Sunday Photo Fiction

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Sunday Photo Fiction ~ Remember Me

Sunday Photo Fiction: October 26 2014

Here is a description of the challenge from the blog, Sunday Photo Fiction, hosted by Alastair Forbes:

“Every week on a Sunday, a new photo is used as a prompt for Flash Fiction challenge using around 200 words based on that image. Your story does not have to be exactly what the item in the photo is, you can make it anything you want, and enjoy what you write, and we will as well.”

Here is today’s photo challenge:

©A Mixed Bag

©A Mixed Bag

Remember Me

Genre: Fiction

Word Count: 203

~~~~~

I watch him, as he lies sleeping. Hidden in a shadow so I don’t disturb him.

The woman sleeping beside him yawns as I draw closer. She’s an older version of the woman who stands beside him in the framed photo at his bedside.

He stirs as I draw close, yawning and sitting up at the side of his bed. I’m surprised that his dark hair is silvered. He casts a glance at the woman then looks right at me smiling as he quietly opens a nightstand drawer and picks up another photograph.

I smile to see it. There is the dark hair and brilliant cerulean eyes I know. His arm is round my shoulders and he’s looking straight at the photographer, who’s captured us in a kiss. I smile and give his shoulder a little squeeze. That was a beautiful autumn day just like this one. I do wish that he didn’t seem sad; it’s our engagement photo. The date on it is today’s, the year though… Silly boy, he has my ring on a chain round his neck. Perhaps we’ll go out to the lake again, though I can’t remember the way there anymore.

My memories stop on the #309 highway.

~ kei
26 October 2014

~~~~~

Samhain is one of the major Wiccan Sabbats and is celebrated at the same time as Hallowe’en. At Samhain, the veil between the world of the living and of the dead is at its most thin. It is traditionally a time to honour and say goodbye to loved ones.

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Sunday Photo Fiction ~ Elizabeth Again

Sunday Photo Fiction: October 19 2014

Here is a description of the challenge from the blog, Sunday Photo Fiction, hosted by Alastair Forbes:

“Every week on a Sunday, a new photo is used as a prompt for Flash Fiction challenge using around 200 words based on that image. Your story does not have to be exactly what the item in the photo is, you can make it anything you want, and enjoy what you write, and we will as well.”

Here is today’s photo challenge:

©A Mixed Bag 2014

©A Mixed Bag 2014

Elizabeth Again

Genre: Fictionalized History

Word Count: 199

~~~~~

I couldn’t contain my excitement, gazing for at least the tenth time through the lens trying to catch sight of the steamer.

After several years of hopes, prayers and endless disappointments; a ray of hope had come my way at a quilting bee last spring. The first of the “Home Children” would be looking for families here in Ontario. I couldn’t contain a little rush of tears when John and I received the letter confirming, a girl would be coming to us from Maerdy. My dearest John, how we’d looked forward to children in the early years! Alas, we were still childless and a home without the laughter and dreams of little ones seemed a bleak future.

Here at the docks of the St. Lawrence, we waited patiently for the steamer to come in. At least John was patient! One last peek through the glass…

I knew her immediately. Tall for her eight years, wavy auburn hair, cut short in the Institution’s fashion, white dress and pinafore over dark stockings that all the Home girls wore. It was her eyes that I knew. Deepest blue and finding mine through the lens, straight to a mother’s no longer lonely heart.

~ kei
19 October 2014

Note: My Great Gran is Elizabeth and one of Dr. Barnardo’s Children (British Home Child). She came to Canada with her older sister. There are many sad tales of this program but my Gran’s is one of the success stories. She obtained a degree from the Toronto Ladies University, returned to Wales to marry and begin her family, my Grandmother being one of those. The Thomas family later made their home in Ottawa, Canada, embracing their chosen country fully. Great Grandpa Thomas is honoured in the Book of Remebrance on Parliament Hill for his military service at Passchendaele in World War I. Gran was an involved pillar of the community and a huge part of my life in ways immeasurable.
Rwyf wrth fy modd i chi Gran.

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Sunday Photo Fiction ~ Razing The Dead

Sunday Photo Fiction: October 12 2014

Here is a description of the challenge from the blog, Sunday Photo Fiction, hosted by Alastair Forbes:

“Every week on a Sunday, a new photo is used as a prompt for Flash Fiction challenge using around 200 words based on that image. Your story does not have to be exactly what the item in the photo is, you can make it anything you want, and enjoy what you write, and we will as well.”

Here is today’s photo challenge:

Demolition of an old building. ©Alastair Forbes

Demolition of an old building.
©Alastair Forbes

Razing The Dead

Genre: Fiction

Word Count: 224 (WAY over! Hopefully, none “wasted”)

~~~~~

When I first noticed the sign and  construction fencing, my first thought was “They should have done that years ago and salted the ground.”

A conglomerate had purchased the land where various versions of a pub, dance club and restaurant had stood on Robertson Road since our town had been incorporated.

“The Whistle”, as my friends and I knew it, had been a place where I’d spent some fun, hazy Saturday nights in our flaming youth.
We didn’t speak often of the last night it was open, the night when a man none of us knew, confronted Jordie Thiessen and stabbed him to death over a girl. The strange part was, Jordie hadn’t brought a date.

My student experience at Archives turned up a history of similar events at “The Whistle”; 1950’s murder of James Thornton, 1920’s of John Taylor. Discovering a very old microfiche detailing an 1890’s record of public hanging revealed the origin of the pattern. A logger, back from a long stay up north, killed a man in front of the inn that once stood on Robertson’s Farm. The victim, Jedson Toomey, had been courting the logger’s fiancée. The logger’s name is lost but it seems that even in death, he never forgets.

Frankly, I’m relieved. My nephew Jackson is old enough to visit the local pubs when home from university.

~ kei
12 October 2014

Note: “Razing The Dead” is a play on the term “raising the dead” and the place in Bells Corners that Al’s photo reminded me of did exist, much as I described. I truly did feel it haunted, though I’ve based my theory on fictionalized bits of local history. Ottawa was a logging and military town, it was wild ‘n wooly. I should mention, where the pub stood is as yet a barren field. Still fenced, and only a smattering of weeds is brave enough to grow there.

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Napa Valley Visions ~ Sunday Photo Fiction

Sunday Photo Fiction: April 13 2014

Here is a description of the challenge from the blog, Sunday Photo Fiction, hosted by Alastair Forbes:

“Every week on a Sunday, a new photo is used as a prompt for Flash Fiction challenge using around 200 words based on that image. Your story does not have to be exactly what the item in the photo is, you can make it anything you want, and enjoy what you write, and we will as well.”

Here is today’s photo challenge:

From SPF Blog: This photo was taken outside a vineyard. Country road between two towns.

From SPF Blog: This photo was taken outside a vineyard. Country road between two towns.

This photo spoke to me in a few ways. The story I’ve written strays slightly in that, I describe two real events. Their overlapping is something I’ve only just discovered. A moment in the Present, looking into the Past and seeing my Future.

Hope you enjoy.

Napa Valley Visions

Genre: Fictionalized History

Word Count: 200

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to travel to California. On that trip, I was delightfully disabused of a few quaintly Canadian preconceptions about that State and about the United States in general. That may sound funny given the “Global Village” mentality and that Canada, as a whole is very attuned to a worldview. There are things however, that I’d not seen but for on television and as such weren’t on my radar. What a treat to finally see the Winchester House in person and the majesty of The Redwoods come to life from documentary images. The revelation of the hilliness of the coast and the temperate temperatures too, made California seem more real and less myth of blondes, surfers and endless summers.

One drive took us through Wine Country and though we didn’t stop, the beauty of those fields of grapes entranced me. The Napa Valley, seen in person is beautiful. How to explain the pull of one particular vineyard along that route? We stopped for a picnic lunch at roadside and the image of another, earlier time superimposed it. Was the pretty, pregnant woman I saw just a fey notion or a portent of things to come?

~ kei
13 April 2014

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The Ship’s Bell ~ Sunday Photo Fiction

Sunday Photo Fiction: March 23rd 2014

This is another of the writing challenges I’ve wanted to try. Usually, there just aren’t enough hours in the week to fit in all the fun things I want to do but then, that’s just another sort of challenge, yes?

Here is a description of the challenge from the blog:

“Every week on a Sunday, a new photo is used as a prompt for Flash Fiction challenge using around 200 words based on that image. Your story does not have to be exactly what the item in the photo is, you can make it anything you want, and enjoy what you write, and we will as well.”

Here is today’s photo challenge:

23 March 2014 Challenge

23 March 2014 Challenge

So participants can stray from the actual photo included and because I’m me, I’m doing that :). I’m also bending the rules slightly in that, this story existed previously but was never published. I did have to type it all up from my copybook 🙂

 When I saw the challenge photo, this story came to mind. I wrote it for a school English project when I was about 10 or 11. It’s recreated here (including the mis-spellerings and grammatifications). As my Teacher noted at the time: I have a big imagination. Hope you enjoy.

The Ship’s Bell

Genre: Fiction

Word Count: 224

A foggy night in Nova Scotia wasn’t a nice way to begin a vacation but that’s how mine started.
Through the queer fog, I stood listening to the dismal whining of the wind and the crash of the breakers.All at once I heard the screams of women and the crying of babies; through the din a ship’s bell started clanging.
As fast as I could I ran to my uncle’s cabin. I looked for his book on ghosts of Nova Scotia. I found out anyone hearing the ship’s bell would be drowned as were the fated passengers of the “Wooden Lady”.
Intrigued I read on only to find a ship’s bell was was burned onto the flesh of the drowned person.
I was rather frightened, and didn’t intend to go out, but I seemed to be drawn to the sea. As I walked the mud flats I reasoned that there was nothing to be afraid of. I must have been out a long time and didn’t notice the wave until it engulfed me.
It roared over me! and I was tossed about like a rag doll. A ship’s bell began to clang eerily and I was dressed in old-fashioned clothes. I felt myself pulled down, down, with bodies floating around me. Slowly, slowly, I slipped from reality.
The headlines the next day read:

Girl-drowns-in-sea-In

This was hand drawn for the project 🙂

Project Marks. I still think she was a little stingy!

Project Marks. I still think she was a little stingy!