cold this year and kind-hearted Ben knew the varmint wanted to stay warm. One nest would not matter.

Ben did not take into consideration biology. When the shed could no longer hold the hoard of rats, they looked for a new home.

And food.

Ben begged for madness as he noticed the whiskers chomping on the wooden door.

 

 

The Elusive Poliwhirl

 

PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz

Friday Fictioneers is a weekly challenge to write a complete story in 100 words or less based on a photo prompt. Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting this challenge and Ted Strutz for this week’s prompt.  

“OMG, a Poliwhirl!” Derek squealed with excitement. My phone screen showed nothing but a blinking cursor. A Poliwhirl would be a grand catch, and admittedly, I was jealous.

“Just a little bit further.” Derek raced toward the edge of the dock. Head down, eyes focused intently on the image on his phone, my friend had no idea what was ahead.

The push took him by surprise. The Poliwhirl was lost. So was Derek, sprawled on the rocks below. I fumbled with my phone, every intent to dial 9-1-1 when suddenly the Poliwhirl appeared on my screen.

The race was on!

My first impression of the photo was three people looking at down at something. The most obvious object is a phone. Isn’t that what everyone’s eyes are glued on? I am not a Pokémon Go player (admittedly, I tried it once), but there are numerous stories of the lengths people will go through just to catch a character. My story is loosely based on a young man who walked off a bridge. Fortunately he lived, but in fiction, fortune rarely plays a role.

 

 

 

 

 

The Trouble with Harry

 

Photo Credit: J.Hardy Carroll

Friday Fictioneers is a weekly challenge to write a complete story in 100 words or less based on a photo prompt. Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting this challenge and J Hardy Carroll for this week’s prompt. This week’s story is light-hearted. I  hope you enjoy it. Word count is 98. 

Lost

Prosthetic leg

$10,000 reward

Call …

Harry grinned as he read the sign. In the lost-and-found business that was a lot of money. More than the measly hundred people paid for missing dogs. With that kind of loot, Harry could go legit.

If he just knew where to look.

Where would a leg hide?

The next day, Harry contacted the owner. Miraculously, the leg had been found. A meeting was arranged.

When Harry arrived, the cops arrested him for grand theft.

How could Harry know all fake legs were not the same. It worked with dog owners.

 

Dust Bowl

Friday Fictioneers is a weekly challenge to write a complete story in 100 words or less based on a photo prompt. Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting this challenge and Connie Gayer for this week’s prompt.

PHOTO PROMPT © Connie Gayer

Jessie watched her family from the sod house window. Four boys in the yard; a daughter hunched on her hip. Jessie looked older than her 30 years. Life was hard.

In the field, her husband Jack tilled the dried red clay with a hoe. His back forever bent from labor.

The crops would still die.

She clutched a letter from her sister. Come to California, Annie pleaded.

They could stay with her sister until Jack found work. She would talk to Jack tonight.

Jessie placed her hand on her swollen belly. If this one survives, I’ll call her Hope.