Malia shut down all her ‘accounts’ and returned to a place where innocence had once been her entire reality. It was going to be her Walden experience. Her family hadn’t bothered to sell their “little piece of heaven”, which had remained raw in its remoteness and untended state, so no one objected to her pilgrimage. It was a shock to her adult urban mentally when she discovered how much effort ‘living simply’ was. Time to contemplate life was limited by ‘living’. She’d hope to escape the ugliness she’d observed in her 30 years and found that she couldn’t ‘wash’ it from her subconsciousness. “You can run but you cannot hide.” was a recurring notion that depressed her. On a gently lit calm morning, Malia wandered along a path she’d played on as a child. The rock where she and her siblings once played “King of the hill” beckoned her to sit.
It was there that Malia realized those memories and innocent beginnings were the sturdy foundation that her life had been built upon. No matter how many times she had been knocked down, that ‘rock’ remained. Moss and debris could be swiped aside anytime she wished. In that moment, she’d found the treasure she was seeking. It was the rediscovery of her innocent happy childhood. That alone, was the secret to a lifetime of hope. Hopeful people are strongly armed for any, and all, life assaults. Malia packed and returned to the city, days later. Her mission? To advocate for children… with the focus on protecting their innocence. Saving humanity from itself had found a new warrior who had discovered the essence of what needed to be done.
Spending time with her daughter was precious to Dana. Even when Jackie wasn’t nearby, Dana’s memories of “their moments” were vivid because she had been blessed with the ability to “see” memories by replaying them in her mind. Now that her eyesight was failing her, with a diagnosis that it would never improve, Dana valued her ‘memory catalog’ even more. As Jackie sat across the table on their Mother/Daughter brunch date, Dana snapped a photo of her. This way she could see her daughter clearly once she could get home and enlarge it on her computer. It seemed an odd new ritual but her exceptional memory, after all, was triggered by visual clues and the real world was getting fuzzy. When Dana got home, she delighted in staring at her lovely girl. As she drank in the joy of the day, Dana had a thought she’d never before had… “If all people took time to focus more clearly on moments, there would be far more joy experienced in this world.”
If this week’s image inspires you and you wish to participate, please write your post, use the tag #FFFC, and link back to this post. I hope it will generate some great posts.
The photograph above is from CookmePancakes @ DeviantArt.com.
Hope Makes Everything Possible
Try as she may, Hope’s mother gave up years ago on talking her daughter out of a long daily ritual of waiting for the mail. Hope’s autism was most severe and the quiet time, she spent daily waiting, had become a mixed blessing. Her mother had come to count on a few hours of ‘ME’ time to care for herself, and she needed that. So, all was well.
There had been an offer for a free poster of Hope’s favorite TV characters in a magazine ad, so Mama had long ago sent for it. Hope was 7 at the time. She kept the ordering page neatly folded reverently on her dresser ever since, but Hope was now still waiting 15 years later. The T.V. show had even gone into syndication 10 years ago, but Hope got to watch the Rugrats on demand anyway. Time just wasn’t moving in her world.
Well, Mama brought Hope her lunch- on one grey day- and a ring at the door, signaling the mail, went off. The young woman almost upset her plate as she raced downstairs with the exact same daily enthusiasm she’d maintained ever since childhood. Mama braced herself for the usual sullen daughter dragging up the stairway in disappointed when Hope ran into the room squealing! She was holding a long tube above her head. There it was! That long-awaited prize that Mama was certain would never come. They opened it together and immediately hung it on her bedroom wall. Hope danced with happiness too excited to even eat her lunch. Mama’s heart nearly burst with joy watching her daughter’s celebration even though she was absolutely baffled by the long-delayed wish coming true. “What the heck?”, Mama thought.
The next day, Hope anxiously paced all around rubbing her hands since her routine vigil had been ended, so Mama thought quickly and ordered another poster from the same ancient careworn magazine page. It worked! Her daughter started a brand-new vigil. And, with a name like Hope, she’d be waiting for as long as it takes. All was well once again.
Welcome to Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge. Each week I will be posting a photo I grab off the internet and challenging bloggers to write a flash fiction piece or a poem inspired by the photo. There are no style or word limits.
The photo below was provided by fellow blogger Deb @ Nope, Not Pam.
Larry was having an uncomfortable workday. Snakes make most people nervous, but it was his job to meet and greet tourists as an emissary of Nature to challenge peoples’ biases. He tried to remain calm, but he was also outside of his own comfort zone. People weren’t his favorite ‘animals’ either. The twenty-minute outing wouldn’t end soon enough!
Once back in the reptile house, Larry began to relax. Then he slithered under a heat lamp, curled up, and enjoyed every familiar aroma at the end of his forked tongue.
If this week’s image inspires you and you wish to participate, please write your post, use the tag #FFFC, and link back to this post. I hope it will generate some great posts.
Making a Difference
Charly (short for Charlotte) had known Joshua for six years. He had become like an Uncle to her. She happened upon his small homestead when she was six. One, of many times, she ignored her parents’ warnings to stay on the paths and within range of a ‘holler”.
Joshua was a grizzly old fellow who wasn’t very happy to receive visitors, at first, but the precocious child had him chuckling before their first encounter ended. He wasn’t actually as old as he appeared to the child but, at fifty-five, his unkempt greying beard and hair made him ‘an ancient’ in her eyes.
Their visits became precious to them both. Charly was an only child and Joshua hadn’t understood his own loneliness until his anticipation of those visits became his greatest joy.
What each of them learned from one another, these last six years, would have made a heartwarming novel.
Charly learned to ‘see’ the woods. Joshua taught her about all the signs and sounds that most untrained eyes, and ears, would completely miss. Charly asked one question after the other earning the pet name “Charly Chatterbox” from her mentor. Joshua was given the gift of wonder from Charly. As he explained Nature, and even his life, Charly’s questions opened him up to new ‘meaning’ inspired by her endless, “Whys?”.
Today was Charly’s 12th birthday and spending part of it with her dear friend was a must. The new snow made her trek a slow one. But as she moved, she could now ‘read’ the woods. A mound of turkey feathers held a story. It was a new kill. The progression of scattering and consumption was small. Blood spatter made it the evident ‘kill sight’. The footprints indicated the predator had been a bobcat but there was also evidence of an opportunist in the form of fox prints. She suspected the cat was a female because it appeared that she abandoned the kill too soon. Joshua told her that the mother often tears off food to bring to her kittens first, then returns. Charly eyed the wide perimeter beyond the kill. “Yep, there’s the Mama in the pines. Don’t worry lady, I won’t take any.” Then she moved along to Joshua’s cabin. He was there sitting beside a fire with a smirk on his face. “Happy Birthday Charly Chatterbox!” She sat down beside him. Then he gently opened her a hand to place a hand-carved wooden charm, a perfect likeness of his cabin, in her palm. As she fingered it, tears ran down her face. “This is beautiful! I’ll treasure it always.” Then she wrapped her arms around the man almost tipping him over. Next, Charly cleared her throat and told Joshua that she wouldn’t be visiting as often, soon. Her Mom and Dad were sending her to a boarding school for ‘refinement’. Joshua only nodded because he knew this day would come.
Charly visited when she could on school vacations then went to college keeping ‘in touch’ with Joshua through letters. He never wrote back but that was okay. She knew he wouldn’t.
Today, sitting in her CSI office as a lead investigator, she fondled the wooden charm that she still wore, around her neck, on a leather cord. “Joshua, I’m going to need your help on this one.” Then she kissed the charm and returned to carefully examining the crime scene clues, laid out before her, just like she had learned when she was taught to ‘see’ in the woods.
The year is now 2024. Our bus moved along swiftly in spite of the noontime traffic. There was silence, except for the occasional rattle of handcuffs, as our group shifted restlessly in our seats. Even the compressor attached to our metal masks was soundless as it pumped our exhaled breaths through multiple filters, as well as, stifling intermittent screams. We were the first, as collecting the rebellious and non-compliant is easier in densely populated areas. We wouldn’t be the last. It didn’t matter whether any of us had natural immunity or immunity gained from having survived the virus, we were Anti-Vaxxers and deemed a public health threat for asserting our individual right to personal autonomy in the face of a treatable, extremely survivable, NOW, almost extinct virus. The government urgency was clear- to eliminate us before the population, at large, learned they too were already in invisible governmental handcuffs constructed entirely from exaggerated fear and indifference to far greater threats to their own health and happiness.
Fandango is the host of Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge
The photo below is from Nicolae_BalPixabay.com.
DUDE! Give it more gas!
This isn’t a pickup truck, Alvin.
What do you think ‘hot air’ is?
Really? You’re going all science again? The guy who said, “Let’s take the balloon because it’s faster to travel ‘as the crow flies’.”? How’s that “faster” working for you now?
I’m just about ready to let you miss your vaccination appointment!
What are you talking about? It’s your vaccination appointment! I’m not putting an experiment in my arm until I see what happens.
Well, I’m not gonna try it.I’ve got the card right here. Wait… it’s addressed to Mikey. Let’s get Mikey. He tries everything!
Can’t. Let’s shut her down. Mikey’s in rehab again.
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