PHOTO PROMPT © Jennifer Pendergast
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“No! This is not what I meant!”
Eight-year-old Erin pounded her fists on the back of the chair and then recoiled when it hurt so much. She squealed in her too squeaky, little girl voice.
She wanted to go back and fix the past. The experiment held that promise. The forty-two-year-old physicist stepped into the acceleration chamber and vanished.
It was thirty-four years ago. Her old bedroom. She thought she’d arrive as herself; as an adult. Instead, she was projected into her younger body.
The door opened and she cringed.
“Daddy’s here, Erin.”
The horror was starting all over again.
Time again to contribute to the 29 September 2023 edition of Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ Friday Fictioneers. The idea is to use the image at the top as a prompt to craft a story or poem no more than 100 words long. My word count is exactly 100.
I don’t know why, but the minute I saw the image of a little girl’s bedroom, I saw horror rather than wonder or innocence. Time travel stories are always wish fulfillment stories. In this case I borrowed a rift from both the original (which I liked a lot better) and reimaged television show “Quantum Leap.”
Someone steps into the acceleration chamber and is launched backward in time, occupying the body of a person at that point in history and trying to make right what once went wrong.
In this case, Erin was trying to put right what was wrong in her childhood. She expected to do that as an adult, helping her younger self. She had no idea she’d have to try to change everything as an eight-year-old girl.
The title is taken from a song by Cher released in 1989.
To read other stories based on the prompt, visit inlinkz.
To read one of my published works of fiction, go see ICE.
At the end of time, the world is hot and men travel the vast oceans in merchant sailing ships. Captain Ki-Moon Yong of the Star of Jindo has discovered a new horror at the bottom of the world. Can he and the Star escape disaster long enough to warn a disbelieving world?Read the latest review of “Ice” HERE.
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Harrowing stuff
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Very true.
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Oh jeez! As the awful truth dawned, I wanted to go there myself and deal with the monster!
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Unfortunately, Erin is going to have to do that herself.
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I hope she does–and with vigor!
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She has a forty-two year old intellect in an eight-year-old body.
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She needs to find leverage!
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She sure needs something.
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Grim! Great tale but what a horrible ending, poor little girl. Well done
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Thank you. It’s an ending because I’m limited to 100 words, but I don’t think Erin is finished.
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Good God! What a horror story! I guess, with the knowledge of her 42-year old self, she could make a few phone calls. I hope. On second thoughts, it’s actually a story of hope. We may not be able to change the past by getting into a time-travel machine, but we can change our responses to it.
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That’s true. Erin wanted to go back in time and literally change history. In real life, that’s not an option. We have to take who we are today and “rewrite” ourselves to be better than we were.
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I’ve seen people cry during past life regressions. Going back is not always easy.
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I agree. Thanks.
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Yikes!!! I hope she manages to escape soon.
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So do I.
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A horrifying story to be sure. Run Erin!
Shalom,
Rochelle
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It is. Thanks, Rochelle.
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Horrifying but my sense is that she’ll find a way to fix things even without the benefit of an adult appearance. Sam always did!
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I don’t think Sam ever leapt into a child, although he did leap into a Downs person twice.
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Oh, man, what a bad result. Well done.
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Thanks.
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bummer, it didn’t work as expected. what’s she gonna do now?
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I guess we’ll never know (well, actually I do, but then I created Erin). Thanks.
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Poor Erin. She’ll have to file this one under “Oops!” Hopefully she doesn’t have to wait another 42 years to try and fix the past again.
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Having a child’s body but an additional thirty plus years of experience will help her think of something. Thanks.
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Maybe with what she’s learned she will find a way to interrupt the cycle. The classic edict with time travel is that you don’t change anything as it could ripple with a butterfly effect. She needs to set that aside and make it end forever, whatever else happens.
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That’s true. If she finds a way to make it end (probably involving drastic action), the rest of her life will be very different.
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Oh my….
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What an innocent start to a deeper story of horror.
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True dat. Thanks.
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Amazing story! Time travel never seems to work out as planned.
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If it did, it wouldn’t be interesting. Thanks.
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I like the idea of her ‘too squeaky, little girl voice’. Gave a little clue to what was going on, without giving it away. Great twist at the end. And I do like a good time travel story – raises so many possibilities.
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Thank you, Margaret.
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