Visiting Mom

For Friday Fictioneers 100-Word Challenge: 25 May 2018

Photo Credit: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
 
“Come home while Mom can still recognize you,” my sister wrote. “She’s in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.”

Mom welcomed me with the kind of hug I’d known as a child. And yet, there was something amiss. She’d start cooking and completely forgot about it. She had also developed the habit of getting up many times at night to check for unlocked doors.

“Promise, you’ll be back soon,” she said as my short visit drew to an end.

“Mom, I promise.”

This time it was I who gave her a hug trying to hide the tears in my eyes.
 

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Better Dead Than Alive

For Friday Fictioneers 100-Word Challenge: 4 May 2018

Note:In a few hours, I’ll be going to the airport to catch my flight overseas. Please accept my apologies if I can’t participate in the coming weeks. I’ll be back soon.

Photo Credit: Karen Rawson
 
From a distance, Amos watched with longing as Sara tended the vegetable garden in her backyard. He made sure she didn’t notice him.

Sara thought he had died in the Battle of Gettysburg and was buried in an unmarked grave leaving her in deep sorrow. He did survive but with a face so disfigured he felt he was better dead than alive.

After all these years, Amos could see that she had moved on. She was happily married with a family of her own.

Amos took one last drag off his cigarette and left as quietly as he had come.
 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Lines

Location: Belogradchik, Bulgaria

 
When visiting a famous site like the Belogradchik Fortress in Bulgaria, it’s likely that you’ll encounter a mass of humanity. The bigger the crowd, the longer the lines. It’s one of the realities that we face when we travel to see the world.

Under the circumstances, as Rick Steves would say, it helps to be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic when dealing with inconveniences such as long lines. If anything, we can treat them as part of the experience.
 

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Wordless Wednesday: Puszta Horseman

Location: Dunapataj, Hungary

 

The Family Tree

For Friday Fictioneers 100-Word Challenge: 27 Apr 2018

Photo Credit: Jan Wayne Fields
 
“It’s time for it to go,” Dad said of the maple tree in our backyard overlooking the valley below.

It had been a witness to many happy family occasions until mom’s unexpected passing.

Now the tree lay neglected, its trunk ravaged by termites and its branches mostly dry and bereft of leaves.

When the men in hard hats came, I stayed in my room and covered my ears hard. Still, I could hear the sounds of chainsaws and branches falling on the ground.

“Don’t worry, son,” Dad reassured me. “Your stepmom and I will plant another tree in its place.”