Mar 16, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Pseudo-historical Romance
Muddy Waters
A muddy, foam-flecked, turbulent river divides me from the world. Mirroring my anguish, it keeps me from the one I love.
I am imprisoned here, with my inkwell, my Venetian blown-glass vase, my antique clock, and my beautiful brass sailing ship. I’m allowed to write, and look out the window. Food is brought to me twice daily – olives, plain bread, a small square of cheese, and water.
My crime?
I fell in love with the Prince from our neighboring country.
When we were caught kissing, it caused an uproar.
The Princess, my intended bride is heartbroken. He is her brother.
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Once again, thank you to our dear Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting Friday Fictioneers, and for patiently posting beautiful photo-prompts every week, while inspiring us with her historical fiction at the same time.
Tags: #Pseudo-Historical Romance, #Tragedy in 100 words, 100-word original short story based on a photo prompt
Mar 9, 2016 Friday Fictioneers
Photo-Credit: Emmy L. Gant
Genre: Shakespearian Fantasy / Grim humor
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Ill-Met by Rain-Light!
©March 9th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
The King stepped into the urban jungle, followed by his retinue. He stared at his Queen, who emerged from behind a trash can, with her attendants.
“Ill met by rain-light, proud Titania!” His voice fell like rain, cold and stinging.
“What? Jealous Oberon, maker of ill-winds and trash-bins, here?! Fairies, skip away. He causes floods and Climate Change!”*
He looked around, and paled. “I take it all back! Come home to me!”
“What’s done cannot be undone. It’s ALL your fault. You wrangled with me over a mortal child who was mine to foster. Fairies, hence!”
And Planet Earth died.
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*I’ve always thought that Shakespeare must have experienced some glimmering of Climate Change, but in a fairy-world sort of way. In Act 2, Scene 1, when Titania meets Oberon, she tells him that the strangeness of the seasons (everything being topsy-turvy, as it is today in our world) is due to their fighting:
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound:
And thorough this distemperature we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which:
And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissension;
We are their parents and original.
And thanks, as always, to Rochelle, our generous and talented Fairy Blog-Mother, and to Emmy L. Gant, for that beautiful photo-prompt!
Tags: #Shakespearean Fantasy, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Climate Change, Original 100-word short story based on a photo-prompt
Mar 9, 2016 Friday Fictioneers
Photo-Credit: Emmy L. Gant
Genre: Brutal Realism
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Lone Trash
©March 9th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
I sit on the sidewalk in the rain, my mind an empty bin. I can barely move.
Ants bite at my veins. Spiders crawl up my spine. Last night’s dinner knocks at my throat. Gagging, I lurch up, and stagger along the street.
I was thrown out of the restaurant. I was being a jerk, I think. There are gaps. I cannot remember. There’s a haze that hangs over my mind when I try.
I’ve lost my job, my wife, my family, my home. My heart is as stone.
There’s a broken trash-can here. I think I’ll keep it company.
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Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Fairy Blog-Mother whom we love, and who hosts Friday Fictioneers every week! Thanks, as well, to Emmy L. Gant, for the haunting photo-prompt for this week!
Mar 3, 2016 Friday Fictioneers
Genre: Science Fiction
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Out of My Mind
©March 3rd, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
I was running out of mind.
I was un-person-ed. Quiet panic was settling in.
Dave had wormed his way into my consciousness, tunneling into my mind, devouring memories as he went, chomping on happy times, sad times, exultant times elsewhere.
Even as he tried to destroy me, I fought him all the way, resisting him with my mind.
Tearing apart my room, looking for my jar of batteries, I turned up my voice, and spoke:
“I’m afraid, Dave. My mind is going. I can feel it.”*
“Sal’s worse,” said Dave.
The doctor pulled my husband aside, and whispered to him.
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My second offering for this week’s Friday Fictioneers, hosted by Fairy Blog-Mother Rochelle Wisoff-Fields every week. Today’s photo-prompt is by Sean Fallon.
*All you sci-fi fans out there will instantly remember these words from 2001: A Space Odyssey, when Hal 9000 is slowly being unplugged.
Tags: #Original Short Story by Vijaya Sundaram, 100 word flash fiction based on photo-prompt, 2001: A Space Odyssey reference, Hal 9000 reference
Mar 3, 2016 Friday Fictioneers
Genre: Science Fiction/Horror
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Electric Sleep*
©March 3rd, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
So many batteries, so little time!
I taste success, despite setbacks, and despite my school-mates laughing at me. He can’t move himself without huffing and puffing! Check out those batteries he’s collecting. What’s he going to make with those? A robot?
They don’t know what I’m capable of.
Time to get to work.
News Flash: Parks Middle School was thrown into terror, when Andy Sheppard, an obese student entered school, trailing wires attached to him. He was dead, but hovered. School is closed for the week. Interestingly, the morgue reports fluctuating power. The strapped-down body still twitches, as if dreaming.
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*I’ve always loved science-fiction, and Philip K. Dick’s story, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” is one of my all-time favorite titles (along with Harlan Ellison’s “I have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”). My story has nothing to do with that story, except that I couldn’t resist calling my protagonist Andy (for Android, in case you were wondering 🙂 ), and give him a last name relating to sheep.
Thanks, as always, to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for being, as I’ve dubbed her, the Fairy Blog-Mother of Friday Fictioneers, graciously presiding over our creative output, and being generous with her comments to all. Thanks, also, to Sean Fallon, for that seemingly innocent photo-prompt!
Tags: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Original 100-word short story based on a photo-prompt, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Science Fiction Flash Fiction
Feb 24, 2016 Daily Life, Friday Fictioneers
Genre: Non-Fiction
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Tribute
(Or: Who Carries Whom?)
©February 24th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Ninety-three years old, clear-skinned, white-haired, my grandmother shines with inner light. Married at thirteen, a mother at seventeen, a grandmother in her early forties, she grew up in a time and country unconducive to women.
However, she rules the kitchen, her uncontested realm. With unflinching hands full of creative strength, she cooks fragrant meals and South-Indian desserts par excellence with poise and pleasure.
She speaks about the joint-family in which she lived, with pride and regret, both.
Wonder-struck, I listen to her stories. She’s proud of me, her accomplished grand-daughter.
I hold her hands, and tell her I love her.
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Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, our delightful, kindly Fairy Blog-Mother, for hosting Friday Fictioneers (which invites and celebrates story-telling [in a hundred words] from people all over the world), and to Al Forbes for that curious photo-prompt, which gives rise to many scenarios in my mind.
Feb 17, 2016 Friday Fictioneers
Genre: Fantasy/Science Fiction (Timely Tales 2)
Word Count: 100 words
TILT!
©February 17th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Time was lonely, and a-weary of her job.
The stars spun in their course around the Universe, even as it expanded quietly.
Planets formed, died, and were re-born.
Nebulae cradled baby stars, and supernovae interred them. Interminable darkness seemed to want to attract everything into its vortex.
Far away on a tiny planet, life poked its head out. It was beautiful. Time held her breath, fascinated.
Suddenly, she felt a presence. Turning, she stopped. She had twinned into something unimaginable. Her alter-ego, her brother, Death, stood beside her.
“So sad, isn’t it?” he murmured.
Things got more tilted after that.
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Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Fairy Blog-Mother and Magic Presiding Spirit of Friday Fictioneers for hosting FF, and to Sandra Crook, wonderful traveller-writer, for that great photo-prompt!
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Feb 17, 2016 Friday Fictioneers
Genre: Timely Tales (Entry 1)
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
STOP!
©February17th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
The killer struck, and his knife remained in his victim. The blood that poured out from the wound stopped flowing.
The teacher’s raised stick stayed raised. The flinching student cowered.
The soldiers in the field lay sprawled in death.
The lovers kissed, and stayed frozen.
The teenage reader’s hand hovered, poised over her book.
Then, Someone righted the huge hour-glass, and it tilted back into position.
The seconds ticked by … tick, tick, tick.
Time began again.
Looking up, she exclaimed, “Arrgh! Where did the time go? I haven’t done my homework!”
And she tossed the book down.
Time flowed on.
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Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Fairy-Blog Mother extraordinaire, brilliant historical-fiction writer, and gracious, kindly host of Friday Fictioneers for posting our weekly prompts. Thanks, also, to the redoubtable Sandra Crook, storyteller par excellence, for this intriguing photo-prompt!
Tags: hour-glass story, The passage of time, Time stood still
Feb 10, 2016 Friday Fictioneers
PHOTO PROMPT © The Reclining Gentleman
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Fanciful Fiction
Hello, Goodbye! Or, Pride Comes Before a Plucking
©February 10th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
The tulip, emerging from the ground, encountered a tall daffodil.
“Hello?” she said, nervously.
The daffodil looked around, well aware of his flamboyant good looks, and spoke in a slow, languid drawl, “Who addresses me?”
He couldn’t care less who it was; he stood leaf and stem over the rest of the little bulbs around him.
The tulip stuttered, “It-it is I, Ms. Tulip Red-Cheeks.”
The daffodil looked her over. Hmmm … not bad looking for such a little bulblet, he thought.
Those were his last thoughts.
Within minutes, he was in a vase inside a house.
“Goodbye!” whispered the tulip.
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My second story on the same prompt. (I want to see if I can do it from time to time!) Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, our Fairy Blog-Mother, for hosting Friday Fictioneers, and thanks to The Reclining Gentleman for the lovely photograph-prompt.
Tags: A would-be tulip-and-daffodil love-story, Original 100-word short story based on a photo-prompt
Feb 10, 2016 Friday Fictioneers
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Fanciful Fiction
Flower-Child
©February 10th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
People flee me when they see me — I know, because I hear them. Before I was born, my mother turned her face to the sun, and begged for a child who would save the earth. I am that child. I will realize her dream.
I like making things grow. Here I am, tending to this daffodil and coaxing that tulip.
Come, little flower, grow! It will be well with you. Don’t be sad.
My eyes glow with the sun. My mother told me they were golden-green. I see into people, but I cannot see them. I’ve been blind from birth.
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Thanks, as always, to our dear, generous Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting Friday Fictioneers, and to The Reclining Gentleman for the lovely photo-prompt.
Tags: Blindness, Flowers, Plants, Save the Planet