PHOTO PROMPT © Lori Wilson

Todd’s hands were trembling and fear twisted in his gut. The café wasn’t right, even though it said “Route 66” on the sign.

“You weren’t here back then,” he muttered to himself. He shivered but not just because it was cold.

Todd sat at one of the outside picnic tables. Maybe if he closed his eyes and wished hard enough… But the only thing that happened was the waitress asking if he wanted a menu.

After his coffee came and she left, he took a sip and waited to die. The past was gone and he was going with it.

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

I looked up the name of the cafe and the history of Route 66 in general. According to Google’s AI:

Route 66, established in 1926 and famously known as “The Mother Road,” spans approximately 2,448 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica. Passing through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, it symbolizes American freedom and, despite being decommissioned in 1985, remains a popular 10-14 day road trip route.

The “decommissioned” part means that since 1985, although the highway physically exists, maintaining the various sections became the responsibility of state or other local road services. However, while it remains a historic landmark of sorts, I’m sure that as each generation passes, the romanticism associated with Route 66 will fade.

Shelly’s Route 66 Cafe is located in Cuba, Missouri. The cafe itself was established around the year 2000 so it came along too late to be a classic location during Route 66’s heyday.

Some of you younger folks are probably unaware that there was a Route 66 TV show that ran from 1960 to 1964. It was about two adventurers who travelled across America in their Chevy Corvette looking for excitement, danger, and drama.

One of the characters was named Tod Stiles (which I changed to “Todd” for my story) played by Martin Milner. I used all this as the jumping off point to describe how older people sometimes struggle to adapt to the rapid and unpredictable changes of modern life and long for what we took comfort in when we were younger (yes, every period in history had troubles but nostalgia is all about remembering just the good bits).

Some pretty great actors guest-starred in the show over the years, and the recent death of Robert Duvall, who appeared in three different episodes of that show, reminds me that nothing lasts.

Promotional image of “Ruins: A Space Opera Anthology”

Oh, I got the title from Don McLean’s 1971 hit single American Pie. It seemed appropriate.

To read other stories based on the prompt or to post your own tale, visit inlinkz.

Yesterday was the official launch of the Kickstarter for Ruins: A Space Opera Anthology which features my short story “Sunrise.” For the next 20 days (as I write this) until the book publishes, you can join the project which now has 100 backers and is going great guns. There’s lots of extras and swag to be had for backing the project.

You can also find an excerpt of “Sunrise” on my substack. Read it, enjoy it, and please consider becoming a part of this adventure.

I was recently interviewed by Blackbird Publishing about my ghostly short story “The Wreck of the USS Hollander” which is featured in the anthology Haunted Waters. It’s short, so please have a look.