Mini Story, Musing

RDP Saturday: sandwich

Today at RDP, we are asked to share a
story, poem, photo, painting, essay, etc.,
focusing on the word โ€˜sandwichโ€™
. Hereโ€™s my take.

Continue reading “RDP Saturday: sandwich”
Flash, Very Short Story

Corporal Punishment

Written for Sammiโ€™s Weekend Writing
Prompt #418
using the word โ€˜annexโ€™
in exactly 44 words. This is my flash.

Continue reading “Corporal Punishment”
A To Z Challenge, Music Blog

That’s Entertainment – Letter Z

Welcome to the final installment of
โ€œThatโ€™s Entertainment!โ€ and the
2025 WordPress A To Z Challenge!

Our musical journey has come to an end.
Letโ€™s see who’s closing out the adventure.

Continue reading “That’s Entertainment – Letter Z”
Flash

Warts and All

Written for Friday Fictioneers where we are
encouraged to write a story in 100 words or less
using this photo for inspiration. Here is my story.

Photo Prompt ยฉ Lisa Fox

There was a boy named Danny who sat directly in front of me in 5th grade. He had a perpetual case of ringworm which fascinated and repulsed me at the same time.

His beautiful black hair had been shaved to expose the circular rash on the back of his head. I imagined microscopic critters chasing each other around that stubbly maze.

The theory was that Danny caught the fungus while hunting frogs in the boggy bullrushes; somehow that didnโ€™t make it any less gross.

I never could understand boys and their frog fetishes. Everyone knows that’s where warts come from!

NARยฉ2024
100 Words

This is โ€œHop Frogโ€ by Lou Reed featuring David Bowie

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephantโ€™s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NARยฉ2017-present.

Poem, Quadrille

Like Spitting Into The Wind

De Jackson, aka WhimsyGizmo at dVerse Poetโ€™s Pub
has asked us to write Poems of Place for Quadrille #201.
This is my submission.

That time I found
myself
in the principalโ€™s office
because
I
screamed
at
the teacher
who tried to put
his hand
up
my
shirt,
then
being assaulted
again
at home
by
my
mother
who accused me
of
โ€œasking for itโ€.

Neither
place
felt
safe.

NARยฉ2024
44 Words

This is โ€œEducation โ€“ Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2โ€ by Pink Floyd

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephantโ€™s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not for use by anyone without permission. NARยฉ2017-present.

Uncategorized

THE BIG “C”

โ€œPapers! Not one, not two but three papers all due on Monday!โ€ exclaimed Charlie in exasperation. โ€œOne on the assassination of JFK, another on the Scopes Trial and…..โ€  

โ€œLet me guessโ€ interrupted Charlieโ€™s sister Erica. โ€œA 1,000 word book report on โ€˜To Kill a Mockingbirdโ€™.โ€ 

โ€œHow could you possibly know that?!โ€ questioned a puzzled Charlie. โ€œYou must be psychic!โ€  

Erica laughed. โ€œHardly! Mr. Cavanaugh hasnโ€™t changed his assignments in years. I bet he still says the same thing.โ€  

Brother and sister looked at each other trying not to laugh as they simultaneously did their best Mr. Cavanaugh impersonations โ€“ โ€œRemember class, the quantity of your work is second only to the quality!โ€   

Erica and Charlie cracked up laughing. 

โ€œWell, kiddo, good thing our folks are at the cabin this weekend and Iโ€™m going to Six Flags with Kate. You’ll have plenty of peace and quiet to get all your work done. Good luck, bro!โ€ Erica laughed as she waved goodbye to Charlie. 

โ€œIโ€™m gonna need it!” he groaned. “My grades havenโ€™t been very good lately.”

Charlie went to the den where he and Erica always did their homework. First he read his emails, then went on Facebook, YouTube and TikTok. Bored, Charlie started looking through the drawers of the desk. There were recipes, catalogs, magazines and at the bottom of the pile was a binder marked “My Junior Year” in Erica’s handwriting.

โ€œHmm … I wonder?โ€ Charlie asked himself. He looked through Erica’s binder and found a tab that read ‘ESSAYS‘. 

โ€œSweet!โ€ Charlie exclaimed. โ€œLetโ€™s see what we have here.โ€ 

With anticipation he ran his finger down the list of Ericaโ€™s essays, his eyes almost bugging out of his head when he spotted  โ€˜JFK Assassinationโ€™. Further down the list he found โ€˜The Scopes Trialโ€™.

โ€œThis is too good to be true!โ€ Charlie exclaimed. โ€œTwo out of the three essays I need are here! I’m sure Ericaโ€™s book reports are here, too … fingers crossed.โ€ 

Sure enough Charlie found another label which read โ€˜BOOK REPORTSโ€™. Pouring over the titles, he shouted โ€œBingo! There you are! โ€˜To Kill A Mockingbirdโ€™. Three for three!โ€ This was an incredible find. Charlie wondered if Erica even remembered her binder was there.

Taking all three of Erica’s assignments, Charlie sat at the computer station where he scanned and forwarded all the papers to himself. He then changed the dates, margins and fonts so his work wouldnโ€™t look identical to Ericaโ€™s. Finally, changing her name to his, he printed out the papers, returned the originals to the binder and shoved it back under the pile.ย 

โ€œDone!โ€ he crowed,  feeling quite pleased with himself. “And I didn’t have to do any work!

Charlie spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with his friends and watching movies on Netflix. On Monday he confidently turned in his assignments. On Friday Mr. Cavanaugh handed Charlie a large folder. To his shock inside were his reports as well as copies of Ericaโ€™s reports. All Ericaโ€™s papers were marked with a big red โ€˜Fโ€™; his were marked โ€˜CFโ€™

โ€œObviously you had no idea that I save all my students work. You also did not know that Erica failed her assignments” Mr. Cavanaugh reprimanded Charlie. “By copying her work you not only cheated, you failed. Therefore, I’ve given you the grade of ‘CF’ โ€“ โ€˜Cโ€™ for โ€˜Cheatingโ€™ and โ€˜Fโ€™ for โ€˜Failโ€™. Your parents have already been informed of this. I hope you have learned your lesson โ€“ the lazy student will cheat and malinger and by doing so will always fail.โ€

Charlie felt sick to his stomach; he never saw this coming. How could he have been so stupid? He didn’t notice that none of Erica’s papers were graded; they were just copies of her work and not the actual reports she handed in. Charlie knew his parents were going to be furious with him. It was bad enough that Erica failed; he cheated and failed.

โ€œNo point in putting off the inevitable any longer. Time to go home and face the consequences” Charlie thought as he dejectedly walked out of the classroom.

Mr. Cavanaugh shook his head. “There’s one every year. When will they ever learn?”

NAR ยฉ 2019

Reposted for Fandango’s #FOWC http://fivedotoh.com/2023/01/12/fowc-with-fandango-malinger/