Flash

Warts and All

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for Friday Fictioneers where we are
encouraged to write a story in 100 words or less
using this photo for inspiration. Here is my story.

Photo Prompt © Lisa Fox

There was a boy named Danny who sat directly in front of me in 5th grade. He had a perpetual case of ringworm which fascinated and repulsed me at the same time.

His beautiful black hair had been shaved to expose the circular rash on the back of his head. I imagined microscopic critters chasing each other around that stubbly maze.

The theory was that Danny caught the fungus while hunting frogs in the boggy bullrushes; somehow that didn’t make it any less gross.

I never could understand boys and their frog fetishes. Everyone knows that’s where warts come from!

NAR©2024
100 Words

14 June 2024

This is “Hop Frog” by Lou Reed featuring David Bowie

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

50 thoughts on “Warts and All”

  2. Dear Nancy,

    Oh, I went through head lice and scabies with my boys. The things children share. Nitpicking took on a whole new meaning for me back then because I couldn’t bear to shave my son’s beautiful thick hair. (in retrospect, I’d shave it, hair does grow back. 😉

    At any rate, your story captured this part of childhood very well.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

    PS Never got a wart from handling toads and frogs.

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    1. When I hear about these kids coming down with mangy skin conditions, I wonder how I was so lucky to escape it all with my boys. It is nitpicking, for real, and I bet it drives everyone crazy! I know what you mean about shaving the head but it makes the rash easier to treat. Danny had the hair on the back of his head shaved off …. not a great look!

      Curious thing that old wives tale about warts coming from frogs; I never knew the source of that.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Rochelle

      Shalom

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  3. Oh. Poor Danny. This is a nice little glimpse into your childhood, Nancy. Isn’t it amazing how certain memories resurface or stay forever in our memories. I read in earlier comments here how the photo triggered this one for you. Fascinating.

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    1. Amazing is a good word for it, Margaret! Thoughts of Danny came back to me after one quick sighting of the bullrushes …. and I hadn’t thought of him in many years.

      He really was a nice boy and took more than his share of teasing from the other kids in school. Classmates can be so cruel. I’m sure he had to dig deep and prove himself time and time again.

      Thank you for sharing your thoughts today, Margaret.

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  5. Nancy I read in the comments how you were inspired to take the story where you did. My first thought was the bristly grass looked like the bristles of Danny’s hair. I wonder if Danny lived in the lowland where moisture seeps through the walls and makes the house just right for fungus of all kinds, including the kind that attaches to little kids.

    Fascinating story, Nancy, and I appreciate your imagination very much.

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    1. Danny and I attended the same elementary school and I’m sure he came from The Bronx, as I did. I don’t know exactly where in The Bronx he lived but since that borough is surrounded by water, there’s a good chance he lived in the lowlands. The part about him hunting for frogs in the bullrushes is true; since there’s so much water, the swampy bullrushes are all over the place …. possibly even right where Danny lived.

      Excellent comment, Lisa. I always appreciate your insight.

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    1. He was the sweetest boy, too! I did not know that about athletes foot. Oy, I wonder if he had that, too!

      Every time I see bullrushes I think of Danny hunting for frogs. My eye went straight to the bullrush area on the right side of the photo. Simple as that.

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  12. The things that are passed on from child to child are truths until the day we die. I will always believe that if you cut an earthworm in half, you get two, and I’ll never swallow bubblegum because it will stay in my stomach for ten years, or was that eight?

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    1. These are the things that will remain etched in our minds forever. I haven’t thought of Danny in ages; look at the memories that image revealed! Then again, 3 years straight staring at the back of that funky head was bound to leave an impression!

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