PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

“I’m getting too old for this.” Jack wanted to put on a pair of sunglasses to beat the desert glare as he drove but he didn’t wear contacts anymore and needed his regular glasses to see pretty much anything.

“Up and down this damned freeway,” he complained. “I was raised in the desert.” He eased his car around a curve keeping an eye on his speed. “Buried Dad’s ashes here like he wanted but that was ages ago. Why am I still here when there are greener places?”

“It’s almost over.” The voice in his head was strange yet comforting.

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. My word count is exactly 100.

That image (looks like a painting) reminds me of certain stretches of Interstate 15 in Utah. My parents retired to St. George which is at the extreme southwestern part of the state. When they were both alive, my family and I would travel that long stretch of highway from Idaho to visit them. After Dad passed (he did want his ashes buried in the desert near where he went fishing) and my wife and I moved Mom up to be nearer to us (she passed a few years back), we had absolutely no reason to make that drive again.

I used to love road trips and don’t mind the desert even though, as my fictional Jack mentioned, I was raised in one (Las Vegas specifically). Now, I don’t travel too well and was delighted to give up that trip.

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

In this instance, the image seemed more metaphorical than literal and Jack experienced his life as a desert. However, that “comforting voice” promises something better than this when the time comes.

Oh, I borrowed the title from some of the lyrics to “Hotel California” as covered by The Eagles.

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

My YA science fiction novel A Wobblegong And His Boy is up to thirteen reviews/ratings on Amazon with 89% of them being 4 and 5 stars (slowly gaining traction). Don’t forget you can also review my novel at Goodreads.

Happy Wednesday.