PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot

The big, rusty pot on the top of the cabinet was everything that had ever been wrong with Henry’s life.

The state rated him as a “Standard” just like Mom and Dad, nothing horrible, nothing exceptional. He was the default an enlightened society blamed things on to prioritize other groups.

He was a Standard, so allowed one marriage, one career and one child. They were all Standard except Mao elected to retranslation camp to become prioritized as an Outsider N-5.

He rated a divorce after twenty years and in old age, everything the state valued was still out of reach.

Cover image for my novel “A Wobblegong and His Boy”

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

I’ve been watching clips from the recent New Democratic Party (NDP) convention and especially the much ridiculed Equity Cards and couldn’t help but be reminded of George Orwell’s prophetic novel “1984.” After much deliberation, my wee story emerged.

To read other stories based on the prompt or to contribute one of your own, visit inlinkz.

My new science fiction boy’s adventure novel A Wobblegong And His Boy was published last Friday in both Kindle and paperback formats. No reviews or ratings of the book on Amazon yet, but someone left a single four-star (out of five) rating on Goodreads. A great out-of-this-world adventure for the young and the young at heart. Buy a copy for the adventurous boy or girl in your life or even for you.