Broken Jar

For Friday Fictioneers 100-Word Challenge: 10 July 2020

Photo Credit: A. Noni Mouse

 
Billy was playing ball inside the house when he accidentally hit the ceramic jar on top of the fridge. It fell breaking into several pieces.

“Oh-uh!” Maya exclaimed.

Billy didn’t panic. He glued them back together again while his little sister was watching.

“Don’t be a tattletale,” he told Maya as if she could understand what it meant.

Dinner came and went. There was no mention of the broken jar. Billy felt relieved.

But not for long.

After putting Maya to bed, Mom sneaked into Billy while he was watching TV.

“Billy, is there something you want to tell me?”

I Got Off the Train by Fernando Pessoa

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

I got off the train And said goodbye to the man I’d met. We’d been together for eighteen hours And had a pleasant conversation, Fellowship in the journey, And I was sorry to get off, sorry to leave This chance friend whose name I never learned. I felt my eyes water with tears . . . Every farewell is a death. Yes, every farewell is a death. In the train we call life We are all chance events in one another’s lives And we all feel sorry when it is time to get off. All that is human moves me, because I am a man. All that is human moves me, not because I have an affinity With human ideas or human doctrines But because of my infinite fellowship with humanity itself. The maid who hated to go, Crying with nostalgia For the house where she’d been mistreated . . . All of this, inside my heart, is death and the world’s sadness. All of this lives, because it dies, inside my heart. And my heart is a little larger than the entire universe.

Wordless Wednesday: Giant Spider Maman Statue

Location: Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain

 

Big Mistake

For Friday Fictioneers 100-Word Challenge: 3 July 2020

Photo Credit: Na’ama Yehudah

 
From the moment he laid eyes on her, Roberto knew she was the one. Or so he thought.

Mercedes was gorgeous with a body to match.

For somebody on the rebound after being dumped by his long-time girlfriend, she was heaven-sent. He became the envy of his friends when he drove her around town.

But then he found out that Mercedes was high maintenance and had an unpredictable temper.

It came to pass that Roberto had seen enough red lights and decided to break the relationship.

He took Mercedes back to the car dealer and exchanged her for another model.

Wordless Wednesday: Scenes from Village Life

Location:Arusha, Tanzania, East Africa (click any picture to enlarge)