PHOTO PROMPT – © J Hardy Carroll

“Where are we, Sarah?” Five-year-old Emily sat in the grass with her best friend from kindergarten.

“The old graveyard,” said Sarah. “It’s where you find dead people.”

Emily’s mouth gaped. “You mean like my pet turtle that Mommy buried in the backyard?”

“I mean like Great-Grandma who was so old she didn’t know her own name anymore.”

“She’s under here?” Emily touched the flat stone.

“They’ve been dead lots longer,” said Sarah.

“Are we supposed to be here?” Emily looked to see if Mommy was watching.

“No, but it’s okay. We’ll sneak back tonight and wake one of them up.”

It’s Wednesday and time again to participate in Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ 15 August 2025 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.

If the two girls weren’t in the photo, my story might have taken a different direction, but the first thing that came to mind was “creepy.” Also, my youngest granddaughter just started kindergarten yesterday (why is the start of school getting earlier each year?), so I have her on my mind.

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

Cover art for “Far Futures: Book Four”

My crime noir short story “Last Wish of a Dead Man” is now available in the Raconteur Press anthology Dames, Derringers and Detectives: Moggie Noir. The story requirements included a hard-boiled detective, a murder, and especially a cat. The third in my “Margie Potter: Haunted Detective” series made the cut.

Also, my horror short story “Haunting Chloe” is now available in the ghost story anthology Haunted Places (universal link) by Blackbird Publishing. Pick up a copy of each, give them a read, and don’t forget to leave honest reviews at Amazon and Goodreads.

Additionally, my short story “Awash On Titan’s Shores” was accepted into the “Far Futures: Book Four” anthology, to be published this coming December.

The same publisher included my short story “Confluence” in Book Three of that series last year.

I know you’re probably getting tired of the same announcements week after week, but a lot of other projects are in the pipeline that I can’t talk about yet. Coming soon.