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.
I’m hoping this week’s title is innocuous enough that no one (hmm hmm) can make anything dirty out of it.
Last Chance
This was their last chance, the last potential Class M planet the colony ship could reach before running out of oxygen.
Their final probe gathered samples. The crew watched as the probe scooped up dirt and plants and analyzed the air.
Excitement built as results came back. Life, human life, could survive on this planet.
Their excitement turned to horror when a jaw grabbed the probe.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Look, ma. Teddy put peanut butter on my drone and flew it into the neighbor’s yard.”
“It was the aliens.”
“Theodore Fulkerson, that was your last chance. You’re going to live with your father.”
NobbinBlog 
It all seemed so very real until those last two lines. Theodores can be big trouble
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The imagination’s a powerful thing, which might not be so good in the wrong head.
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I’ve been noticing that
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Oh dear… I cannot help but think of Calvin and Hobbes and if they still existed today, Calvin would be doing this sort of thing with a drone!
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I’m not familiar. I know the names but no details. I’ll take that as compliment. 😁
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Oh my goodness! You have to check it out 😉
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I’ll add that to my to-do list, but it only seems to get longer.
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I feel your pain. I can’t even look at my list any longer!
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I think she’ll live to wish she’d listened to Teddy
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Or the other way around.
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Thats funny, good stuff
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Thank you.
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All I can say is, poor father🙂
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Yeah, Teddy’s the type to torment whomever he can.
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Ha, I like the sudden change from sci-fi to real life. Now we now what the jaws belonged to 🙂
I had a quick look at the Wiki link – I was curious if Minshara/M class had become a “real thing” born of Star Trek. I’m always annoyed when some scientist blasts sci-fi as being unrealistic in such a way – surely the “fi” in “sci-fi” stands for “fiction”… 🙂
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Here’s hoping that we can get a sudden change from real life to sci-fi.
I’ve read that Star Trek’s classifications are the closest we have in real life to planetary classifications.
I think sci-fi stands for Science Fidelity, so if it’s not strictly scientific, it’s piffle.
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I love how you wrote two stories about last chances with your 100 words. well done.
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It’s actually only one story. It’s a story within a story. Thank you.
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Its me, I must have missed the connectors. I never seem to read a story as it was intended.
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The first part was Teddy’s fantasy. The second part was the reality.
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I liked the clever way you wrote about two last chances, and mingled sci-fi with real life.
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I had fun with the story within the story. Thank you.
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What a great imagination for the little boy. Well done.
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Thank you.
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Had a good laugh, especially when I revisited Theodore and Fulkerson. Weird people in your head, there, my friend 🙂
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The weird people in my head are the reasons I became a writer. They demand to be let out. I’m glad I could make you laugh, and thank you for going the extra step or two to fully understand the story.
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You’re quite welcome 🙂 I always enjoy the “quirky” in your stories.
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That’s good to know. There’s a lot of quirky in my stories.
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Lovely laugh. You had me thing about the film: “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”
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I don’t see the connection, but I’m glad you had a laugh. Thank you.
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I thought of Beaver Clever from Leave it to Beaver. Back then divorced families were unacceptable.
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Yeah, that episode where the Beav stole Wally’s drone and was flying it in the neighbor’s yard was my inspiration.
You lost me at Beaver.
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Dear Nobbin,
You had me going until the rather heartrending twist at the end. Well done. As for the title…people gonna read into it what they’re gonna read. 😉
Shalom,
Rochelle
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That’s exactly what I was going for. Thank you, Rochelle.
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Eek, I went and read the other story and these kids really are something. Maybe not a bad idea to send him to dad.
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I was thinking sending him to dad might be the genesis of worse behavior.
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Return of the Fulkersons. Never trust Teddy. Bet he takes after his father…
For the record, anything can be dirty. Mmm…
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I think you might be onto something.
Not in my house.
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