Remembering Grandma

For Friday Fictioneers 100-Word Challenge: 25 August 2017

Photo Credit: Jan Wayne Fields
 
While camping out in the desert, I was overcome by an overwhelming feeling of sadness. I remembered the night I said goodbye to my grandmother.

“Grandma, I’m going to America. I’ll see you when I come back.”

“Pepito, don’t hold your breath. I may not know where America is, but I know it’s farther than the moon.”

“Look, ” she continued, pointing at the moon. I can see it but not America.”

Several years later, she died. Due to the distance, I wasn’t able to attend her funeral.

“Grandma was right,” I realized belatedly. “America is farther than the moon.”

Wordless Wednesday: Remembering Las Ramblas

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Weekly Photo Challenge: Ooh, Shiny!

Location: Palermo, Sicily, Italy
 
Whenever I travel, I bring along a pocket camera. It’s good enough for me since I have no patience fiddling with settings and stuff. Just like typical tourists, I tend to point and shoot indiscriminately, thanks to the availability of memory cards that can store thousands of pictures. If there’s one thing that differentiate me from the others, it’s that I don’t take selfies.

Even with an outstanding guide, distractions can happen on a tour. When they occur, a pocket camera can be your friend. Just draw and fire at will to save them for posterity.

Seeing the familiar in unfamiliar places provides a pleasant distraction to me. It could be as simple as the sight of clothes hanging out to dry. For one thing, it reminds me of the place I grew up in the Philippines. On the other, it’s gratifying to experience this common thread that binds people regardless of geography and distance.

As for any distraction that has become more of an inconvenience than anything else, I suggest that you treat it as part of the experience. Who knows? Many years down the road, when time has smoothened its rough edges, you’d be able to remember it with fondness.

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Living in a Closet

For Friday Fictioneers 100-Word Challenge: 18 August 2017

Photo Credit: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
 
She said I lived in a closet. Outside of work, I had no life. And so when she and fellow nurses went on strike, I decided to get involved.

At the sign-up table, I heard a familiar voice.

“I haven’t seen you before,” she teased. “What floor do you work on?”

I turned around and saw this red-haired nurse with a smile that could light up the world.

“Actually, I don’t work here. I came to support your cause.”

“Very well then,” she said. “Take a placard and start marching.”

I smiled back and did just what I was told.

Wordless Wednesday: World’s Most Photographed Hotel

Location: Rue des Carrières, Ville de Québec, Canada