Daily routines, work, commitments, and the demands of everyday life emphasise that I should focus on objectives and make sure I complete my ‘to do list’ without any distractions.
This post was written in response to Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch’s weekly #99 word Flash Fiction Challenge. This week’s prompt is to include a bat in the story. Check out other entries or take part yourself!
Bats
‘Granny, what do bats eat?’
I sighed wishing my daughter was here to answer her son’s question. ‘I have no idea, Jimmy.’
‘We need to find out.’
‘Why is that, sweetie?’
‘We’re doing a class project about what animals eat and I got the bat.’
‘Let’s ask google.’
‘Who’s that?’
‘Someone who knows everything.’
‘Everything?’
I nodded and tapped the microphone. ‘Ask your question.’
‘What do bats eat?’ Jimmy asked.
A woman’s voice replied. ‘Most bats eat insects and are called insectivores…’
‘Mrs Google is a really clever lady, granny. Can we ask her when mummy is coming back?’
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This weekend I was lucky enough to have my grandchildren visit. While we were busy doing some arts and crafts, I told my grandson I had to write a story about a bat. He was horrified at first and begged me to choose another animal, so I told him it had to be a bat, because Charli, was the boss and said it had to be a bat. He insisted they were black and ugly, so I suggested drawing a ‘cute’ bat.
This what he finally came up with. And he was wearing his batman sweatshirt!
While he was colouring his cute and colourful bat, I started jotting down some ideas and I asked him to help me write the bat story.
‘Shall we include a cave in the story?’ I asked him and he shook his head violently. ‘I want to know what bats eat.’ he said and so we asked Google and found out a few things about bats. He was relieved that they ate mostly insects!
We had a great time chatting about bats and colouring. His little sisterjoined us in the fun and his mum, my daughter, popped in now and again to check on our progress and chat. It was a lovely way to spend the evening, so I’m puzzled as to why my story took such a sad turn.
I suppose I was thinking how lucky we all are to have each other and how important siblings, parents and grandparents are for children. Sometimes we forget to value what we have, until we no longer have it. I certainly hope he never has to miss anyone in his family.
When we’d both finished our tasks, he said he’d like to send Charli the picture, so Charli, here’s the prettiest bat you’ll ever see! Thanks so much for the prompt and for hosting the weekly challenge.
Stephanie told me the bridge in the photo is above US Hwy 65 and the trail is used for walkers as well as (some parts) equestrian. This particular part of the trail is adjacent to the Missouri State Fairgrounds. A beautiful place I hope to visit one day…
Stephanie is also taking part in the AtoZChallenge this year, so check out her blog Katy Trail Creations.
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This year is my fourth AtoZ Challenge. My theme this year is poetry once again. I’ll be writing a haiku a day, but I’m also adding a new hobby to the posts, photography. I will post one of my photos, or a donated photo, every day to accompany my haiku.
This April, I’ll also be sharing my poems and joining another group of poets at National Poetry Writing Month, organised since 2003 by Maureen Thorson. Write 30 poems in 30 days. I’m in! What about you?
This is my first time taking part in 3LineTales on Sonya’s blog, Only 100 Words, but I saw the picture prompt and couldn’t resist.
Pop over and join in if you enjoy reading or writing short / flash fiction using photo prompts (I love it!) You’ll find full guidelines on the TLT page.
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The Letter
I’d watched the beautiful woman with the troubled look, every week, for months, as I cleaned the windows of her apartment block, wishing for an excuse to speak to her, but she never seemed to notice me.
My heart raced the day she leaned out of her window and grabbed my hand. “Please post his letter, but don’t tell my parents,” she said and rushed back inside her room.
I burned the letter after reading it; she didn’t need him anymore, because I’d be her hero, the man who would set her free from her prison and take her where no-one would ever find her.
Kevin has been behaving strangely since he was kidnapped and rescued by Alice and Billy.
Last week, Alice and her mother caught Kevin on a date with another woman. This week he has some explaining to do…
Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting the challenge, and Yarnspinnerr for today’s photo prompt, which led me directly to this weeks’ 100-word story.
Gabriela and Luccia at a school meeting last summer.
As well as working together as English teachers, Gabriela and I have lots of fun, because one of my grandchildren is the same age as one of her sons, so we often go out with them at weekends.
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This year is my fourth AtoZ Challenge. My theme this year is poetry once again. I’ll be writing a haiku a day, but I’m also adding a new hobby to the posts, photography. I will post one of my photos, or a donated photo, every day to accompany my haiku.
This April, I’ll also be sharing my poems and joining another group of poets at National Poetry Writing Month, organised since 2003 by Maureen Thorsonn. Write 30 poems in 30 days. I’m in! What about you?
This photo was taken by Andrés, @adpascuas, my daughter’s boyfriend, while he was visiting the island of San Andrés, part of an archipelago located in the Caribbean, which belongs to Colombia.
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Keel (after Martin Carter)
Grounded Keel once saw
Ocean stained with memory
Now tourists snap shots
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The boat in the picture reminded me of Martin Carter’s poem, Fragment of Memory, from The When Time (1977), so I borrowed part of one of his last lines for my haiku.
Martin Wylde Carter (1927–1997) considered the greatest Guyanese poet, and one of the most important Caribbean poets, is best known for his poems of protest, resistance and revolution.
I love his poems because they are full of emotion and often sorrow, and yet they are not bitter or resentful. His poems acknowledge the pain but they also transmit hope in a better future.
Like Carter, I believe we should move on, but not forget. On the contrary, we need to be reminded of where we came from and past injustice to avoid a repetition of historical crimes and pay tribute to those who suffered.
This year is my fourth AtoZ Challenge. My theme this year is poetry once again. I’ll be writing a haiku a day, but I’m also adding a new hobby to the posts, photography. I will post one of my photos, or a donated photo, every day to accompany my haiku.
This April, I’ll also be sharing my poems and joining another group of poets at National Poetry Writing Month, organised since 2003 by Maureen Thorsonn. Write 30 poems in 30 days. I’m in! What about you?
Olga, who blogs at Olga Author Translator, took this beautiful photo last year at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I don’t know if it is supposed to be Jane Eyre, but it certainly reminds me of her!
In fact, this sculpture is called Wilsis and belongs to a series of portrait heads by Jaume Plensa, depicting young girls from around the world, with their eyes closed in a dreamlike state of contemplation.
In fact, On Sunday, 17th June 2018, she’ll be leading a guided walk called In the footsteps of Jane Eyre, at the Peak District National Park, more information about the walk here.
An enormous thanks to both Olga and Anne, readers, writers, book bloggers, and supportive participants of many online book blogging and writing communities, for allowing me to include their photos on today’s post, meant as a humble tribute to Jane Eyre, a novel I know both of them also love and admire.
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Jane Eyre
Plain, slight, poor orphan
Fulfilled all her childhood dreams
Beloved Jane Eyre
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Jane Eyre was an underpiviledged and underfed, Victorian orphan. She didn’t stand a chance of living her own life, and yet she fought for her place in the world, in spite of constant adversity. She was honest, tenacious, loyal, intelligent, hard-working and fiercely determined to be ‘an independent woman’.
I would never have had the inspiration or courage to write The Eyre Hall Trilogy if I hadn’t read Jane Eyre when I was a teenager. I’ve regularly reread it since then.
It took me a long time, but I eventually followed my dreams, too.
This year is my fourth AtoZ Challenge. My theme this year is poetry once again. I’ll be writing a haiku a day, but I’m also adding a new hobby to the posts, photography. I will post one of my photos, or a donated photo, every day to accompany my haiku.
This April, I’ll also be sharing my poems and joining another group of poets at National Poetry Writing Month, organised since 2003 by Maureen Thorson. Write 30 poems in 30 days. I’m in! What about you?
My latest copy of Jane Eyre, the one I’ve been rereading since 1980! And my Jane Eyre cup, a present from my best friend, Anna, who is neither a blogger nor a writer, but who knows? I’m working on it and both are highly contagious!
Feelings translated into syllables and words are painstakingly wrenched from the soul and poured onto a blank page.
It’s excruciating, disturbing, and always frustrating, but there’s no alternative. It’s the only option for the poet, condemned to pursue that perfect combination of phrases, sounds and emotions, she will never find…
And yet, I feel at peace when a poem is completed. I feel cleansed, untroubled, and hopeful, because the perfect poem is closer…
I wrote a piece of flash fiction Called Ink and Blood recently, which you might like to read, based on this same idea.
How do you feel while and after you’ve written a poem?
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This year is my fourth AtoZ Challenge. My theme this year is poetry once again. I’ll be writing a haiku a day, but I’m also adding a new hobby to the posts, photography. I will post one of my photos, or a donated photo, every day to accompany my haiku.
This April, I’ll also be sharing my poems and joining another group of poets at National Poetry Writing Month, organised since 2003 by Maureen Thorsonn. Write 30 poems in 30 days. I’m in! What about you?
