Flash, Very Short Story

Strange New World

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for Only Murders In My Mind
Weekly Writing Prompt #61. This week’s
inspiration is the photo seen below.
This is my take.

photo not accredited

Little Elian could not believe his eyes. He had been playing baseball with his friends in the huge field behind the abandoned Iglesia de la Virgen del Sol, just like he did every day. Somehow the ball got away from him and all his little friends and was nowhere to be found. Everyone went off in different directions in search of the lost baseball.

Intent on his hunt, Elian had no idea how far he had wandered. Shading his eyes from the bright sun, he suddenly spotted the stark white orb lying off in the distance among the detritus of the terra cotta-colored flatland. Elated, Elian sprinted in its direction. As he got closer, the small hill on the horizon became larger and larger until it was looming right before him. What he saw was astounding. A large crack in the hill revealed a vast blue sky with wisps of clouds floating by. Elian stared in amazement. “How can this be?” he asked himself.

Elian’s friends were now approaching. He cried out “Look! We have been lied to! Our parents and families … we have all been lied to for years! There is life on the other side of the mountain. I hear voices and laughing! Those are the sounds of freedom. Let’s go!”

And Elian charged the hill, scrambling up the side as fast as his legs could carry him. Just as he was nearing the top, he felt a strong, calloused hand grasp his ankle. He looked down into the cold eyes of a soldier who laughed humorlessly. The soldier spat onto the dry land and grumbled at Elian. “Not so fast, little man. There is nothing for you on the other side.”

And with a tug, he pulled Elian back down.

NAR©2025
#OMIMM

This is “Chimes of Freedom” by the Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead

Weekly Writing Prompt

All text and graphics 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.

35 thoughts on “Strange New World”

  6. It looks like there is no escape for Little Elian and I wonder why he is being punished, but I loved your music video today. I have the whole concert from MetLife Stadium on CD, but just the audio not the video which was nice to watch.

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  9. Excitedly we climb
    With an open mind
    But sadly, the freedom chime
    Has been broken by mankind … Oh, Nancy, I do love Bob Dylans song, and I keep hoping for better times …
    🌏💜☮

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      1. Hi Nancy, here’s a wonderful interpretation of Leonard’s incredible lyrics by his son Adam …

        ‘Torn’ was started a decade ago with Sharon Robinson—with whom he had written many songs and with whom he toured—but it really took a hold in Berlin with concert pianist and composer Dustin O’Halloran. It has chord signatures borrowed from my father’s song from decades earlier ‘Avalanche.’ Again, it’s this incredible thesis of brokenness that he has, this consistent message, this toying with the imperfection of life: ‘It’s torn where there’s beauty, it’s torn where there’s death/It’s torn where there’s mercy, but torn somewhat less,’ he says. ‘It’s torn in the highest, from kingdom to crown/The messages fly but the network is down/Bruised at the shoulder and cut at the wrist/The sea rushes home to its thimble of mist/The opposites falter, the spirals reverse/And Eve must re-enter the sleep of her birth.’ I mean, this is pseudo-biblical. I’ve never heard that from any other songwriter, not even Dylan. It’s just so composed. It’s like King David.

        –via Adam Cohen with Apple Music

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  10. Aww, poor Elian, …just as he was nearly there, …(soldier suddenly slips , Elian kicks his way free, scrambles quickly up to the top, and over the other side, ..)… 😉. Have a great Monday, Nancy., ..💫💙💫

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