Poof!

flowers

PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

Jake sat his old bones down beside the Mumblebon bush again. He’d discovered it some weeks ago when taking his morning hike behind his house. The day he saw the strange blossoms; he bent over to get a closer look and…

“Poof.”

A blossom popped into his face and he could hear it talking. Since then they’d become fast friends.

“The world’s gotten so bad out there,” said Jake.

“The world is so peaceful in here,” said Mumble.

“I’m too old for this,” said Jake. “I want that kind of peace.”

“Come closer,” said the blossoms.

Jake leaned down.

“Poof.”

It’s Wednesday and time once again to participate in Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ 21 November 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.

familiars

Cover art for the anthology “Fantastic Schools Familiars”

Sandra took a nice photo but it didn’t evoke any particular drama when I looked at it. I mean, where was the hook? Well, I guess it was my habit of reading a bunch of social media before getting to writing that did it. Nothing (almost) but doom and gloom on X and Bluesky. Pretty much the same for Threads. Those platforms aren’t really representative of the actual world, but they think they are.

So, old Jake just wants some peace and his strange blossom bush is going to provide it one way or the other (I left his fate somewhat vague).

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

Fantastic Schools Familiars is available at Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats. It contains my short story “Dead Cat Fever.” If you like fantasy stories about all manner of animal and other familiars serving (or not serving) masters and amateurs of the occult, this one’s for you.

In addition to my latest science fiction novel being accepted for publication, another short novelette was just picked up (I haven’t signed the contract yet, so I can’t give out details) which is exciting.

Plus, a fantasy manuscript I’ve been working on forever (it seems) just went through an alpha reader and I’m editing diligently to make it submission ready.

2026 should be a lot of fun.

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