Friday Fictioneers is hosted by the wonderful Rochelle, the undisputed master of what I call Sound Bite Fiction.
She sets the weekly challenge, the standard, and the prompt photo.
The idea, as always, is to write a story of around 100 words based on the picture below, which this week is supplied by J Hardy Carroll.
© J Hardy Carroll
Click here to hear the author read his words:
Flowers
Love at first sight?
I don’t know about that, but I was certainly smitten.
She is kind, intelligent, and beautiful.
And when she moves all of her seems to move in all the right ways.
I think she might be that special lady I’ve always dreamed about.
So I’ve been wooing her in the old-fashioned way.
It is obvious that she approves of this, we are getting along very well.
Until I give her the flowers.
It seems I might have misunderstood her when she told me that she reacts rather violently to hay-fever.
Please, sweetheart, put down the gun.
LOL! 😀
Seems a little extreme and yet, I can relate. 😉
Why do I get the feeling, Dawn, that this could be about you?
I think she can claim self-defense… you started it by bringing a lethal weapon.
One does not typically consider a small bouquet of daisies as being potentially life-threatening…
Very entertaining. I’m wondering was she holding a suspiciously large handbag, big enough to hold a gun ?
Perhaps she had it secreted about her person in a place where I, being a gentleman, would be unlikely to stumble across it?
Crikes! I liked the sudden twist, perhaps it’s the histamine that sets her off rather than the pollen.
I didn’t wait to ask, James!
Great play on the medical and everyday meanings of the word “reaction.” Lets hope this is not common. 😊
Thanks for spotting that, Andy!
Me thinks you should have been listening better, been considering her feels more.
But hey, maybe she likes ghosts. If so, you might still have a chance.
Ah yes, as Monty P says, Always look on the bright side of life…
Ha! Not what your narrator – or I – expected. Lovely build up and a cracking ending, though I wonder what happens next. What if she sneezes and accidentally blows his head off? As so often happens, C, your fiction prompted a smile in the most devilish way
Thank you, Lynn, you always express yourself so charmingly and vividly.
Decapitation by sternutation, what a glorious concept!
And your devilish smile is almost too much for this ancient scribbler.
Always my pleasure, C. 🙂
Ha, not the “violent reaction” he expected. Hopefully she’s a rubbish shot and they can talk it out…
Your tale finished with chicken, hopefully my narrator will duck!
Hahaha!!! I did not see that twist coming! Great job!!
A laugh is good!
Happy you enjoyed.
I enjoyed it very much!
It might be a good idea to move on – quickly!
C’mon, Liz, where’s the buzz in that!
Mom, Gram, and Grands all had severe asthma/emphasema so plants were never allowed in house. Now that I have my own house, I’ve started to venture to having a few. It’s different, and pleasant this winter to have flowers.
I suffer quite badly from hay-fever so I have plants, but not flowers. They add greatly to the ambience, I think
I beginning to find that to be true.
Too funny.
Thank you, Susan, happy to amuse
She should consider herself very lucky. My husband would rather die than ever, (and I mean ever) give me flowers. And so…
Would rather die? I could maybe fit him into a wee tale in a week or two…
…and whoever said love is for the chicken hearted! Loved the last line Ceayr.
Laughing. Cheers, Neil
That’s some serious hayfever! Well done!
I’m starting to think she’s maybe just grumpy…
LOVE hearing you read your stories and this tale tickled me! Love that last line. Great job, and thanks.
Ronda
You are too kind, Ronda.
Tickled is good!
Artificial flowers sound safer, but doe he have enough time left.
As Marvin Gaye said ‘Ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby’
Well, you did bring her severed limbs of living things. That could be construed as a threat similar to the horse head in the bed of Godfather fame.
I am no expert with the fairer sex, sir, but I did read somewhere, perhaps in my People’s Friend, that ladies like flowers…
They are macabre creatures, aren’t they?
Oh, what a surprise! Well done, CE– made me smile, in spite of the threat of violence.
Glad you enjoyed, Linda, smiles are good
That last line’s a killer! Nice one CE.
I’m hoping not, Keith!
I react in a similar way to flowers in the house – sneezing that is, not the gun. Instead I wait until it is politely possible to get rid of the flowers!
Very sensible, Iain, I can’t imagine you in the Gunfight at the EK Corral!
A little bit of crazy just adds spice 😀.
Heck, yeah, what’s the occasional shoot-out between lovers, eh?
You made me laugh with this story, CE. Hlarious!
I liked the build-up to the twist, especially “And when she moves all of her seems to move in all the right ways” which captures exactly the sort of irrational feelings of powerful sexual attraction.
Hilarious is good, Penny.
But there is nothing irrational about those feelings!
Dear CE,
I guess that could be called an explosive sneeze.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Indeed, m’lady, perhaps she is not the one of my dreams, hmm?
An epi pen is going to be of no help to this reaction … unless you thrust it in her jugular. A good twist all enhanced by your voice. Well played.
‘thrust it in her jugular’! You are clearly a lady after my own heart, Ellen!
Glad you enjoyed the whole package.
Haha!
A violent reaction indeed
I can pick ’em, Neil!