PHOTO PROMPT © Mr. Binks

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“I thought it was a cross up there for a moment.” Simon had to take a deep breath at the surprise and then sighed with disappointment.

“You shouldn’t say that out loud, you know,” his wife Evelyn chided. “If anyone nearby hears, they’ll report us to the constables.”

“It’s my fault for suggesting we take a different route for our evening walk. Oh, look. Noah’s rainbow.”

“Are you insane?” Evelyn’s voice came out as a hiss. “You know the government designated the rainbow for exclusive use, and not by Christians anymore. It’s illegal.”

“An old man can dream, can’t he?”

It’s Wednesday and once again time to participate in Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ 11 October 2024 edition of Friday Fictioneers. The idea is to use the image above as the prompt for crafting a poem or short story no more than 100 words long. My word count is exactly 100.

When I first saw the photo, for an instant, I thought the bird was a small, white cross. Coupled with the rainbow, I considered the Almighty’s covenant with humanity as chronicled in Genesis 9 (before anyone complains at me for referencing Christianity two weeks in a row, I’m only explaining my process, not telling you what to believe).

Then I thought of how that covenant sign is more readily recognized as something else entirely and my story wrote itself (the names Simon and Evelyn are taken from my current WIP).

To read other tales based on the prompt, visit inlinkz.

As of yesterday, my science fiction short story “Confluence” became available in the Blue Planet Press anthology Far Futures, Book Three – Deep Space.
The Amazon blurb for the anthology describes my story as, “A NASA spacecraft highjacked in a perilous first contact scenario.”

That’s putting it mildly.

There’s also a very short YouTube video marketing the book:

I hope you will consider buying the anthology, reading the stories, and leaving an honest review.

Thanks.