Written for Sue & Gerry’s Weekly Prompts
Weekend Challenge, using the term ‘Pros &
Cons’. Here’s were the prompt took me.
Tag: Shock
Shattered Reality
This is The Unicorn Challenge
where we are encouraged to write
a story in 250 words or less using
the photo below as inspiration.
Date Night
Written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt #407
using the word ‘mandate’, Gerry & Sue’s Weekly
Prompts Wednesday Challenge (‘stodgy’), and
Sue & Gerry’s Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge
(‘dainty’). In 71 words exactly, this is my little story.
The Letter
Written for Kevin’s No Theme Thursday 10.24.24,
Fandango’s Story Starter #172 (#FSS), Eugi’s
Moonwashed Weekly Prompt (pretend), and
Gerry C & Sue W’s Weekly Prompts Wednesday
Challenge (fascination). This is my story.
Identical Grief: A Haibun
Written for dVerse Poetics: Picking Up The Pieces
where today we are sharing grief. This is my haibun.
Tomorrow will be 4 months since my husband’s identical twin brother died suddenly. His wife returned home from a walk and found him on the bedroom floor; she said he was still warm. The news felt like an arrow ripped through our hearts. Jim was dead. How was my sister-in-law ever again going to walk into her bedroom without picturing her husband’s body? How was my husband Bill going to face the rest of his life as the lone twin? At one time there were three brothers; now there is only Bill. This is the most difficult trial for him. My husband lost a piece of himself that day. We are numb, disbelieving, questioning, dazed, numb, numb, so unbelievably numb.
You know how people say that time flies? Not when it comes to Jim; time has stopped for us. Logically we know he’s dead but our hearts cannot accept it. It’s unbelievable, inconceivable for us. It doesn’t feel possible. We function normally every day, do the same old crap, talk and eat and laugh. We watch movies, go shopping, pay bills, gab on the phone, babysit. We live the same lives we lived before Jim died except he’s not here to share them and we cannot wrap our heads around that. It just doesn’t feel like he’s dead. He should be here. It’s not right that he’s not here. It’s like someone has played the cruelest joke on us.
Now, when my sister-in-law looks at Bill, it’s Jim’s face she sees. And sometimes when I look at my husband, I see Jim and I find myself pondering why Jim was the twin who was taken.
I am Bill’s wife but Jim was his other half.
save them in your heart
golden summer memories
for when winter comes
No idea who’s who!
NAR©2024
This is “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd
All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.
Eulogy
Written for Fandango’s Story Starter #154
“’It wasn’t that long ago when Ethan was rarely bothered by mosquitos, but this year he’s being eaten alive by them’.”
I wrote that in my diary just a few weeks ago.
Thank you all for joining us today as we say ‘farewell’ to my beloved husband, Ethan …. another innocent victim struck down in the prime of life by the dastardly mosquito. Ethan was attacked last week while bringing out the trash for pick-up in the morning; it was just a quick run to the curb but he didn’t have his EpiPen on him. Who knew just a few moments later he’d be in cardiac arrest from anaphylactic shock?
Ethan was never bothered by mosquitos before and at first it was just an annoying surprise when he started developing a reaction a few months ago. The change in him was sudden and drastic and, as much as I will miss him, I’m so thankful his time of suffering was short.
Doctors can’t say whether this is a genetic trait, if our children Evan, Ella and Emily will develop this horrible allergy. To help our children realize the seriousness of this situation and to protect them, Ethan has left them his award-winning collection of swatters, his supply of EpiPens, his boxes of citronella candles, his stash of DEET and, of course, his journal.
When the allergic reactions started, Ethan began writing down his thoughts; as a poet, he wrote some of his best work over the recent months. He was most evocative in his agony.
In closing I would like to read one of his most poignant poems. It’s called ‘Ode To The Mosquito’. And please .… next time you see a mosquito, ask yourselves ‘What would Ethan do?’“
Ode To The Mosquito
How can such a little thing
Be so damn annoying?
Flying round my arms and legs
It’s bothersome and cloying.
Go away, you vile thing
I’ll swat you with a stick.
You’re not welcome in my home
You nasty little prick!
Who would think that tiny guy
Could be such a bloody sucker?
When he sticks his fangs in me
I scream “You Motherf*#+er!”
You get me every time I’m out;
My blood is extra sweet.
Come and get me, little twit!
Tonight I’m packing DEET!
The end. 🦟
NAR©2024
Poem originally posted 2022
This is “The Mosquito” by The Doors
All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.
Ponte dei Sospiri
Written for Friday Fictioneers. Greetings, friends. Some of you know, others do not. We had a death in the family last week … my husband’s twin brother passed away on Tuesday. I’ve taken some time off from writing but now I’m ready to return. You may read about our loss here if you are so inclined. Thank you for your thoughts. This is my story today.
It wasn’t in the evening when a calm tide rolls out, nor in the early morning as the glorious sun rises but rather in the middle of the day, just after noon when he crossed the bridge and left us stunned and lost. One minute he was with us …. happy, strong and alive. The next he was gone, in an instant, in the blink of an eye, he crossed the bridge and slipped away. We had no time to prepare, no time to say “Goodbye and fare thee well, brother”. He was just gone, peacefully and silently across the bridge.
NAR©2024
This is “Bridge of Sighs” by Robin Trower
All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.
Until Now
Rochelle at Friday Fictioneers
has challenged us to respond to this photo
in 100 words or less. Here is my story.
Hard to imagine life without her. When the hell did everything start to unravel?
He sat alone in the shell of their apartment nursing his second Dewars. Once upon a time this place was alive with people enjoying one of their famous dinner parties. He could hear the sound of her spirited laugh when someone told a dirty joke.
They were the perfect couple, the envy of all their friends. Theirs was an easy, comfortable marriage. They were in sync in their choices of restaurants, paint colors and the biggest decision of all .… neither one wanted kids.
Until now.
NAR©2024
100 Words
This is Landon Austin with “Blindsided”
This portfolio (including text, graphics and videos) is copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR © 2017-present.
NUMB
A four-line response to the
photo-prompt challenge below
from Greg @ Four Line Fiction
“Is there really such a thing as the perfect marriage?” Marcella wondered; at one time she believed the answer was “yes”.
Now, laying on her bed alone in her apartment, Marcella’s head was swimming; after 18 years of marriage, how could she have been so terribly mistaken?
She had discovered a loose thread, one which kept annoying her, and as she toyed with it, pulled on it, every neatly sewn stitch in the tapestry of her life began to unravel until there was nothing left but tatters.
“How does a man who seemed unwaveringly devoted to her and their daughter have another wife and children on the other side of town and everyone knew except her?” Marcella asked herself, her mind now numb; the very idea was staggering and she nearly laughed at how totally preposterous and unimaginable it all was.
NAR © 2023
#gb4lf #gmgblog
This is Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb”.
Please join me today
as we start a new edition of
In The Groove.
I think you’ll find it
quite enlightening.
https://rhythmsection.blog/
The Elephant's Trunk 