Flash, Mini Story, Photo Prompt, Writing Prompts

The Merchant’s Secret

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Our gracious host, Rochelle, is asking us to get
creative in 100 words or less using the photo
seen below. Welcome to Friday Fictioneers.
This is where the prompt took me.

© Lisa Fox

The bazaars of Cairo shimmered beneath desert stars. Fatima, daughter of a glassblower, hung her father’s final creations from the bronze filigree – spheres of crimson and gold, twisted like djinn frozen mid-dance.

“These ornaments hold wishes,” she whispered to passing merchants.

An old woman stopped. “Prove it.”

Fatima touched the largest sphere. Inside, smoke swirled into the shape of a garden, a fountain, a forgotten palace.

The old woman wept. “My childhood home.”

“Your wish,” Fatima said, “is already remembered.”

That night, the storyteller Sheherazade visited Fatima seeking inspiration.

She found it, glittering and breathing, suspended from the ceiling’s bronze filigree.

NAR©2026
100 Words

Nancy’s Notes: In mythology, a djinn is an intelligent spirit of lower rank than the angels, able to appear in human and animal forms and to possess humans.

This is “The Nile Song” by Pink Floyd

13 March 2026

Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.

35 thoughts on “The Merchant’s Secret”

  7. Excellent spin on the photo, Nancy. I love this line:

    “Your wish,” Fatima said, “is already remembered.”

    I also wanted to apologize to you for wigging out on your SLS post on Sunday. (Bob Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone) Not sure what was going on with me, but my comment was totally uncalled for. Hoping you will forgive me ❤

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  12. Nance, what a magical write –  ‘Your wish is already remembered’ is a hauntingly beautiful line – desire becomes a form of nostalgia. I love how your story begins with a daughter hanging her father’s creations and ends with the legendary Sheherazade 🙌

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    1. Thanks for a very beautiful comment, Ange! I have always been intrigued by anything Egyptian and that was the first thing I saw when I looked at this fabulous photo. I love reading the stories of Sheherazade and a copy of 1001 Arabian Nights is sitting on my nightstand right now. It’s been a favorite for many years. I’m so glad you enjoyed reading my little piece of flash fiction. Thank you. ✨

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  14. If you read my story, you know I had a similar idea. Mine however, was based on my granddaughter appearing in a school musical based on the 1992 Disney film “Aladdin. My granddaughter was in the Djinn Chorus.

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