I discovered a new challenge this week by my friend Pat at Black Cat Alley. Each week she provides the text and you are challenged to “white out” bits of text to create a new story…or verse. This week’s text is from Tova Martin’s Romance in Bloom: Plants with Ties to Love or Heartache. It’s a fun concept. If you’d like to give it a try, click HERE for the details.
~kat
It was a fading memory. Strobing fluorescent lights, the rat-a-tat-tat of a sticking stretcher wheel, the hot sting of a needle piercing her skin, the cool rush of fluids pulsing through her veins, unfamiliar agitated voices and strange words; pleural cavity, intubate, pulse ox, edematous, code blue, call it.
“9:24 pm”, was the last thing she heard before a flash of light and a whoosh sent her drifting feather light above where her body lay. Through walls, upward, upward until she floated just above the clouds, dots of artificial light twinkling like stars from the sleepy city below.
She drifted there in the in-between for hours, maybe days, it’s hard to know. The inconsolable wails of loved ones breaking through the veil like whispers held her captive. She extended her hands toward them as if she could touch the sound waves, and so, touch them one last time.
But the light was calling to her. She felt its warmth on her back and turned her head slightly away from the fading gray for just a second. And then she was gone. Just like that, a fading memory.
~kat – 15 March 2017
For Jane Dougherty’s Sunday Strange Challenge based on this mysterious painting.
PHOTO PROMPT © JENNIFER PENDERGAST
He was late. He was always late. Just this once, not for her but for Ethan, she had hoped he would come through. Ethan was getting older and needed to know his dad.
After an hour she shrugged, “C’mon buddy, doesn’t look like he’s coming.”
“That’s okay mommy,” Ethan grabbed her hand sensing her disappointment. “He’s prob’ly busy saving somebody or something.”
She smiled, “You’re probably right Ethan.”
“It’s better this way,” she thought, “absent fathers are always bigger than life.”
~kat ~ 15 March 2017
(98 words)
For Rochelle Wiseoff-Fields Friday Fictioneers Challenge based on this photo by Jennifer Pendergast.
Photo from Pixabay.com
those who twist the truth
need to bellow their tall tales
to convince themselves
~kat – 14 March 2017
For Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge based on the prompt words, “Twist” and “Shout”.
earthen crust trembles
dormant seeds burst, perishing
ever chasing the light
~kat – 14 March 2017
For Haiku Horizons’ Challenge, prompt word, “Light”.
