Tag Archives: drabble

Leaving

boxes

PHOTO PROMPT © David Stewart

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Joel McIlroy looked at his packed boxes through harsh morning sunlight. The folding camera reminded him to take photos of his trip to send to his friends.

He said goodbye to them last night. His companions couldn’t help pack the trailer or see him off this morning.

He put on his sunglasses and got to work loading the truck.

Being cured of vampirism meant he was a “daywalker” for the first time in seventy years.

An hour later he was listening to John Denver’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane” as he left the House of Graves for a new life.

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The Prattsville Spectral Tavern and Restaurant

prattsville

PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson

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Ed held the polished wooden sign declaring “Homestead Bed and Breakfast” in both hands. He looked dubiously back and forth between the derelict building in the middle of nowhere and his wife.

Lorraine’s grin radiated absurd confidence. “Put the sign up next to the others. Our dear haunt will be incarcerated with the rest. You’ve seen Ghostbusters.”

“They had a laser containment.”

“Just stick it to the wall.”

The sign magically adhered to the rotting wood and because he was near the door, Ed could hear the other spirits welcoming their new resident. The party got started all over again.

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Chasing Talent

chihuly

PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox

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Toliver hated what Seattle would become, but it’s where she went so he followed. They’d been arguing again over her premature use of “the talent.” She left training, dashing off to October 17, 2024.

“Admit it, Daddy.” Constance’s hand was on his shoulder as he examined a peculiar glass object. “It’s quite lovely, isn’t it?”

He turned and she was smiling.

“I suppose in its own way, but we need to get home.”

“You only enjoy living in the 1980s because of nostalgia,” she chided.

Tol countered, “We can see the first showing of ‘The Terminator’ again if we hurry.”

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Naughty Boys Pie

pie

PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz

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“Sing a Song of Sixpence,
A bag full of Rye,
Four and twenty Naughty Boys,
Baked in a Pye.”

Delbert enjoyed working in the kitchen and pies were his specialty. The retired bibliographer took another sip of wine. It was an excellent Sauvignon Blanc, a bit pricy for a Napa vineyard, but tonight he was celebrating.

He would keep the first steak and kidney pie for himself (his mouth fairly watered in anticipation), but the others he would create before supplies ran out,  would be anonymously gifted to the city detectives and FBI agents investigating his string of serial killings.

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Uncle Chun’s Chicken with Oyster Sauce

chicken

PHOTO PROMPT © Mr. Binks

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“You’re going to love this. Uncle Chun serves the best chicken with oyster sauce.” Mike and his wife had retired and left San Francisco years ago. Now he was helping his daughter Liz move into the City.

“Mikey.” The older man felt a hand on his shoulder and Chun’s voice sounded all too worried. “You and Liz come with me to the back. Hurry, please.”

The two men had known each other for a long time and Mike took Liz’s hand to follow him.

“Daddy, what…?”

They barely made it into the kitchen when the two rival gangs started shooting.

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Waiting for the Geese Again

Geese

PHOTO PROMPT © Jennifer Pendergast

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“We wouldn’t have this infestation if we didn’t make so many parks,” groused Mickey impatiently.

“What, Grandpa?” Fifteen-year-old Lydia stared out the passenger window.

“I said these damn geese are just like people. They’re always in the way, shit all over everything, and if one walks into traffic, all the rest follow.”

“Is it the Olympics or the elections?”

“Both,” he complained. “Everything.”

“You just don’t like change,” she countered with a sly smile.

“I don’t like stupidity and that’s what this is, all of it.”

“They’re almost across the street. “

“Ever taste goose pate?” Mick floored the accelerator.

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The Happy Birthday Circle

card

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

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“Spanish dancer in green cap. What the heck?” Al set the pen down on the greeting card and envelope trying to work out why Emmie liked this kind of art.

“Looks like some sort of mermaid stuck in the muddy Mississippi to me.” Then after a moment, “Oh, well.”

He picked up the pen and opened the card. After all, it was her birthday and getting her a card he knew she’d like was the least he could do.

Alastair wrote the expected greetings and added a few designs of his own. She’d appreciate the new circles for binding demons.

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Dark World

window

PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot

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Cameron Hall’s invention worked. The filter over his living room window let him see the world outside at a different time than the present. He had run the calculations repeatedly and they always came out the same. He was seeing the world as it would be one year from now.

Cam slapped his forehead with his palm. “The side effect.”

He wasn’t a spiritual man but the math seemed to disagree with him. It predicted not only a shift in time but a metaphysical one, too. He was seeing the soul of the world to come. It was very dark.

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It’s So Peaceful With All The People Gone

rock garden at blandford

PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox

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It was too hot to go for a picnic, so we escaped. I’d promised my granddaughters we’d go on a picnic, just the three of us. But the highs have been over a hundred degrees F for nearly a month now and even at noon, it was too oppressive.

I thought about the past, but there was too big a chance of running into someone or changing something. I found a future where things had cooled off again. It didn’t take as long as I thought it would once there were hardly any people around.

Nice and cool and peaceful.

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Changing Reality

lost shoe

PHOTO PROMPT © Ronda Del Boccio

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“I’m not going to lose her again. I can’t. She’s not even four years old.”

Every time Ron remembered losing her in the parking lot because she ran away, every time he found one solitary shoe behind his car, he died inside.

“Not this time.” He hadn’t used his gift to manipulate reality since he was a teenager. It was too dangerous. But for her, he would.

“Ha, ha. Fooled you, Grandpa.” She peeked around the corner of his car. Thirty minutes ago, a panel van with the four human traffickers had a fatal collision with a semi on I-84.

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