New Traditions

Older man riding a bicycle along a rural, paved bike path

From Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr’s photo prompt, The Unicorn Challenge(08/26/23). No more than 250 words in length. Otherwise, let your creative flag fly!

“Hey Emil, where ya headed?” Olaf cycled like Old Nick himself, trying to catch up with his childhood friend.

Emil slowed his bicycle and halted, gingerly slipping off the extra-wide seat that Dorothea had gifted him to encourage his getting in shape, on account of his tricky ticker. He sorely missed her dark black coffee, her cardamom buns, even her often sharp tongue. But she’d made him promise before she died, and two years later, he was fit enough to give Olaf a run for his money. Continue reading

Still Waters

“Okay, you can uncover your eyes now.”

“Wow! That’s beautiful…and heartbreaking. Who made this mural?”

“Trevor made this one. And take a few steps around this corner. This is one by Teresa. Yeah…it makes me tremble, too.”

“Wait! Those quiet kids who never join in on anything?” Continue reading

Attention/Protest

Homeless person in a thing blanket, in a windy blizzard

Source: Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Snowmageddon! Stay home if you don’t have to go out! Feels like double-digit negative temps! Treacherous conditions! Freezing drizzle! Mega-storm sweeping the continent, laying waste to everything in its path!

She switched off the tv, powered down her computer, snapped off background radio reports. She believed the footage: Continue reading

Zuzu’s Petals

 

Grafitti

Hanna skedaddles

Hannah couldn’t stand it any longer: so many sad faces, mouths turned down with refusal after refusal, so bad that no one dared a joyful and barbaric “Yawp!” a la Whitman, or even a comic, life-saving “Yopp!” as Horton had heard it.  Continue reading