Jul 23, 2014 Original Short Stories
Here’s another one I wrote, and it’s 74 words long! I cannot believe it! This was done entirely for my daughter, who sat beside me and wondered whether I could write a shorter (than 100 words) story based on a prompt. So, to her wide-eyed astonishment, I unfolded this one from start to finish, with only one phrase and two words edited! (I know it’s weird, or even weirder than the last one, but please be kind, since I wrote this under duress!)
Another One Bites the Dust
©July 23rd, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
I held up my chopsticks and surveyed them calmly.
“More hot sauce,” I snapped.
The waiter came forward in an obsequious manner.
I leaned forward and caught his nose between my chopsticks.
“Get rid of your nose! I don’t like people with big schnozzes serving me,” I said through gritted, razor-sharp teeth, which I bared menacingly, as if to help him with the project.
He turned pale and fled.
Another one bites the dust!
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Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story by Vijaya Sundaram, Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, seventy-four word short story
Jul 23, 2014 Original Short Stories
Genre: Weird Semi-Real Fiction (I just made that up)
Word Count: 100 Words
Sauce
©July 23rd, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
What? I scare you? Why? Am I not handsome? Isn’t this great food? What’s your problem?
“You are the problem,” you say? Have I harmed you? Okay, I’m from a time far from yours, but that’s no reason to hate me. You don’t believe me? Explain this then: How come I’m answering all your thoughts? Guesses? Sigh. How did I ever emerge from a race like your backward little one?
At least shake hands, then. Hey! You’ve strange hands — FIVE fingers? Check out my two — long, pointed, perfectly carved bone things. Nice, huh?
Fork! Don’t go! Try my hot sauce!
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And, as always, thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting Friday Fictioneers, and for providing the prompts each week, and to Marie Gail Stratford for her photograph above.
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Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story, 100-word short story, Chopsticks, Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Jul 16, 2014 Original Short Stories
Thanks, as always, to our wonderful Fairy Blog-Mother (I hope you don’t mind my calling you that, Rochelle), Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting Friday Fictioneers, and to Adam Ickes for the strange, unsettling photo-prompt.
Genre: (Sort of) Realistic Fiction/(Sort of) Humor
Word Count: 100 Words
Horny
©July 16th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
“What do you think?” asked Ben. He’d invited Alicia, his co-worker, home for a drink.
Alicia looked flustered.
“It’s … um … nice,” she finished lamely, staring at the corner of the wall.
“I haven’t unpacked yet,” he replied, bringing her a glass of red wine, gesturing to her to sit beside him.
“I have to go,” she said, moving towards the door.
“Did I offend you?” he asked.
“No, it’s … did you know there’s a ram in that corner?” she blurted.
She opened the door, and fled.
“What is she talking about, Father?” said Ben.
The ram ate cardboard in silence.
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Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story, 100-word story, Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction, Photo-prompt-based story
Jul 9, 2014 Original Short Stories
Below is my short-story response to Rochelle-Wisoff Field‘s Friday Fictioneers prompt (photograph kindly provided by Kelly Sands). Thanks Rochelle and Kelly! If you are interested in reading more stories, click on this cute frog icon here:
Your curiosity will be well-rewarded with some of the most creative and diverse responses/stories you will read on the web.
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Genre: Mythological Fiction/ Science Fiction
Word Count: 100 words
Titanic Emergence
©July 9th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
No one noticed the clouds that day, because people had been forewarned.
The alarm had sounded all over the globe — even the indigenous peoples in forests and hills and distant islands had been informed. Nobody ventured out.
When the clouds parted, a beam of light shot through and sucked up the entire planet.
Where the Earth was taken, no one knew. People’s eyes were shut tight, and they felt … translated.
Later, in a newly formed Universe, a new race emerged. Twelve people straightened up. Their heads brushed the edges of space.
“Let it begin again,” said Time.
And it did.
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Tags: #Original Short Story, 100-word short story, Flash Fiction, Kronos, Micro-Fiction, Mythological Fiction, Science Fiction, The Twelve Titans in Greek Mythology
Jul 2, 2014 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT, Copyright – Claire Fuller
This is my second 100-word story-attempt based on the above photo-prompt on Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ Friday Fictioneers blog-site. Hope you like it.
Genre: Mythological Fiction
Word Count: 100 words
Circe
©July 2nd, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
You will not believe me, but I have to tell someone.
Come close and listen. Listen well. No, don’t look around you at the animals. Regard this statue. Doesn’t he look handsome? Doesn’t he look real?
What was that? Yes, the story.
His name was … perhaps you’ve heard of him? He was a sailor whom I lured to my island.
I was hungry for love.
Unfortunately, everything I touched turned into an animal, all, except for him. He turned to stone.
What? Release him? Why should I? I’ve crowned him king, and he won’t ever sail away.
I’m lonely here.
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Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story, Circe, Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction, Odysseus
Jul 2, 2014 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT, Copyright – Claire Fuller
This is in response to the above photo-prompt for this week’s “Friday Fictioneers,” which appears on Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ blog. Every week, writers from around the world write a story based on the given photo-prompt on her site –and we have to do it in 100 words or fewer. Here’s mine.
Genre: Semi-realistic, semi-historical fiction
Word Count: 100
Reigning Supreme
©July 2nd, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
“Ozzie, this won’t make a difference,” said the brave Queen to the King.
Honesty was her greatest gift. It was also her downfall.
No one questioned him and lived.
The statue he commissioned was completed. Alas, the sculptor was also repaid with death, because the King wanted no replicas. He was that sort of king.
Eventually, everything in his kingdom fell apart. He died. Only the statue remained. Then, even that crumbled.
A traveller to his land found this on the pedestal: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”*
Only dust reigned.
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*With apologies to Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story, Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction, Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley, photo prompt, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Jun 27, 2014 Original Short Stories
This is my short story for Friday Fictioneers, hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields.
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Word Count: 100 words
Silence is a Tree
©By Vijaya Sundaram
June 28th, 2014
Sathya was exhausted. Yesterday, at work, she’d been reprimanded. Nobody had asked questions, or listened.
Every day, since the diagnosis of cancer two weeks ago, left her drained. She’d told nobody. She’d already hated her job. Now, she wanted to leave.
“I want to know things, like trees and birds,” she wept to her husband, who listened, aching within.
Today, they went to the woods with a book: Trees of North America. Birds sang in the shimmering air near a huge oak waiting for her.
“I’m home,” she said to her husband, face aglow.
He wept. The tree stood, silent.
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Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story, Flash Fiction, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Silence, Tree
Jun 18, 2014 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT
Copyright -Mary Shipman
Below is my 100-word short story for Friday Fictioneers. Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting, and to Mary Shipman for the photo prompt.
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Word Count: 100
Quake
©June 18th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
Earthquakes don’t announce themselves.
Sujata was putting the baby to sleep. Sudhir would be home soon. She’d made fresh chappatis, dal and sabji for him, humming quietly. Although they were poor, and living in tenement housing, she felt fortunate — loved, at peace.
She’d had been brutalized at seventeen. Now twenty-four, married to a loving man, she’d learned to deal with her demons.
Such things don’t disappear. She’d been broken. Self-reconstruction was difficult.
A glimpse from her window made her freeze. Looking back at her from a window opposite was him. Their eyes met. He smiled.
Then, the earthquake struck.
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Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, Flash Fiction, Original short story based on photo-prompt
Jun 11, 2014 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT Copyright-Ted Strutz
This prompt proved to be difficult for me, in terms of what kind of story to write — in the end, I settled for realism and tried to mix in a little humor and menace– and tried to do it all inside 100 words. Hope you like the story! Thanks, as always, to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting Friday Fictioneers, and to Ted Strutz for his evocative photograph-prompt!
(NOTE: I published this originally as “(S)Trapped (Down)!” — but I ended up editing it, tinkering with it, and incorporating some of the dock-and-sea imagery into my story. I also gave it a different concluding line.
Sea of Troubles
©June 11th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
Dr. Drinkwater was drunk. He was old. His breath stank.
Get me out of here! I thought, panic rising in my throat.
I was trapped. Strange instruments held my mouth open (I hadn’t dared to peek, when I’d arrived).
Fool! I thought. You came here of your own accord. Now deal with it!
Mrs. Armstruther, Receptionist, tapped away at her computer. Outside, docked boats undulated greyly.
He advanced.
I whimpered.
Smirking, he said, “It’ll be all right.”
I gibbered.
Eyes narrowing, he snapped “Novocain!”
I fainted.
Awakening, I found myself far from shore, alone, afloat at sea.
I screamed.
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Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story, Dentist's Room, Flash Fiction, Novocain drama, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Shakespeare reference "sea of troubles", Strapped, Ted Strutz, Trapped
Jun 5, 2014 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT
Copyright – Douglas M. MacIlroy
I couldn’t resist another story! Thank you to Friday Fictioneers pioneer, Rochelle-Wisoff-Fields, for hosting, and to Douglas M. MacIlroy for today’s prompt!
Euphemism
(My second 100-Word Response to this week’s prompt)
©June 5th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
Sleep doesn’t come, despite his silent screams. A feverish disease consumes his bones. He dreams of cool, snow-covered mountains, an icy river, a boat. The darkness floods in from outside, swirling around his prone form.
Raju’s end is near. He is angry, afraid, and impatient.
Beside him, a woman sits, cigarette dangling from her lips, feet on table, three lit candles courting the darkness. She’s tapping a syringe.
There’s a spoon on the table, some jars fading into the mist that’s closing in, and a shell. Faint music wafts from it.
He croaks, “Give it to me.”
Shrugging, she does.
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Tags: #Death, #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story, Euphemisms, Euthanasia, Flash Fiction, Pain