PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz
If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.
Alan sat in the laundry contemplating the last moments of his life. It was cold outside, and not just because of the weather.
You see things differently sitting on the floor. All these different types of footwear, all for different occasions and seasons.
They cut off his job, his finances, his friends, family, even his electric car. The people of diversity and acceptance were going to kill him because he didn’t fit in with their politics and dogma.
The door from outside opened. It was Brevoort. “Still time to join us before the end.”
Alan threw a shoe at him.
It’s Wednesday and once again time to participate in the 8 December 2023 edition of Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ Friday Fictioneers. The idea is to use the image at the top as a prompt for crafting a poem or short story no more than 100 words long. My word count is 100.
I decided to let my mood dictate the nature of my story. Overexposure to social media (it doesn’t take much actually), tends to darken the world for me. This is especially true when people who believe they’re always right and that those who are even slightly different are wrong try to convince me of their righteousness.
I took that to the paranoid extreme in my story and can only hope I’m being metaphorical. You never know.
The shoe throwing seemed natural given the image, but I also took it from this particular type of insult you’ll find practiced in the middle east.
To read other stories based on the prompt, visit inlinkz.
Cover art for the anthology “Pocket SciFi: Drabble Contest One”
If you don’t typically follow my blog, I just recently announced that nine out of ten of my submitted science fiction drabbles have been published in the Starry Eyed Press anthology Pocket SciFi: Drabble Contest One, available in both Kindle and Paperback formats.
I have to credit the “Friday Fictioneers” for honing my drabble-writing skills. There’s even one “Fictioneers” story that made it into the anthology with only minor alterations.
I hope those of you (or anyone) who write these Friday challenges and who like science fiction are moved to purchase, read, and (especially) review this book. The proceeds go to supporting emerging and established indie authors, so the cause should be near and dear to us all.
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Seems he doesn’t get along with either side
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Some people like to think for themselves.
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Run or join in. Sounds like two difficult choices for him.
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Since he’s about to be killed, it’s more difficult than that.
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Ah well… there is that.
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Thought-provoking, James. Seems your main character would rather die than pretend. Have to admire that.
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Thank you, Linda.
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Diversity and acceptance indeed. Poor Alan.
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The basic message is, “You can be anything you want to be as long as you’re like us.”
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A telling scenario of the modern world, and I agree about social media. It sounds like such a good idea, but in reality has made the world a measurably less tolerant and meaner place.
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Sure seems that way. Thanks, Iain.
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Dear James,
What a choice. I don’t blame him for throwing the shoe.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thanks, Rochelle.
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Sad last moment. Well done.
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Thank you.
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You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. 🙂
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So it would seem.
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Alan’s not for turning, whatever the consequences.
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Very true. Thanks.
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That was his last chance and he blew it!
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He’s rather stand by his principles than give in to totalitarians.
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Looks like he is in trouble.
Hope he will be saved.
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Me too.
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That’s what you get for being an individual! Good write 🙌
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Thanks. Yeah, there will be times when sticking to your principles will not work out so well.
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I’d put on a pair of running shoes and get the hell out of there!
I guess your MC has accepted his destiny.
A fun and interesting read, James.
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It wasn’t just one person he was facing. An entire social, financial, and political system was against him. They got him fired, froze his bank account, isolated him from family and friends, even remotely turned off his electric vehicle (never go totally electronic and digital when other entities can control your services and material resources remotely). There was no running because there was nowhere to run to. They had him. Thanks.
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Sounds very similar to Margaret Atwood’s, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” except he’s a (white?) man.
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I never found Atwood’s story realistic. It required to many specific events to occur and the ritual impregnation of the Handmaids was pretty bizarre. Atwood’s book came out in 1985 at the height of Ronald Reagan, Jerry Falwell, and the “silent majority.” Everyone feared a religious dictatorship. It didn’t happen. I suppose that’s the fate of most cautionary tales.
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James, my opinion is quite different from yours on Atwood’s book, but that’s ok. Yours is still a good story.
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Oh, he’s a goner. It’s hard to swim against the tide, and it sounds like he’s about to pay the cost of that. You leave it open at the end though. Maybe he’ll find a way out.
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You can only do so much in 100 words. It is true thought that I find it hard to totally end a story. After all, life goes on.
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Enjoyed that last line.
I’m still grinning from it. 🙂
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