Sep 21, 2016 Uncategorized

Word Count:  100 words of text, exactly
Genre:  Irony; pseudo-religious fiction

Light-House
©September 21st, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

Ascension wasn’t difficult that day.  I simply dissolved into many points of light, allowing myself to be beamed up. 

My problem is that no one saw it. 

What was the point of that glorious display when it was ignored?

I’m not a charlatan or anything.  Practically anything can be transmuted, if one knows how to dissolve the bonds that hold matter together, and then reassemble them through sheer force of will.

Another person did it before me.  We had the same Teacher.

I blame those damned cellular phones.  Everyone was too busy, texting, to see my feat.

It’s not fair!

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Thanks to our Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for graciously hosting Friday Fictioneers week after week without tiring, and to Roger Bultot for that fantastic photograph.

Tags: #ascension, #FridayFictioneers, #ironic story, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt, #Transmutation

Sep 14, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction

PHOTO PROMPT © Shaktiki Sharma

Word Count:  100 words of text, exactly
Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Grindstones and Gold
©September 14th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

The dowry covered the basics:  A grindstone for godumai mavu, another for makkacholam, and a stone idli mavu-grinder, plus the usual assortment of stainless steel  kitchen necessities.  Kavita also brought a gold necklace, pearl-and-coral earrings gold bangles, and silver anklets. 

The groom’s family pronounced themselves satisfied. 

What did it matter that the groom was dull-witted?

What did it matter that Kavita was pregnant with her low-caste lover’s child?

Did it matter that on her wedding night, she wept?

And did it matter that the next morning she was dead?

At least, they had the grindstones and the gold.

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Thanks to our dear Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting Friday Fictioneers, a wild and creative assortment of story-tellers from around the world!  Thanks to Shaktiki Sharma for the photograph!

Tags: #dowrydeathstory, #FridayFictioneers, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt, #RealisticFiction

Sep 7, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction, Original Short Story

Treadle and Thread
©September 7th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

Lyra sat weaving at her loom.  Behind her was a strange device.

Cursed to dwell there eternally, Lyra dreamt of freedom.  Food was brought to her, and mead.  Through the shuttered window of the stone castle, she glimpsed a silver river weaving through the woods.

How I wish I could be there! she yearned.

The sun played about her fingers, impelling her towards the machine behind her.

Placing her just-woven silver cloak on the strange device, Lyra worked the treadle, enspelled and ensnared.

A heartbeat later, something unravelled out the window, a cry spinning wood-ward.

Silver threads joined the river.

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Thanks to Fairy Blog-Mother Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, as always, for hosting Friday Fictioneers.  Thanks to the inimitable Sandra Crook for the photograph!

Tags: #Fantasy-FairyTale, #FridayFictioneers, #Loom, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt, #Treadle

Aug 30, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction

Word Count:  100 words
Genre:  Paranormal romance

Ghost-Boat
©August 30th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

Every evening, Saras goes down to the banks of the river flowing near her house. 

A dark boat emerges silently from the gloaming.  Saras steps on board.  Sitting back, she sighs.  The boat moves.  No oars break the water’s surface.

Long ago, she’d loved the boatman.

A bamboo flute breathes desire and despair into the air.  Saras sings with it.  And she waits, calmly, without hope.

Now, Saras hears a question.  Her dead lover’s shimmering form emerges.  Saras says softly, “What took you so long to ask?” then, dissolves into tears.

When the boat returns to shore, it is empty.

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.I was away on vacation this past week.  Catching up is hard to do.  I thought I’d post this before the next FF prompt showed up.
This is a serious addiction.
Thanks to Rochelle, our beloved Fairy Blog-Mother, for hosting Friday Fictioneers.  Her stories always inspire and move me.
Thanks to Georgia Koch for that mysterious photograph!

Tags: #FridayFictioneers, #Love and Death, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt, #Supernatural

Aug 18, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction, The Daily Post

PHOTO PROMPT © Janet Webb
Word Count:  100 words of text, exactly
Genre:  Post-apocalyptic magic-sci-fi

Hive-Bound
©August 18th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

I wait, resting my haunches, dreaming of other times.

My people went away millennia ago, leaving our perfect hive among beautiful, polished stones on a blue china plate, which sat on a table abandoned by humans who’d left in a noisy hurry, and hadn’t taken anything with them.

Everybody on the planet had left.

I stayed behind.  I am the guardian of this beautiful, irradiated, breath-killing world, and I know they won’t forget me.

In stasis, I watch my dreams flow by, iridescent as the wings of my people.

Time passes.  I wait quietly on my eggs, which never hatch.

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Thanks to Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting Friday Fictioneers every week, and for letting us bloom into story-tellers in the magic of her warm encouragement!

Tags: #FridayFictioneers, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt, #Post-apocalyptic fiction, #Sci-Fi Magic-Realism

Jul 27, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction, Original Short Story

PHOTO PROMPT © Janet Webb

Word Count:  100 words of text, exactly
Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Drowning
©July 27th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

Leila stood in a corner, sipping water, wondering why she’d attended the party.

It’s not that I’m ugly, she thought.  I’m … boring.  And I hate small talk. 

Well, I won’t stick around, she decided, setting the glass down.  She moved towards the door, waving a vague goodbye. 

A beautiful woman who had glanced over a few times, detached herself from a group of attractive hipsters and came over.

“Hi, I’m Rona.  Want to join us?”

“I’ve got to catch a taxi home.”

“I’ll drive you home.  What’s your name?”

“Leila,” she answered.  She locked eyes with Rona.  Her heart lurched.

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Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, our much-admired Fairy Blog-Mother, for hosting us tirelessly at her Friday Fictioneers Salon, and to Janet Webb, for the evocative photograph.

Tags: #FridayFictioneers, #Loneliness, #Love, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt

Jul 21, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction

Word Count:  100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction

Perfugium
©July 21st, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

“What is that thing, Sire?” clicked Secondus.

Primus, squinting through the periscope at the watery world around them, clicked out a reply.

They’d been stranded in the trenches of the ocean world. Air supplies had diminished, as the plants in their craft died.  They’d risen to the surface just in time.  

Their craft bobbed nearer.  The water fell away; the drowned land rose into view.  There was no sign of life.

Primus quailed when he saw the figure holding its torch.

“They must have been giants,” he rasped.

They discerned some writing below, but no matter. 

They’d finally found refuge.

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With many thanks to our Super-Muse and Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting Friday Fictioneers week after week.  Thanks, also, to Jan Wayne Fields for the beautiful photograph.

Tags: #FridayFictioneers, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt, #ScienceFiction, #StatueofLiberty

Jul 14, 2016 Friday Fictioneers

This is a re-run of my 2014 story (which appeared on my first blog, which lasted for a year, and which I’ve now set on a shelf).  Thanks, as always, to Fairy Blog-Mother Rochelle Wisoff-Fields who runs Friday Fictioneers!   This week’s photo is courtesy of Sandra Crook.

Word Count:  100 words of text, exactly
Genre:  Semi-realistic fiction

Sheeples
(Originally titled “Sleep and Nipples”)
©May 14, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram

I lay in bed, counting sheep.

A car appeared amidst the sheep.  Its rear bumpers were visible.  I tried to hail it.  Nothing happened.  The sheep pressed forward, urgent and militant, in my direction.

I reminded myself that I was trying to get to sleep.

The sheep came closer, backing me into a corner of the image.

I tapped at the edges of my mental image, but it remained resolutely two-dimensional.

Sleep never came.  Sheep poured in, though.

Beside me, the baby stirred, and made sucking noises.  I awoke.  Sigh.

I shall never use lanolin on sore nipples again, ever.

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Tags: #FridayFictioneers, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt, #Re-Run, #Sheep

Jul 6, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction

Word Count:  100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Oneiric Greek Mythology

Recalled
©July 6th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

She walked down a whitewashed alleyway. 

White-gold sunlight shafted down, and cerulean skies shone on azure doors.

Before her was the soft sound of footsteps of someone she couldn’t see.  Faint music reached her.  She strained to see and listen, but the notes faded away into darkness.

Looking down at herself, she saw nothing.

Panic seized her.  Still she followed.

Abruptly, the footsteps ceased.  Someone turned.  She caught a glimpse of his face, and cried out.

A wild wind rose up out of nowhere, sweeping her away, back to the place whence she’d come.

Eurydice ceased to be.

Orpheus wept.

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Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting Friday Fictioneers, with grace, creativity and kindness week after week!  Thanks to Jan Marler Morrill for the lovely photograph, which I imagined was either somewhere in Greece, or the Côte D’Azur, neither of which places I’ve visited.

Tags: #FridayFictioneers, #GreekMyth, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt, #OrpheusandEurydice

Jun 30, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction, Uncategorized

Copyright – Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

The Winter of Our Ennui
©June 30th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

You and I are like frost on that windowpane.  Somewhere along the way, ennui and coldness set in.  Our children have grown, and have children of their own.

What do you contemplate while you eat your dinner blankly, sitting opposite me?  I know what I think of.  I think of beautiful, vibrant you, filled with a life-force that seemed that it could never be squelched, back when when I wooed you.  I remember your smile scorching me like a bolt of lightning.  I miss it, endlessly, achingly, like summer-shine.

I want to break that window.  I want to end winter.

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Thanks to Fairy Blog-Mother and story-teller extraordinaire, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for that beautiful photo-prompt, and for hosting Friday Fictioneers with such grace and style week after week.

Tags: #FridayFictioneers, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt, #Reference to Shakespeare's line from Richard III