The View

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.

Sophia had always hated Tony’s whistling.

For twenty-one years, that tuneless, wet-lipped sound had bored into her skull like a deranged woodpecker. Breakfast. Car trips. Menu-reading at restaurants.

Last Tuesday, Tony had whistled while changing a bulb in the foyer chandelier.

The ladder hadn’t slipped… not exactly.

She’d given it considerable encouragement.

The lake police were thorough, she’d grant them that. Very sympathetic too. Terrible accident… Forty-foot ceiling… Precarious aluminum ladders…

Sophia raised her wine glass toward the empty chair.

“To the chandelier, Tony, and, of course…. aluminum ladders!”

She smiled, sipped, and listened to the absolute magnificent silence.

NAR©2026
100 Words

This is “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin

5 June 2026

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