One Pale Blue Dot on Ice, Please

freezing

PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson

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Another Valentine’s Day alone. Cassandra considered turning the heat up in her small apartment but her rental agreement said she paid for heating and cooling. She pulled the blanket higher around her while watching TV. The big news was that Voyager 1 had sent back what would be the “Pale Blue Dot” photo of Earth.

“Whoopie.” She tucked her freezing feet under her butt. It was no use. The streets were paved with ice so she wasn’t going out. “Screw it.” Cass got up and opened the chest. “Now where did I put those global warming potions?” thought the witch.

It’s Wednesday and once again time to participate in Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ 16 Feb 2024 edition of Friday Fictioneers. The idea is to use the image above as a prompt for crafting a poem or short story no more than 100 words long. My word count is exactly 100.

That sure looks cold. I had the whimsical thought of a person being so tired of the cold weather they decided to do something about it. Since that person is a down-on-her-luck witch, what she did was considerable: start “climate change.”

Actual estimates of the triggering of said-change range from 1850 to 1900. However widespread reporting of the change started around 1990. The pale blue dot photo was sent back to Earth by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990 so I made it part of the story.

pale blue dot

Courtesy of NASA.

To read other stories based on the prompt, visit inlinkz.com.

28 thoughts on “One Pale Blue Dot on Ice, Please

  1. Aha, we have found the culprit for global warming. It looks like if the climate is going to change then we will have to follow one way or the other. I have not met anyone who can control the weather. Well not yet.

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