May 18, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction, Original Short Story
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PHOTO PROMPT © J Hardy Carroll
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Realistic and semi-Paranormal Fiction
Beyond the Veil
©May18th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
The waiting was hard, but it was all Santosh could do. Images of his new bride, now in the hospital, flooded his mind.
Standing up suddenly, he brushed his shock of black hair back, went to the window, and looked out blindly. The world was racing towards its goalless future. He couldn’t care less now about others. Only the present mattered.
Suddenly, he felt a touch on his shoulder. He turned, and smiled in joy. “Amala! Wait … how are you here?”
She laid a finger to her lips.
The door opened. The surgeon entered, face sombre.
The room spun around.
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With thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Fairy Blog-Mother to all of us who cannot wait for her munificence (:-) ), and to J. Hardy Carroll for that evocative photograph which puts us all in mind of eternal waiting rooms.
Tags: #FridayFictioneers, #LoveandDeath, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt
May 18, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction, Original Short Story
The Wait, or The Tame Elopement
©May 18th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
We waited with drumming hearts. We were breaking a rule.
“Next!” came a voice from the office. We entered with our friends, Ajit and Randy.
“Sign here,” said the magistrate. We signed. I didn’t remember much else in that bureaucratic blur.
“Have sweets,” he ordered us. The dingy room burst into applause as we exchanged pedhas.
Later, after a wonderful thali lunch, followed by a happy party at W’s house, I went home.
That was precisely one day short of twenty-eight years ago.
Six months later, we were “officially” married in a Hindu ceremony.
And we began our married life.
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With thanks, as always to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Fairy Blog-Mother of the whole Flash Fiction universe (listen, all you other flash fiction writers out there!), and to J. Hardy Carroll for that photograph that makes us all think of waiting spaces.
This is a true story. Obviously, I’ve left out a LOT of details. It was a whole lot more confusing and crazy and exhilarating than I could say in a hundred words.
And our 28th Wedding Anniversary is tomorrow! What a wonderful ride it’s been!
Tags: #Elopement(ofasort), #FridayFictioneers, #Marriage, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt
May 5, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Short Story
PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Song of the Air
©May 5th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
When things got unbearable, Lali would go up to the attic, escaping the constant carping of her mother. Her cowed father’s silence, the result of his being sniped at daily, didn’t help.
Once alone, Lali would throw open the window and stare out at the birds, who ranged themselves on a wire, and sang to her, inviting her to join them. And she would dream.
Today was different. An ‘F’ in her science exam had gotten her a beating from her mother. She wasn’t allowed to play outside for a month.
The birds seemed to be calling extra-insistently to her.
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Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Fairy Blog-Mother Extraordinaire, for hosting Friday Fictioneers with her usual grace and élan , and to Roger Bultot, for that lovely, if gloomy, photograph.
Tags: #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt
Apr 29, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction, Original Short Story
PHOTO PROMPT © Mary Shipman
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Semi-realistic fantasy-fiction
Genii
©April 29th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
My husband had died. My son had taken the house. My relations were scattered.
All I was left with now was the shop. No one wanted it. By law, it was mine (an old will left by my husband before things soured).
I sat there, my heart in pieces, selling a small thing here or there, just enough to buy food, and pay for my heat.
“How much for that lamp?” asked a bell-clear voice.
I looked up.
A beautiful gray-haired woman stood there. Her eyes were mist-gray. “I’m Jeanie,” she said, “I need that lamp.”
I fell in love.
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This is my third attempt. Bear with me, please! Something about this photograph calls out to me.
Once again, many thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Fairy Blog-Mother of FF, for hosting Friday Fictioneers, where we get to read the work of some of the best story-tellers in the blogging world. Thanks, too, to Mary Shipman for that lovely photo-prompt!
Tags: #Genie, #Genii, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt
Apr 28, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Short Story
PHOTO PROMPT © Mary Shipman
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Realistic fiction
Parallel-Life
©April 28th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
I’d travelled many miles. Bandits had taken all I had. My only child had died when they attacked. I had to bury him in the forest, my heart a stone.
Grief and hunger assailed me. I hadn’t eaten for five days. I’d walked for miles. The berries I’d found had made me sick.
I reached a shop. Incongruous things hung there.
“Please,” I croaked, collapsing at the door, “Some food …”
A boy came out of the shadows. “Come in. My father went out five days ago, and never returned. My mother’s in shock.”
He seemed strangely familiar. I crawled in.
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Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Fairy Blog-Mother Extraordinaire for hosting Friday Fictioneers, where we get to meet and mingle with some of the finest story-tellers in the blogging world. Thanks, as well, to Mary Shipman for that photo-prompt!
Tags: #Coincidence?, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt, #RealisticFiction
Apr 28, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction, Original Short Story
PHOTO PROMPT © Mary Shipman
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Fairy tale? Demon-Tale! (Alas, I seem to not have much realistic fiction left in me – I’ll give it another try!)
Shopping Trap
©April 28th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
It was a curious shop. Rolling pins, lamps and chemises hung down. At the far end, wearing a long, dirty nightgown, sat a man, with wispy white hair on his head. His teeth were yellow-stained, his fingernails dirty.
As far as Nina knew, he’d never sold anything. Day after day, she passed his shop; the same things hung down, or sat on the shelf.
Passing one day, she looked straight into his eyes.
His returned gaze rattled her. Despite herself, she entered.
In seconds, the shop, the man, and Nina vanished, before the mournful words, “Another one gone” echoed everywhere.
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Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Fairy Blog-Mother Extraordinaire for hosting Friday Fictioneers, where we get to meet and mingle with some of the finest story-tellers in the blogging world. Thanks, as well, to Mary Shipman for that photo-prompt!
Tags: #Fantasy-FairyTale-Mystery, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt, #Shopping
Apr 20, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Short Story, Uncategorized
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Fairy tale? Demon-Tale!
Demon-Town
©April 20th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
I can’t take anymore, sighed Hans.
He’d been walking the fence for twenty minutes, trying to find a gap. THEY had segregated him, his family, and town, for unknown reasons.
Psst! came a voice from a tree beyond the fence.
Peering out, a young demon grinned wickedly, and said, Sell me your soul; I’ll let you all go free.
“Why?” asked Hans, incredulous.
I’m not paid enough for this. I need a soul. I’m hungry. Yours looks delicious.
Hans thought, If this is a hallucination, so be it.
By the time he breathed, “Okay,” the maw of darkness engulfed him.
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Thanks, always, to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Fairy Blog-Mother, powerful story-weaver, and of Friday Fictioneers, and to Madison Woods (whose url I could not find) for the photo-prompt.
P.S. I wanted to write something about the Holocaust, but since Rochelle already wrote one, I thought, Head to fantasy world!
P.P.S. I’ll be travelling by car later this evening (to Toronto), and will not be able to visit any sites until tomorrow evening (we’re stopping on the way). Running around, getting things ready. I look forward to reading everyone’s stories.
Apr 8, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Short Story
PHOTO PROMPT © J Hardy Carroll
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Reminiscence
©April 8th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
“Do you remember, love? Do you remember how you and I built our house? How we lived, loved, fought, and laughed together? Do you remember the flowers we planted, the vegetables, the trees, our pup in the garden?”
I don’t show her pictures of the place from recent times, just the ones from long ago.
Her left hand caresses the photo-album. Looking at the pictures, then, up at me, lips trembling, she whispers, “Who are you?”
She reaches for my arm with her right hand, and her grip tightens.
A tear falls on a photograph. Whose?
We grow quiet together.
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Thanks, as always, to our dear Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting Friday Fictioneers, and to J Hardy Carroll for the haunting photo-prompt.
Tags: #100-wordFlashFiction, #Alzheimers, #MemoryLoss, #Nostalgia
Apr 6, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Short Story
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Horror (ish)
The Detention
©April 6th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Two things you should never do:
a. Contradict your teacher.
b. Stay back after school for an extra session.
I did both.
I stayed back after school. My outburst in class about yet another incorrectly-explained algebra problem had earned me yet another detention. Unwilling to look Ms. Know-Nothing in the eye, I stared at her hands, as I handed her my insincere apology-note.
And stared.
The fingers started flaking off. In minutes, all that I saw were bones.
I fainted.
When I awoke, I was a babbling mess. The teacher was not seen again. The school was closed down indefinitely.
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Thanks, as always to our gracious Fairy Blog-Mother and Fearless Leader of Friday Fictioneers, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for inspiring us every week! And thanks, as well, to
J Hardy Carroll, for that intriguing photo-prompt.
Tags: #Detention, #Mild horror
Apr 2, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Short Story
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Mythological fiction
Resurgam, OR, Babylon Revisited
©April 2nd, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
“This one’s mine,” said Tammuz.
“You can’t take over this one, Tums,” said Ishtar. “You’re too gloomy. That city is MINE. I’ll call it the City of Love.”
Marduk, on her left, laughed at her with his sky-blue eyes, and spoke in many tongues:
“You may be beautiful and powerful, darling Ishtar, but that city was ALWAYS mine. See that shadow tower rising up? That was built for me in Babylon. Confusion reigns here; the sky’s the limit.
I, Marduk, the sky-god, rise again – and Babylon rises with me.”
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Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, whom I have dubbed our Fairy Blog-Mother for her devotion to Friday Fictioneers, an online pow-wow which she hosts counter-intuitively on Wednesdays, just to befuddle those of us who like time-tables and such. All of us are addicted to writing flash fiction, and to her kind and generous feedback. This week’s photo-prompt is by Marie Gail Stratford. Thank you, Marie!
Tags: #Babylonian gods, #Babylonian mythology, #Urban landscapes, yl