beach

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Response – JSW 4-12-2021

The JSW Challenge is open to anybody who wishes to participate. Using the writing prompt, write a flash fiction no longer than 500 words and post to your page. The Challenge starts on Monday and runs through Sunday each week. Please remember to link your story back to this post so everyone can read your entry.

Copyright csk 2020

He stood on the bank, just beyond the sea grasses, staring out at the rolling ocean beyond. The day was grey, promising a rain he hoped would never come. He needed sunshine and brightness, not rain and gloom. Either way, he’s survive, he supposed, though there were times he wanted to not survive. Times he wanted anything but to survive.

Another marriage down the tubes. You’d think he would have gotten good at it by now, but somehow things always got screwed up. Usually him, but this time her. She’d lied to him since the day they met, claiming love, but in the end she’d just wanted his money.

Stepping over the sea grass, he walked out onto the wind-swept beach, shoes squeaking in the sand. Loosening his tie, he pulled it over his head and dropped it to the ground, shucked his jacket.

What good was love when it could never be trusted? What good was life without love? Why couldn’t he just get it right?

He stopped on the edge of the surf, foam washing up and around his shoes, dampening the edges of his trousers.

Overhead, seagulls called his name. A Sandpiper scurried along the edge of the surf. Beyond the breakers, pelicans rode the waves.

Alone, he walked into the sea.

by

JSW 4-12-2021

The JSW Challenge is open to anybody who wishes to participate. Using the writing prompt, write a flash fiction no longer than 500 words and post to your page. The Challenge starts on Monday and runs through Sunday each week. Please remember to link your story back to this post so everyone can read your entry.

Copyright csk 2020
by

JSW 3-29-2021

The JSW Challenge is open to anybody who wishes to participate. Using the writing prompt, write a flash fiction no longer than 500 words and post to your page. The Challenge starts on Monday and runs through Sunday each week. Please remember to link your story back to this post so everyone can read your entry.

Picture copyright csknotts

“Look at that idiot! Out in the wind like that.”

“He is a seagull.”

“Well, so are you, but are you out there in the wind like that?”

“Seagulls like wind.”

“Well then he should be flying, not sitting there like a lump on sand. Do you see any other seagulls out there? Huh? Huh?”

“No, but…”

“But nothing. He’s a disgrace to seagullkind.”

“Just because he enjoys a little wind?”

“A little wind? A little! It’s almost a hurricane out there.”

“Don’t exaggerate.”

“I’m not, much, but you know what I mean.”

“I bet any minute he is going to take off and do some daring stunt, some spectacular flying, some sheer magic in the air.”

“Humph.”

But he didn’t. The seagull just sat there in the wind, moving a few steps now and then to keep upright.

“See, told you. Nothing. A disgrace.”

“He’s just different, Ma.”

“Different my tailfeathers. He’s a disgrace!”

“Come on, fly!”

“Humph.” Ma waddled away, back to the safety of the inlet.

“Come on, fly!”

But Jonathan stayed on the sand. Waiting. Enjoying the wind in his feathers.

He really wasn’t like any other seagull.

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Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers 8-4-2017

This week’s photo prompt is provided by TJ Paris. 

Guide for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers

1. A prompt photo will be provided each Monday pm to be used as a base to your story. Please include photo prompt with your story.

2. Linking for this challenge begins on Monday pm and runs to the following Monday pm.

3. Please credit photo to photographer.

4. The story word limit is 100 – 150 words (+ – 25 words). Please try to stay within this limit.

5. Please indicate the number of words in your story at the end.

 

 

Sunshine glittered off shimmering waters,  reflecting in his sunglasses; beach silent but for the soft whisper of waves. Back in the cottage, his phone would be ringing, but he didn’t want to talk. He didn’t want to even be in the same universe as anybody he knew.

“You know,” he said to the salt and the sand, “I’m not crazy.”

The salt and the sand didn’t answer, nor had he expected them to. That would be crazy.

A seagull flew overhead, silent.

Water lapped his toes.

He could almost hear the ringing. Ringing. Ringing.

“I don’t need any help.”

Which was true, but not honest.

How could such a beautiful world be so ugly inside?

He imagined diving into the crystal water and swimming away forever.

A seagull flew overhead, screaming.

Slowly, he turned and headed back towards the cottage, footsteps trailing behind in the sand.

Ringing. Ringing. Ringing.

“Hello?”

(150)