Mar 4, 2016 Original Flash Fiction

Your Photo Prompt for Week #10 – 2016

 

Genre:  Historical Fiction/Greek Mythology
Word Count:  200 words of text, exactly
(for Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner)

The Triangle*
©March 4thm, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

[Smiling, Clotho regarded the spark in her cave in the dark mists of time, a spark shaped like a girl.  Clotho spun out her thread.]

The warp and weft of her life brought Hannah to the Factory.  The sough and grate of sewing-machines filled her days.  At fourteen, under-nourished and overwhelmed, she had found hell. 

First:  There was the manager, whose coming was presaged by his paunch and much puffing.  Rumors about his behavior with the older girls abounded.  Hannah was growing up.

[Measuring out the cloth, Lakhesis said,  “I know it’s only been three weeks.”  Her sister sighed.  “It cannot be undone, Clotho,”said Lakhesis.]

Second:  There were the latrines.  Hannah would hold it in as long as she could, because she would have to leave the building to go.  That meant a wage-cut. 

[At the far end of their cave, stood their sister, Atropos, shears in hand.]

Third:  The fire began around 4:40 p.m.  Hannah and the others crowded into the rickety elevator.  “Yit’gadal v’yit’kadash sh’mei raba,”** Hannah cried, smoke choking her words.

[Atropos cut the cloth.]

The spark, now a conflagration, arose again in the cave.

“Why did you do that to me?” stormed the child. 

[The Fates*** wept.]

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*See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire

**See Kaddish

*** See The Three Sisters, the Fates, the Fatae, the Moerae/Moirai, the Parcae

Thanks to Roger Shipp, our kindly host of Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner!  This is my first entry for FFftPP.

Tags: #ChildLabour, #Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner, #Moerae, #Moirai, #Original Short Story by Vijaya Sundaram, Atropos, Clotho, Historical Fiction, Lachesis, Original 200-word flash fiction based on a photograph prompt, The Three Fates, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory