Short Story

The Little Woman

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for The Unicorn Challenge where we
are urged to get creative in 250 words or less. The
photo below is our inspiration and this is my story.

© Ayr/Gray

“Board the chopper immediately, Rachel! This is our last chance to make it out of here. Get in now, woman!” Maxwell Fleming screamed at his wife over the roar of the helicopter blades.

Rachel glared at her husband. She’d had enough of his misguided and imperious representation of women as weak, mindless creatures unable to stand on their own without falling apart.

“Year after year I’ve put up with your supercilious attitude. You’re a misogynistic snob, Maxwell, and I refuse to take orders from you ever again. You can take all your medals and degrees and honors and shove them!”

Maxwell’s veins bulged in his neck and his face turned purple. Rachel always had an acidic tongue but this time she crossed the line, embarrassing him in front of his pilot, crew and most of all his lovely assistant, Felicity Bliss. His mind strayed briefly as he thought of Miss Bliss and how perfectly her name suited her. Did Rachel have any clue of their office dalliances? Well, the hell if she did! Their very existence was now in jeopardy and he was getting out with or without his wife.

Maxwell barely glanced at Rachel as he slid closed the chopper door and gave the pilot the signal to take off. “She’s sealed her own fate. If they find her, she’ll be done for. God help her. Come Felicity, sit beside me. You’re safe with me.”

Dammit! Maxwell would never admit that Rachel had more fortitude than he ever did.

NAR©2025
250 Words

This is “Respect” by Aretha Franklin

The Unicorn Challenge-17/01/25

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

46 thoughts on “The Little Woman”

  5. “Maxwell would never admit that Rachel had more fortitude than he ever did.”

    and, if I might, not to gild the lily, but he’s a bit of dick as well.

    (I will spare you a rant about Lilith and a certain Garden)

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  6. Great story Nancy I could feel the resentment of years surfacing! Perhaps she smiled as she watch the chopper ascend only to be hit buy a small missile…. She stood and watched it plummet… Bye bye Maxwell and Miss Bliss.💜💜🙂

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  8. Mr Boss man ain’t the boss no more …

    Oh, here’s a few Kaleo music/videos that I really like … because they are all filmed in Iceland at awesomely picturesque locations …
    KALEO “Save Yourself” (LIVE at Fjallsárlón)
    KALEO – Vor í Vaglaskógi (Official Video) [with English subtitles]
    KALEO – Break My Baby (LIVE from Þrídrangar, Iceland)
    KALEO – Backbone (LIVE at Breiðarmerkurjökull)

    Cheers
    Ivor

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    1. Yesss! I think she does!

      Funny thing, Cindy. The song I used for a story I posted on Friday would have been perfect for this story. I try not to look ahead from one challenge to the other so there’s always the chance something like this will happening. Aretha was the first name that came to mind when thinking of strong women. Glad you enjoyed it.

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  13. Felicity Bliss — what a name!! I already don’t like her. I’ll bet you that she wears frilly nonsense clothing, all pink.

    I’ll also bet you that Rachel’s middle name is Bridget (means power or strength) or Bernadette (means strong as a bear). I’ll bet that she wears army boots.

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    1. Ah, you caught that, did you? Perceptive.
      The photo prompt could have been a visual question on Jeopardy. With the exception of our dear Keith, no one knew what that thing was…..leaving the door wide open for an extremely diverse group of stories.

      This piece was also fun to write. Thanks, CA.

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  16. Which just goes to show that ‘guid gear comes in sma bulk’!
    (Good things come in small packages.)
    You’ve given us a woman here who has been building up to this and who will survive.
    Nicely drawn, Nancy.

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