Tag Archives: drabble

Phone Photography, Still Lifes, and Other Silliness

ted

PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz

“Dad, what are you doing?” Harold watched his father using his phone to take a photo of a collection of breakfast items and a tablet.

“Creating a still life,” Leonard said trying to hold his smartphone with one hand and maneuver his thumb.

“Uh huh,” replied his son. “I thought that was done with a bowl of fruit, a canvas, and oil paints.”

“This is the digital age, Harold,” Dad replied pressing the button. “Oh, now you did it. I didn’t get the framing right.”

“Digital photography is forgiving, Dad.” Harold rolled his eyes and went back into the kitchen.

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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.”

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Someone Has To Be “Equityless”

pot

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.

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One Last Icing On The Web

ice web

PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

“Ah, crap.” Jackson looked out the window expecting to see his salvation. Beyond the shed’s single window frame on the abandoned farm, he did see what he hoped for, but right before that, there was something much worse.

“You never give up, do you?” He almost let his fingertips glide along the lengths of frozen webbing. “So close.”

Outside it was Spring, the first Spring since he was a little boy. The climate was turning again in favor of life. But the ice giants were taking one last shot at him before they went.

Then he saw the first spider.

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Yield Sign To Heaven

sign

PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson

“I have to solve a puzzle if I want to get into Heaven?” Henry was standing next to St. Peter who was really a short, balding Jewish guy named Shimon bar Yonah and told a lot of Dad jokes.

“Not a puzzle,” said Shimon. “A reflection of how you treated Hashem and faith in life. Hey, what kind of shoes do frogs wear?”

“Never mind the jokes, Pet…uh, Shimon. Oh wait.”

“Open-toad sandals.” The gatekeeper started laughing maniacally.

“Traffic going down has priority,” said Henry. “Is that right?

“Got it. Too much traffic going down, not that much going up.”

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Wishful Thinking

wish

PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox

Jerry had been a little surprised that Yasna still lived with her parents. She was twenty-five and a rising star in his company’s HR department. This was their first date and he didn’t expect to have to meet her parents.

While Yasna was getting ready (he’d gotten there ten minutes early), they left him in their den. Her Mom went upstairs while her Dad offered to get him something to drink.

“Christmas wreaths I can get, but what are these?” He reached up and touched one of the odd ornaments hanging from the lamp.

“What is your wish my master?”

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The City On The Edge of Heaven

city

PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot

“I’m in a city somewhere.” Rand stood on the sidewalk looking at his reflection in the windows of the building across the street. He pulled out his wallet.

“Yeah, plenty of cash and a credit card.” He stopped when he saw the name and address on the drivers license. “My picture, but from a long time ago.”

It got worse when he saw the expiration date.

“That was decades ago.” He looked at his reflection again. He was so young.

“What happened?” Then he remembered the wish he made. He had been dying. Cancer.

A voice said, “Welcome to Heaven.”

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The Last Days of Great-Grandma Sherline McCabe

belton

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Great-grandma Sherline McCabe lay on her deathbed at the age of one-hundred-and-one surrounded by four generations of her progeny. Her voice was weak and she was as thin as a ghost as she began the final rendition of her tale.

“Listen here. I was born on the Woman’s Commonwealth commune in Belton, Texas in the year of our Lord 1882. Mama had just left my old Papa Silas Sean O’Neill who was a wife beater and a drunk.

“The women raised me and took care of each other and were not only fine Christians but successful in business and commerce.”

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And they were singin’ bye-bye, Miss American Pie

cafe

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.

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Dangerous

sidewalk

PHOTO PROMPT © David Stewart

It was a pleasant neighborhood and having time to kill before my next business meeting, I decided to take a walk. I began to think that was a mistake when the lone pedestrian, a woman wearing a baseball cap, saw me coming towards her and slowed down.

She looked scared. Was it because I’m an American, that I’m tall, or just because I’m a man?

We got closer and I smiled and nodded. I didn’t know if that was okay here in China. She looked relieved as we passed each other. I’m sorry if she thought I was a monster.

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