Short Story

Danger Zone

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for The Unicorn Challenge
where we are encouraged to write a
story in 250 words or less using this
photo as inspiration. Here is my story.

© Ayr/Gray

Kids!

They think they’re indestructible! When they’re young, the concept of fear doesn’t register. Their parents would shoot off danger alerts like Tommy guns, only to fall on deaf ears. Sometimes the warnings kick in and kids calm down. Sometimes they don’t and bad things happen. Take, for example, the case of Alex Ring and his brother Theo; they lived with their mother, Doreen, in a basement apartment in The Bronx. Doreen was a sweet lady but a pushover; all the men in her life, including her sons, bulldozed her.

Doreen warned the boys countless times not to jump onto the rear bumper of moving vehicles but they never listened; bus hopping was too much fun … especially the new accordion buses with their flexible mid-section. They accused her of not understanding how free and alive they felt, but they were wrong. There was a time when Doreen allowed herself to be adventurous, to totally let go of her inhibitions. Each time ended in heartache.

One afternoon as Doreen was walking back from the A&P, she spotted one of those accordion buses and … dammit! … there were her boys chasing after it. They jumped on just as a car darted in front, cutting off the bus. The driver slammed on the brakes and the bus started zig-zagging all over the street. The boys were laughing, having the time of their lives. They never heard Doreen’s screams as the bus jackknifed, smashing her body against the CVS.

Kids!

NAR©2025
250 Words

This is “Danger Zone” by Rainbow

The Unicorn Challenge-30/05/25

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

30 thoughts on “Danger Zone”

  9. Ouch!Nicely unexpected ending, Nancy, but not a nice ending for Doreen.And keen observations on how one generation will not learn from the previous one.Hard to imagine my mother being adventurous in her youth, but fortunately there are photos!

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  10. Oh my, Nancy, …bus-ted, …You know when they say someone’s injured/died in collision with a vehicle? I think , What the heck, Collision? As if they had a chance. Great read, …and emotive,…💫🤗💕💫

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