99 word #prompt : line
May 3, 2018, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) use a line in your story. You can think of the variation of the word meaning, or you can think of visual references. Go where the prompt leads.
If you want to participate, here’s the link: https://carrotranch.com/2018/05/04/may-3-flash-fiction-challenge/
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A classroom, 1956, parent-teacher day. Helen struggles to understand why her mother hates the newly married Princess Grace. Where is the line between good and bad? Are movie stars always bad, too?
Better not interrupt their conversation… too dangerous. She sits quietly, hoping her mother’s time will run out so she can go home and hide in her room.
“Look at this!” Her teacher says, holding up a picture Helen had colored. “She made the sky black!”
“They’re rain clouds,” Helen explains.
“Hateful child,” her mother hisses at her.
No one cares to ask why Helen’s sky is black.
Oh how awful, poor Helen.
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Pretty much a sign of those times.
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sadly true. I wasn’t criticising your writing, just saying how sad the story was. 🙂
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I figured you knew it was about the 1950’s and a sign of those times. Didn’t think you were criticizing 🙂
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Good, just making sure!
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This is clever and really sad.
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It was the 50’s and not uncommon. Most of the parents had lived through the depression where they were taught to always smile, there was a silver lining behind every cloud, and never complain. Children were told when they were doing wrong, not praised for doing right.
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How sad, poor child. I know primary school teachers worry when children use too much black in their drawings… it’s not a good sign and I can understand why in this case.
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It’s hard to explain an entire era in 99 words. Thanks for seeing what I was trying to convey.
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That’s the value of your flash. You managed all that backstory in 99 words!
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Thanks. 🙂
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I don’t know about 1956, but it’s a well told flash for any era, in my opinion. What I noticed and what gets empathy for the child, is the mother’s hypocrisy of hating Princess Grace but insisting on sun skies from the child. Clouds of confusion.
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I was hoping that would come through. Thanks. 🙂
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Interesting flash and commentary on the 50’s. I was alive during that decade and my parents lived through the depression. My mother was never critical but when it was hard to please my Dad. Thanks for the insight. Now I need therapy just like poor Helen. 😉 -Molly Stevens
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You’re probably about my age, then. For me it was the opposite. My dad worked 2 jobs or was at the bar playing rummy (he had a 5th grade education and could count cards. It supplemented his small income). In those days, you could have a 5th grade education and be better educated than kids coming out of high school today — and you could get a job without HS diploma. Mom was the one that was hard to please. 🙂
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Awwe, that is just so sad for the child. I read some of the comments, and your explanation regarding the depression, and the story makes even more sense now.
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The difference between society in the USA 1950’s and now is staggering. We went from “The sky is always blue” to “There’s no such thing as gender.” It’s like being sucked into a vortex and finding yourself in an alternate dimension. As with any era, there are some good things and some bad things about it.
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Heartbreaking for a child to hear words like that directed toward her and her artwork. I want to scoop Helen up and ask her to tell me all about those black clouds.
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Oh, the stories she could tell. 🙂
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Black says much, but no one is listening. I like how you show the child reading the adults but not understanding the reasoning.
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Yes, and children make their own conclusions. One of my husbands had a brother who died before my ex was born. The family lived outside the US (father was in the military) on the 17th floor of an apartment complex. My ex’s oldest brother fell out the window (child was under 4) and the brother a year younger witnessed it. My husband was in fear of his life many times during his childhood and found out later that his surviving brother thought that the birth of a younger brother meant that he was going to die — unless he killed his younger brother.
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What a traumatic experience for them, and yes, children gill in the gaps to cope with what they don’t understand.
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