PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson

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“A pool’s just a hole in the ground you pour money into,” groused Darren as he continued to vacuum algae which grew out of his neglect. “But not today.”

He heard the doorbell ring. “Honey, can you get that?” It would be Rob and the rest of the guys. By now, Carol would be rolling her eyes as she reached for the doorknob. She was gracious enough to smile by the time she opened it.

“Hey, bud. Not done?” Rob’s voice came from behind. He turned to see the giant, fully motorized Seaview model they’d brought over.

“Almost,” he grinned.

It’s Wednesday and time again to participate in Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ 8 Nov 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 100.

When my wife and I moved into my deceased father-in-law’s house when we were first married, his pool was a mess. We rehabilitated it along with the rest of the place and eventually bought it. Lots of green gunk at the bottom.

Promotional image for the TV show “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.”

On social media, from time to time, I see serious fans of the old TV show Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea who have built large, working scale models of the show’s submarine “The Seaview.” They demonstrate it moving on the surface and even diving and cruising underwater.

That’s the second thing I thought off after seeing the prompt.

To read other inspired stories, visit inlinkz.

My science fiction short story “The Joker and the Thief” is now appearing in the anthology Ruth and Ann’s Guide to Time Travel, Volume II.

A man named Abyssian has cashed in on his natural ability to time travel by finding and selling rare objects lost to history to a mysterious pawnbroker named Sol. This time Sol wants what seems impossible. While history records that the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, it was supposedly recovered a few years later in Italy.

However, Sol reveals that only a forgery was found. The real painting was taken on board the Titanic and will be lost forever unless Abyssian recovers it. However, when he makes the attempt, history changes spectacularly and he accidentally “creates” his own adversary: The Jester.