Friday Fictioneers (March 29, 2013)

copyright 2013 Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Well, it’s Saturday, but here’s my contribution to Rochelle Wisoff-Field’s Friday Fictioneers picture prompt flash fiction writing challenge. Let’s call it “Illumination” (100 words).

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“She thought there were ghosts,” Michael said, voice cracking. “She said the lights were the lost holding up lamps, hoping to find their way.”

“Just a reflection–headlights glinting off of wet leaves in the woods.”

“She said that even if we caught up to one, they’d still be lost.”

“Just a reflection.”

Michael sighed. “She said she hoped she was never lost in the dark.”

“A reflection.”

“She said I could be her light back.”

“Reflection.”

Michael rubbed a hand through his hair. “You aren’t saying much.”

Andy shrugged. “Nothing to say.”

“Reflection.”

“Did you hear that?” Michael asked.

Andy shook his head. “Hear what?”

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A Thought on the Importance of Travel

The other day, I was chatting with someone who was feeling bad because they had just come back from a trip but already wanted to go on another one. Here is my response. Let me know what you think about the importance (or not) of travel.

Ride the funky bus in the Seychelles.

Ah, but the desire to travel is the desire to explore oneself. To find out who we are, who we really-really are when all of the accouterments of our society have been stripped from us, when even the familiar creates dissonance in some way (Alcohol served at McDonald’s! Craaaazy!). Whether the travel is across the world or to a secluded section of our own city where we have not yet been, the act of traveling, the engagement-with-the-­unknown, teaches us things about ourselves that we need to know to become better human beings and to understand our connection with the larger world–the one outside our known, comfortable one. Travel is not something that we should feel bad that we have the opportunity to do, and we should endeavor to travel even when we DON’T have the opportunity, at least even when (maybe especially when) time constraints, money issues, and everyday obligations seem to be conspiring to make travel an impossibility. Because that search for the meaning of self and the search for engagement with the world are among the most powerful themes of being alive.

Friday Fictioneers (March 8, 2013)

Seems like just last week it was Friday and the Friday Fictioneers gathered to write 100-word flash fiction based on a photo prompt found over at Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ website. Here’s this week’s pic and my contribution. If you’d like to see the more of this week’s entries, check out this page.

“When You Rather Wish You Were Dreaming, Instead” (100 words)

A staircase wound sideways around the inside of the mollusk’s shell. Two high up (far back?) windows faced, Harmon supposed, the sun-drenched beach. Gravity was weird inside the shell, but certainly not the strangest thing about his day.

The strangest thing hadn’t even been meeting the mollusk, whose name, he’d been informed, was Erbert.

“Hi, I’m Erbert,” the mollusk said. Then: “Today, we’ll be discussing the importance of saving the world from an infestation of wombats.”

“Um,” Harmon said.

No, the strangest thing was that when he’d gone to bed last night, he’d been in Billings. Nowhere near a beach.