99 word prompt : music and berries
August 10, 2017 prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) include music and berries. It can be fantastical, such as the music of berries or a story that unfolds about a concert in a berry patch. Go where the prompt leads.
If you want to participate, here’s the link: https://carrotranch.com/2017/08/11/august-10-flash-fiction-challenge-2/
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“What’cha doin’?” six-year-old Jennifer asked.
“Picking blackberries.”
“What’er you listenin’ to?”
“Debussy,” I sighed.
“It’s weird,” she said, picking her nose.
My home was small but freshly painted, had a nice flower garden, and…manners. A child that age should know to ask for tissues!
“Where is your mother?” I demanded.
She pointed at a woman slumped over the filthy couch on her front porch. “She was ‘sleep when I woke up.”
“When did you last eat?”
“Yesterday.”
Good. A reason to contact abuse and get more riff-raff out of our neighborhood. While she devoured lunch, I’d make the call.
Shame, poor little thing.
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It seems there are more of those people in the world — the ones more worried about appearances.
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Some elevated strains of music and expectations. Well-crafted, though, using the prompt to compare neighbors, leaving one to think who is the more unseemly. Great take on the prompt, Joelle!
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Thanks. 🙂
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Sad. Not everyone’s life is all strawberries and cream.
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24 years in “social services” and most of what I’ve seen isn’t strawberries and cream, It runs the gamut of people thrown away because they’re inconvenient to millionaires wanting to bleed every free penny possible. It is both sad and infuriating.
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That’s very true. Look after yourself.
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Great flash but so poignant. Makes me want to slap the ‘I’ person. She should at least have checked if the woman was alive and then perhaps made her breakfast also.
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It is sad.
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Love the small details and dialogue in this flash. You aptly capture the essence of your characters:
“What’er you listenin’ to?”
“Debussy,” I sighed.
“It’s weird,” she said, picking her nose.
GREAT!
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Thanks. 🙂
It’s fun trying to create characters with so few words.
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