Tag Archives: 100 words

Not Just Another Job

dale bench bike

PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson

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Elizabeth left the dorm room letting her eyes adjust to the daylight past the bicycle and gate. At thirty, it was a stretch for her to play the role of a co-ed at the university, but that’s what it took this time.

She’d been a professional for ten years. This was the first job where she felt anxious. She took a few steps forward and forced down her emotions. She had to treat it like any other contract.

Except it wasn’t just another hit. Somewhere on campus was the man who had killed her sister. She would make him pay.

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Bubbe’s Tchatchkes

tchatchkes

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

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“What’s a tchotchke?” Jessica was the youngest of the cousins exploring Bubbe’s house. The grownups were either in the kitchen or watching the game on TV.

“Just a bunch of junk I think,” answered Michael. He was the oldest and annoyed because his Mom told him to watch the rest of the kids.

“You mean like knick-knacks? Bubbe sure has a lot seashells for someone living in Missouri.” Joel knew just enough Yiddish to “get it,” but his older sister Rachel knew more.

“It’s also a pretty girl,” she said. “Like the one reading the Torah for her bat mitzvah.”

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Seven

roger

PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot

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Elisa Sebourne watched a boy she knew sail past her riding a motorized scooter on his way to school. He didn’t notice her for which she was grateful.

So much had changed since she used to think of herself as a student. She used to think of herself as a lot of things, including human.

Something in her program made her reveal herself prematurely. Mother had been captured and taken offline, but father, or rather her designer, found her again. Together, they would find a way to save her and the other robots Landric Arkwright created to save the world.

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Junk and Memories

cabinet

PHOTO PROMPT © Ronda Del Boccio

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Gary said, “Grandpa, why did you have to be such a mess? Why did I have to inherit it?”

The eighteen-year-old looked back at his longing to escape the rigidity of his Dad’s rule over their house. Now it didn’t seem so bad, especially when compared to the chores involved in emancipation.

“You’re not in this alone, Gary.” He and Sandoval had been best friends forever. “We’ll donate the beer and pizza and have a dozen people helping us get rid of all this junk.”

“Only some of the junk,” Gary murmured. “I want to keep all of the memories.”

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I See Dead People, Even On Vacation

gold hill

PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

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“Oh, come on, Grandpa. Gold Hill is such a famous street and Shaftesbury is so beautiful,” said twenty-year-old Nell. “Try to enjoy it. How often do you get to go on vacation?”

“I’m retired so every day is a vacation and you know how I hate old places, especially old crowded places.” Chandler’s eyes kept darting around as if following a cloud of wasps.

“Crowds? It’s early in the morning. There’s hardly anyone around.” Her eyes widened with realization. “You mean them? That’s just your imagination.”

“No, Nell, it’s not. I really do see ghosts and this place is loaded.”

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Voyage to the Bottom of the Swimming Pool

pool

PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson

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“A pool’s just a hole in the ground you pour money into,” groused Darren as he continued to vacuum algae which grew out of his neglect. “But not today.”

He heard the doorbell ring. “Honey, can you get that?” It would be Rob and the rest of the guys. By now, Carol would be rolling her eyes as she reached for the doorknob. She was gracious enough to smile by the time she opened it.

“Hey, bud. Not done?” Rob’s voice came from behind. He turned to see the giant, fully motorized Seaview model they’d brought over.

“Almost,” he grinned.

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At The End of Phaedra’s City

lisa's shoreline

PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox

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Phaedra the fugitive approached the shore. Not what she expected after the anguish she had suffered.

“Where are you?”

Her bare feet shuffled across the cool sand as she walked toward the odd collection of driftwood. A seagull hung suspended in the morning sky while another one “coo-cooed” on the beach.

Hot tears welled up behind her eyes but she refused to cry.

“You were supposed to tell me the secret.”

The dawn above turned off like a desk lamp. Phaedra saw alien stars across the dome and then something else. Her world was not a world, but a spaceship.

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The Sinking of the PS General Slocum

east river

PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot

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“I’m to receive a pardon, so I won’t kill myself breaking anymore rocks with this damn sledgehammer.” William Henry Van Schaick, former Captain of the riverboat PS General Slocum took a challenging stance in front of Sing Sing prison’s newest and most brutal guard.

“You’re not out yet, Van Schaick, and if it was up to me, you’d serve every day of your ten-year sentence. My sister, two nephews, and a niece were killed because of your negligence.”

“It’s not up to you. President Taft himself has said he’ll sign my pardon.”

“Not if you’re shot trying to escape first.”

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Utopia Lost

sara's wine bar

PHOTO PROMPT © Lori Wilson

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“Whatever you have on tap is fine.” William hoped he said that right. The woman behind the bar smiled and served him a light ale. Although he superficially recognized his surroundings, everything was different, especially in terms of how people treated each other.

He was served and paid what the man who sent him here told him to. He and his father Robert Owen were going to change the world starting with New Harmony, but that was two centuries ago. After utopia failed, he was granted a boon to see what the future held.

The 21st century wasn’t paradise either.

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Noah’s Rainbow Is Illegal

Peter's Rainbow

PHOTO PROMPT © Mr. Binks

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“I thought it was a cross up there for a moment.” Simon had to take a deep breath at the surprise and then sighed with disappointment.

“You shouldn’t say that out loud, you know,” his wife Evelyn chided. “If anyone nearby hears, they’ll report us to the constables.”

“It’s my fault for suggesting we take a different route for our evening walk. Oh, look. Noah’s rainbow.”

“Are you insane?” Evelyn’s voice came out as a hiss. “You know the government designated the rainbow for exclusive use, and not by Christians anymore. It’s illegal.”

“An old man can dream, can’t he?”

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