Category Archives: Fiction

Blogflash: Day Ten: Success

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Photograph by Lisa Shambrook (please do not use without permission)
Day Ten: Success
Flood: Part Six
“No really, I can see something…”
“Where? All I can see is mist…”
“Over there…I told you we needed a dove!”
“A dove dear?”
“To send out and check for land.”
The wind whistled across the stern and the engine’s soft hum groaned, and coughed and spluttered then was gone.
“That’s that then.”
“We knew the fuel wouldn’t last…”
“Then let’s hope that’s land.”
The boat rocked, silently.
“Do we drop anchor or drift? Or lick your finger and stick it in the air?”
“I’m checking the wind…and that is definitely land…I’m positive! Oh for a dove!”
(97 Words)

Blogflash: Day Nine: Journey

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Photograph by Lisa Shambrook (please do not use without permission)
Day Nine: Journey
Flood: Part Five

“So, how’re you doing down there in the baby boat?”
“Just fine…reclining like a mermaid and dragging my hand through the water. Just keep me attached, don’t let me drift away…”
“There’s only you and me on this boat, only you and me on this whole damned ocean, I’m not letting you go anywhere!” Rippling waves lapped at the sides of the rowing boat and salty tears dripped from the taut, thick rope between both vessels. A light breeze fluttered across the deck. “Couldn’t, wouldn’t do this on my own, we started this journey together and we’ll end it the same.”

(101 Words)

Back to Day Eight…

Blogflash: Day Eight: Relaxing

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Photograph by Bekah Shambrook (Please do not use without permission)

Day Eight: Relaxing
Flood Part Four:

“I’m so bored.”
“Why don’t you go beneath deck and relax? You do look tired dear.”
“There’s nothing to do and the last time I sat watching the damned ocean I was in a deck chair…and we’re running out of supplies…”
“Our supplies are fine dear. Didn’t you take a look at the stuff we picked up the other day?”
“Oh, the box with the parachute? Yes, I s’pose we’ll last a bit longer…and the parachute does mean we’re not out here alone…”
“There you go then, go down below and take a nap. I’m going to catch some rays…”

(100 Words)

Back to Day Seven…

We’ll be following this couple for a few more days…

Blogflash: Day Seven: Sunset

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Photograph by Lisa Shambrook (Please do not use without permission)

Day Seven: Sunset
Flood Part Three:

“I’m finding it hard to recall the last sunset we saw on land…”
“Cwtch in closer sweetheart, wasn’t that long ago.”
“Tell me, mmm you’re warm…and it’s getting so cold.”
Beams of sunlight threw a path across the endless expanse of ocean.
“I like being on watch this time of night… It was that evening on the beach, before we lost the beaches and panic set in.”
“Don’t go there, not tonight.”
“Okay, the beach was still clear of debris, just that branch, remember? We watched the sun turn orange then red…then it disappeared into the sea.”
“Just like we have…”

(101 Words)

Click here for part two and here for Part One

Click here for Terri Long’s blogflash2012 Day Seven Sunset entries

Blogflash: Day Six: Reading

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Photograph by Lisa Shambrook (Please do not use without permission)
Reading

Rowan grinned and curled up tight in her favourite chair as written words infiltrated her mind. She grasped the book in one hand and gently stroked the corners of the remaining pages in unconscious repetition. She was lost, lost in a world of elves and orcs and dragons, and love and fear and valour.
How Rowan wished she was there, swinging a sword and fluttering wings on her back, throwing herself into the adventure and feeling her spirit soar with just a pinch of fairy dust. And as she embraced herself in her blanket of words…in a way, she was!

(100 Words)

Blogflash: Day Five: Frustration

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Photograph by Lisa Shambrook (please do not use without permission)
Day Five: Frustration
Flood Part Two:

“I still think it’s biblical, forty days and nights…”
“Only it wasn’t forty days or nights, dear.”
“No it was more!”
“Typical old British Summer then.”
Water slapped the side of the boat.
“What d’you think happened to those in charge?”
“No idea…it was all a bit of a rush in the end wasn’t it?”
“You think they saw it coming?”
“No…or they’d never have done it.”
“Hmmm, bit more than a rain dance wasn’t it. Think they’d have known drought-ridden soil wouldn’t take that much…” Ominous swirling clouds darkened. “And here it comes again…will it ever stop?”

(98 words)

Five Sentence Fiction: Victory

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Photo By Lisa Shambrook (Please do not use)

She crouched uncomfortably on her knee, resting against the cot, its bars now imprinted on her cheek, one hand gently stroking soft baby hair and her finger tightly embraced within her baby’s tiny fist.
Her son’s thumb had found its way into his mouth and a quiet suckling broke the silence in the dark.
She held her breath and very, very delicately extricated her finger from his sleeping grasp, then slid her arms out through the bars as carefully as if they were laser beams, and slowly, very slowly rose to her feet.
Her creaking knees made her grimace and pause for a split second as the crunch echoed throughout the exhausted corridors of her mind, but she backed cautiously out of the room and pulled the bedroom door to.
She barely breathed as her ears listened for the tiniest of sounds, and as silence reigned she softly let out her breath and punched the air!

Blogflash: Day Four: Busy

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Photograph by Lisa Shambrook (Please do not use without permission)
Busy

Sometimes I feel like I’m taking up too much of the pavement, and I make myself even smaller, pulling my holey jumper down over my knees and lacing my fingers tighter around my legs.
I try to be invisible even though I’m screaming to be seen.
I watch feet; I study shoes. Stomping brogues, clip-clopping heels, delicate sandals, cowboy boots, little girls’ T-bars, skyscraper stilettos, boys’ tatty trainers, sensible-for-work flats and flip-flops in the rain all pass me by.
This time it’s a pair of smart knee-highs that knock my nearly-empty, polystyrene cup of pennies flying…and yes, I am invisible.

(100 Words)

Come back tomorrow for Day Five and Part Two of Flood… 

Blogflash: Day Three: Colour

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Photo by Lisa Shambrook (Please do not use without permission)
Day Three: Colour
Flood Part One:

“Didn’t God promise Noah he’d never flood the earth again?”
“He meant the entire world.”
“Well I can’t see nothing but blue from where I’m standing.”
The boat rocked gently on the huge millpond of an ocean.
“I think you have to blame the indigenous for this one…and we have to keep looking. There’s land, there’s definitely land.”
“Just not here.”
“So we keep sailing.” Crystal green waves splashed the hull. “And we follow that!”
The vessel altered course to follow the bow and its exquisite scarlet, apricot, saffron, emerald, cobalt, indigo and lavender colours arcing far across the horizon.

(100 Words)


Blogflash: Day two: A Furry Friend

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Photo By Lisa Shambrook (Please do not use without permission)
A Furry Friend
I didn’t know how I’d get through the next hour, let alone the next day.
Life was hard and on my own it wouldn’t be worth it.
She stared while I made plans. She watched quietly, unassuming, while I laid out tablets and a glass of water. I glanced up, catching her eye, and she yawned then rose from her spot and circled the room. This time I watched her and when those sad, brown eyes met mine, as she rested her head on his empty chair, I knew I’d be around for a while. I wasn’t on my own.
(100 Words)

Click here for Terri Long’s Blogflash2012 Day Two A Furry Friend entries