A Nice Place To Visit

sailboat

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

“Do you ever miss it?” Aaron felt a little nervous asking Sarah that question. After all, she was a California native and it would be natural to miss her home.

“Not a bit,” she answered slipping her arm around his waist in response to his holding her.

They watched the lone sailboat just offshore in silence for a few minutes.

“It’s pretty but it’s not home anymore,” she said. “Everything’s changed and not for the better.”

“Expensive vacation for a couple of retired folks,” Aaron added.

“It was a nice visit,” she said. “Let’s go back to where we belong.”

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.

a wobblegong and his boy

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

In the 1970s and into the 90s, I lived in both the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California. My wife was born in L.A. and all three of my kids (now adults) were born in Long Beach. It was actually my wife’s idea to move out after the nearest drive-by shooting was a mile and a quarter from our home and she didn’t want our kids to get shot.

It took me a long five years to get used to living in Idaho, but as of right now, it’s the longest I’ve lived in one place. Since the photo was taken in Santa Barbara, I decided to look up the difference in cost of living between there and near Boise where I live. Generally, it’s about 30% less expensive with housing costs being the primary but not only driver.

While salaries here are also somewhat lower, that’s not really a factor for we old, retired folks. I don’t think I could ever go back.

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 a couple of Fridays ago in both Kindle and paperback formats. No reviews or ratings of the book on Amazon yet, but someone left a four and a five-star 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.

34 thoughts on “A Nice Place To Visit”

  3. Great story and I could feel the love and connection as she slipped her arm around his waist! I also know so many folks who are from Caliornia (I lived in Long Beach twice) and I never tire of Cali stories….

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  4. I also had to share one more note – earlier this year, we publsihed “This is How We Eat” and Sherri Matthews shared about her years in Southern Cal – compared to England – and as you shared about Idaho – it reminded me of what i wrote about her chapter in a reflection section – and I anted to share. it here:

    “California holds a special place in cultural imagination. Think about Steinbeck’s Joad family’s migration, the global stampede of the 1849 Gold Rush, and Didion’s depiction of California as a land marked by both boom mentality and Chekhovian loss. California has long been tied to the pursuit of a better life, a complex and unsettled dynamic. Sherri’s chapter further enriches California’s literary identity with her experiences from the 1980s and 1990s. The steak-for-breakfast moment. The ice in the Coke. The fiancée joke at the door. The way she both longs for California and later vows never to return. That tension is powerful. Food becomes a measure of identity….”

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    • For the longest time, California was a destination state because of good weather, interesting places, and a certain mystique. Unfortunately, the state or certain areas at least, have priced themselves way too high for the average individual and family. At least the perception of a sharp increase in crime, and ever increasing taxes have taken that mystique away and, I heard for the first time, Los Angeles is losing population. It’s not what it was in my youth and I’m glad I got to live their when it was exciting and fun.

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