This challenge is produced by GirlieOnTheEdge with the following simple rules:
Write 6 Sentences. No more. No less.
Use the current week’s prompt word – KEY
Click here to hear the author read his words:
Home
I pause outside, just for a moment, as I do more and more frequently these days.
Peering through the window, I can see my wife and children doing the things that families do, laughing, clowning around, having fun, looking happy.
I feel a surprisingly warm glow inside because I know they are not always like this, that very often they are sad.
My wife, especially, reflects on what has happened, on what might have been, on what she clearly hopes might yet be again.
When I turn my key and step inside, the laughter stops, and the kids slip silently away to their rooms.
My wife smiles bravely, as she always does, and asks ‘How was your day, dear?’.
Sound Bite Fiction 
I feel chilled. The kids know what’s to come…
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Thanks, Liz, and sorry about the chill
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It’s full summer here…no worries!
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There’s definitely fear there, CE, but it looks like he wants change. Can it happen?
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You never know, Tom, but don’t hold your breath…
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Will they or won’t they? What would it take? Is it possible? What would be best for the children?
A most poignant, well written Six, CE. Wow.
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Thanks, Denise, I like ‘Wow’!
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Ghostly and sad. A lot of pain inside those four walls. Good one CE.
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Cheers, Ford
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I can feel the protagonists sadness as I read through the piece. Nice six.
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Thank you, sir
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This is a heart-grabber, the pain is palpable. Well done story.
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Thank you, Staarlz, sorry about the pain
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It’s alright…I discovered I couldn’t stop living, just learned to live around/amid pain.
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Life has to be more than that.
Good luck moving forward.
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I appreciate your thoughts–I was doing fine about the whole Covid thing initially, but 2022 has been ridiculously stressful. Things can only get Better! Blessings to you, poet friend 🙂 Stay safe and well.
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“Damaged men with damaged wives… so, so many
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Very true, UP, sadly very true
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“Damaged men with damaged wives…” I can feel the hurt in those sentences.
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If my short piece can stir such emotion then I am happy, Chris
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Had me thinking ‘Ah! A ghost story’
… worse, a story that can’t, for those entrapped, be awoken from, relieved that it was ‘only a dream‘
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No ghosts and no dreams, just harsh reality for too many
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A family living two lives. Sad.
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Indeed it is, old pip
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Expertly crafted story right from a fleeting hint of something that clashes in the first sentence through the happy family scenes to the mounting tension and the menace at the end.
A wee masterpiece.
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Thanks, Jenne
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It is so hard to be in a situation as such. Both, being the child/wife and the husband. I hope they will recover.
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People are resilient, I believe
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Maybe there’s a chance he can change his ways, if he can see the situation as it is. This was a cool Six, I felt the tension and wasn’t sure how it was going to end. Well done.
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I like to keep the reader guessing, D!
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It’s so hard to live in such a family, hard to keep that hope alive.
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I guess so, Mimi
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The bogey man cometh. Excellent piece, CE.
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Cheers, Doug
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Nice description. I hope the family recovers.
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Thanks, Frank, life goes on…
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