May 12, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Inter-galactic romantic fiction
Ad Astra
©May 12th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Waves of light trembled brokenly on the water. The buildings lit up like jewels.
Turning to face him, I saw his anguished look.
“It’s time to go,” he whispered, embracing me.
“Why can’t I come?” I asked, held-back tears draining into my throat.
“They’ll kill you. You have to stay. I have to leave.”
He aligned himself with the light. His eyes not leaving mine, he glowed brightly for a second, then vanished as if he had never been.
Now weeping openly, I looked at what he’d left me: A ring, glowing blue.
I wear it still. And I wait.
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I decided on romance for this week’s FF. This is unusual for me, because, as those who follow my blog know, I’m a hard-hitting realistic type with a no-nonsense attitude to such silliness as romance. Bah, humbug to romance, I say! Too cheesy, I say. Still, all you need is love, as The Beatles declared. Hope you don’t mind. 🙂
Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Fairy Blog-Mother of the Known Universe, for hosting FF every week, and to the wonderfully terse C.E. Ayr for that lovely photograph.
Tags: #100-wordFlashFiction, #FridayFictioneers, 100-word original short story based on a photo prompt
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
Dec 9, 2015 Friday Fictioneers, Original Short Story
PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: War/Ghost-Fiction
Doors of Deception
©December 9th, 2015
By Vijaya Sundaram
Once, there was a house.
Once, there were warm, living people in this house.
There was a house, with warm, living people in it — now there is dry heather. Wind moans through empty spaces amidst iron scraps. Doors open into the wild, where the sun (or is it a small bomb, or an army Hummer?) shines, blinding me.
Beside it, offices go up, glass-blindingly oblivious to lives gone.
Wandering here, I wonder, Was it worth it?
A soldier steps out, points his gun at me, says, “Move along, citizen.”
I step through the doors, and vanish.
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Thanks, as always, to our Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields (sorry I’m a whole week late with writing this one, since the new one already came out today!), for hosting Friday Fictioneers, where writers meet and write 100-word short stories based on photo-prompts. Thanks to Roger Bultot for the evocative photo!
Tags: #Loss, 100-word original short story based on a photo prompt, Doors, War
Nov 27, 2015 Friday Fictioneers
Sisyphus The Second
©November 27th, 2015
By Vijaya Sundaram
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: End-Times, Greek-Myth-Sci-Fi Style
They condemned me to hell.
I’d committed a crime beyond forgiveness. I’d destroyed the oceans, and lied about it.
When They heard about it, They plucked me from my mansion, and set me down hard on petroleum-covered beaches.
Now, I have to scale that ravaged cliff, build a lighthouse atop it, occupy it, destroy it, climb back down, re-scale the cliff, rebuild the lighthouse, and repeat it all, while the methane burns above me, and the seas boil below me.
And I have to flick the lights on and off.
I don’t see why.
There’s nobody out there.
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Thanks, as always, to our Fairy Blog-Mother and brilliant story-teller, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for being our gracious host every week at Friday Fictioneers, and to Sandra Crook an amazing story-teller and photographer, for this week’s photo-prompt.
Tags: #Original Short Story by Vijaya Sundaram, 100-word original short story based on a photo prompt
Nov 15, 2015 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction
PHOTO PROMPT – © J Hardy Carroll
Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
© November 15th, 2015
By Vijaya Sundaram
Genre: Realistic Fantasy Death-Fiction
Word Count: 100 words of text exactly
So much sorrow in the world, so much war, so many dead! All that waste, all those fathers gone, those flowers with their heads in the dust make me thirst for life.
I sit day after day in this cemetery, not because I love death, but because I mourn life. I tend to the graves of those whose families have forgotten them. That woman and her child over there come every day. They are beautiful, enshrouded in mystery.
The woman looks up, sees me, pales.
I try to send reassurance her way. My scythe gleams.
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With thanks, as always, to our Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for being a lovely host to all of us who write as Friday Fictioneers, and to J. Hardy Carroll for that touching photograph.
I type this at my brother’s home in New Delhi, India. I’ll be leaving to go back to Pune, India, where my mother lives, to spend the rest of the following week there. Back in the US on the 23rd. Missing you all. Sorry about not being able to comment much — Internet connectivity is an issue.
Tags: #Death, #Life, #Peace, 100-word original short story based on a photo prompt, War, Where have all the flowers gone?
Oct 28, 2015 Friday Fictioneers, Original Short Story
PHOTO PROMPT – © Dale Rogerson
Genre: Greek neo-Myth
Word Count: 100 words of text exactly
Rebirth of the Hydra
©October28th, 2015
By Vijaya Sundaram
Why did I fight Alcaeus? I should’ve recognized him when he arrived. I should have known when he and Iolaus cauterized eight of my heads. I should’ve known that he, named Hera’s Gift, would be my nemesis. And though he severed my one immortal head, and placed it under a rock, I had my revenge, for an arrow he dipped in my blood caused his death.
But they don’t call me Hydra for naught. Aeons passed, water collected around my rock, and a deep basin formed around it. Strength returned.
I was ready to strike again.
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And, as always, a warm “thank you” to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, our gracious Fairy Blog-Mother, for hosting Friday Fictioneers every week. Thanks, also to the delightful Dale Rogerson, for that intriguing photograph!
Tags: 100-word original short story based on a photo prompt, Greek Mythology, Heracles, The Hydra
Oct 22, 2015 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction
PHOTO PROMPT © Ron Pruitt
Genre: Vehicular Fantasy
Word Count: 100 words of text exactly
Jefferson’s Big Day
©October 22nd, 2015
By Vijaya Sundaram
Jefferson was waiting. He was bored. And he felt mischievous.
Waiting was irksome. It wasn’t his forte. He felt positively homicidal.
After an age, there were streams of passengers, appearing out of nowhere — large, small, dumpy, attractive. Jefferson eyed them surreptitiously, formulating his plans, while they boarded him.
Among them was a little old man with sky-colored eyes and ancient wrinkles who gave Jefferson a conspiratorial wink. Jefferson ignored him studiously, but knew in his piston-pumping heart that today was the big day.
Then, with a lurch, he took off into the air. Screams followed.
Couldn’t people take a joke?
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With thanks, as always, to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, whom I have dubbed our Fairy Blog-Mother, for hosting us for THREE years! What a paragon of graciousness, generosity and creativity you are, Rochelle! Here’s to many more years of your gentle, but firm, steering of the Friday Fictioneers ship! And I love so many writers who contribute to this site — all of them thoughtful, kind, and creative (and occasionally hilarious)! Thank you all for being so supportive to one another, and for making me feel welcome. Thanks, also, to Ron Pruitt, for the charming photo-prompt!
Tags: 100-word original short story based on a photo prompt, Bus Fantasy story
Oct 1, 2015 Friday Fictioneers
Genre: Sci-fi/fantasy
Word Count: 100 words of text exactly
Mouse-Trap
©October 1st, 2015
By Vijaya Sundaram
The mouse sat innocently upon the desktop.
There was toast with peanut butter, left there by the human who’d been working at her computer. The mouse just wanted a little nibble. There’d be no harm done, would there? After all, he came every night to clean up after the human went to bed.
The computer, still on, glowed warningly at the mouse, whirring a little.
A small zap crackled in the air.
The mouse was gone.
In its place, stood another mouse. And it was NOT innocent. In the carnage that followed, the computer died.
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With thanks to our Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting Friday Fictioneers diligently and lovingly every week, and inspiring all of us to keep a date with our Muse! Also, thanks to Marie Gail Stafford for her photograph which has drawn so many different reactions and stories from so many of us!
Tags: 100-word original short story based on a photo prompt, computer mouse story, Fantasy, mouse-traps
Sep 25, 2015 Friday Fictioneers
PHOTO PROMPT © The Reclining Gentleman
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Word Count: 100 words of body text exactly
The Dividing Line
©September25th, 2015
By Vijaya Sundaram
Some people teeter on the brink of madness; others straddle it; still others go right over the edge.
Fourteen-year old Jonah was half-way over that edge, eyes flashing blue fire, the fiery madness of a fanatic who’s found God.
His mother had left home, his father was catatonic, and his sister plied the oldest of trades.
He’d stand every day, arms akimbo, haloed in sunset gold, and laugh. Someone reported him, but the police weren’t interested — they had other things occupying their attention in Jonah’s drug-addled neighborhood.
Jonah was still laughing that day, when the water arose to meet him.
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Thanks, as always, to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, our brilliant Writer-in-Residence and Fairy Blog-Mother, and also to the mysterious Reclining Gentleman for the evocative photo-prompt.
Tags: 100-word original short story based on a photo prompt, bridge between sanity and madness, on the brink of madness
Sep 9, 2015 Friday Fictioneers, Original Short Story
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Word Count: 100 words
Charon-Me
©September 9th, 2015
By Vijaya Sundaram
The canoe was beautiful — cedar jointed together snug and tight, it curved gracefully like a swan that could slice the waters.
Inhaling deeply, letting the scent of the wood drift into my bones, ignoring the cancerous pain in them (my everyday reality), I pushed the canoe into my beloved glacial lake which mirrored the blue bowl of sky above, finely hammered into hot blue steel.
I did not wear my life-vest. I could not swim.
I rowed energetically to the middle of the lake, and looked down. Something swirling in the ninety-foot depths invited me in.
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Thanks, as always to our Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting Friday Fictioneers, and to Jennifer Pendergast, for that lovely photo-prompt!