Friday Fictioneers is hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields who provides us with a photo prompt. Each week’s challenge is to write a 100-word story inspired by the photo. Click here to play along or just read more stories.
PHOTO PROMPT © David Stewart
I was tempted to write a story about Flower Blossom McLotus who is a character from my Norman Normalson & The Normals universe. The problem with that is its absurd, and for those uninitiated with that universe, it would appear to be a mess, the ravings of a lunatic. Maybe people who experienced the ’60s would think, “Yeah, I remember doing drugs.” The thing is, I don’t do, nor have I ever done, drugs beyond a few herbal inhalations and the consumption of fermented grapes. I’m just weird. It’s also an example of what can happen when I’m not restrained to 100 words and allowed to let my imagination run free like a kindergartner off its leash and Ritalin. Cutting down to 100 words would be a lot more work than writing a new story. If you want to read a story about a failed ballerina ninja who flunked out of The Lexi P. Lodeham School Of Dance, Martial Arts, Chicanery, and Silent But Deadly Farts turned repairman turned reluctant space pirate and social media mogul click here. It’s about half way down the page starting with “The voyage was pretty uneventful…” His story continues in A Nearly Norman Christmas. In Prose. Being An Alien Story Of Christmas.
For those who don’t, here’s my story for the week.
Padma
My plan of a picnic dinner at an illuminated fountain was doomed from the start. I thought Lily would appreciate the glowing water lily.
No. It was cold and the fountain was noisy. She couldn’t see past that and enjoy the view. She couldn’t see the view at all.
I should have known Robbie meant blind date literally.
It wasn’t until she started dating our friend Charlie that I got to know Lily.
She was amazing. I realized, she didn’t find fault with the details of our date. It was me. I was disappointed. I was prejudice. I was blind.
NobbinBlog 
I liked the inversion of who was really blind. Well done. I also liked he sound of your McLotus character 🙂
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Thank you on both counts. McLotus was fun to write. So fun that I got completely distracted from what I was actually writing.
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At least he learned
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Yeah, but he’s always going to have to live with that mistake.
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I like how self-awareness made him ‘see’ in the end. Really clever play on ideas.
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I was worried it was going to come off cliché. Thank you.
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What’s wrong with cliche?
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You forgot the accent mark. Oh! You mean… It’s been done, overdone. That’s how it becomes cliché. I try to be original. I try to take a story to the unexpected. It’s hard because The Simpsons have already done everything. Harder still because South Park already made that joke.
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I didn’t forget the accent, I couldn’t be bothered finding the character for it 🙂 Socrates said way back in the BCs ‘the ancients have stolen all my ideas’. If Socrates felt that nothing original is left to say, what about us thousands of years later. No matter how ‘original’ we think we are, it’s already been written, the only thing we can hope for is to surprise the reader somehow. 🙂 Besides, just because something has been said over and over again, the truth does not stop being the truth.
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Dang! You’re gonna go BCE on me. Well, the dinosaurs said, “Roar! Roar! Roar!”
You have a valid point. It’s the way we tell the story that makes the difference.
Random question: Is there an Old Zealand? Or a regular Zealand?
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No, there is a Middle Earth and there’s nothing regular about it 🙂
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Oh, so your trees actually do walk and talk?
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Excellent and sensitively told story.
Nobbin, we all make those kinds of mistakes, and we’re always asking why couldn’t I have done the “right” thing. Some more than others
I see you rounded 3 of the cute rascals up for this week’s pic 🙂
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Yep. Some of those mistakes turn into lifelong regrets. Thank you.
Yeah, the fourth would not participate. “I simply can’t be bothered for such tomfoolery.”
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You’re welcome.
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Excellent. I loved the way the story turned around, showed who was really blind and then what he missed out on. Well done!
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Far too often, what we see with our eyes distracts from what we should really “see.” Thank you.
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Nice turnaround with “blind”. “Yourself” is often the last person you blame for a bad date!
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I think he made it bad with his preconceptions. Thank you.
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Great double play on blind. I hope he gets another shot. Life is about learning.
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I hope he does learn and doesn’t make similar mistakes with his next opportunity. Thank you.
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Very cleverly done. Enjoyed that.
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Thank you.
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Nicely thought provoking. Well done!
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
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It’s good to provoke thought. All too frequently, it remains dormant. Thank you.
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Dear Nobbin,
I hope that now he knows he’s blind, he’ll change the way he sees. Well told.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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I hope so, but old habits die hard. Thank you.
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Sometimes those without sight see more than we do. Nice one.
Here’s mine!
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We get distracted by the things we do see and forget to look deeper. Thank you.
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I love the underlying lesson here and the twist that he was the one that was “blind.” Very nicely done!
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There are definitely different ways to see and be blind. Thank you.
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Sometimes we need a hard lesson to learn… I hope he shall strive to see more clearly in the future.
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I think he’s doing some reevaluating.
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This is not a bad thing…
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What a sad failure… but the dating game is always blind until it’s too late.
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Hopefully, we live and learn and become better people.
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I laughed at this: “I should have known Robbie meant blind date literally.” Must mean I’m a bad person. 😉
Wit and regret usually don’t mix well, but you made it work!
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Yeah, you’re a bad person. I always laugh at the wrong times, so I’m right there with you. Thank you.
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Good to know I’m not the only bad person in Rochelle’s herd.
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Shhh… Let’s keep that between us.
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