Day: August 14, 2019

100WW — The Concert

Fandango16 Comments

39B5B334-54D7-47CE-8C75-5FBD8BA7B7F3Darla ran up to her father and threw her arms around his neck. “Thank you, thank you!” she yelled, barely able to contain her excitement.

“My pleasure, sweetie,” Bill said. “I know you wanted to see this band perform live, so I got tickets for you and your mother, who will go with you to the arena tonight.”

A few hours later, Bill’s son got an alert on his iPhone. He read it, ran into the den, and handed it to his father. “Oh my God!” Bill screamed when he read about the mass shooting currently underway at the arena.

(100 words)

Written for this week’s 100 Word Wednesday prompt from Bikurgurl.

FFfPP — Sabotage

Fandango12 Comments

5E844609-AE3F-43BB-BA80-5D4F6914BBE1“It was sabotage,” Jeff, the hot air balloon pilot, said. “Someone was out for the destruction of my balloon. He punctured my propane tanks, which resulted in a fuel leak and the burners to fail, causing the balloon to crash.”

“I see,” Detective Morissey said.

“It was scary,” Jeff said. “My passengers started screaming as we fell to the ground. My  job is to look after the well-being of my passengers. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.”

“So,” Morissey said, “Who do you think is behind this, and why?”

“This was not just a fortuitous incident. See that balloon up there?” Jeff asked, pointing to the red, purple, and green balloon. “That pilot is responsible. He used to be the big shot around here. But earlier this year I won the Balloonist of the Year award and I’ve been gaining passengers ever since then. He can’t stand being in my shadow.”

“Okay, I’ll handle this,” the detective said. He went up to the pilot of the balloon in question, which had just landed, and started to question him.

“Did you have anything to do with Jeff’s balloon crash?” Morissey asked.

The guy didn’t bat an eye. “Who? Me?”

(198 words)

Written for this week’s Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner from Roger Shipp. Image: freephotos.cc. Also for these daily prompts: Your Daily Word Prompt (destruction), Word of the Day Challenge (well-being), Ragtag Daily Prompt (fortuitous), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (shadow), The Daily Spur (handle), and Daily Addictions (bat).

In Other Words — Upside Down and Backwards

Fandango15 Comments

EAFE9919-CEF8-4687-8586-85899927811EEverything is upside down and backwards.

Lies are truth, facts are fake, and down is up.

Wrong is right, guilty is innocent, and bad is good.

Friends are enemies and enemies are friends.

Reality is surreal; topsy-turvy.

In other wordsWritten for the In Other Words prompt from Patricia’s Place. The challenge this week is to write a story or poem of five lines or fewer using the picture above and/or the word “topsy-turvy.” Photo credit: Garak01 from Pixabay.

One-Liner Wednesday — An Open Mind

Fandango12 Comments

1CA2FBC6-E1F6-4460-BB33-CBE0AEEC4F1B

“Your mind is like a parachute: If it isn’t open, it doesn’t work.”

American engineer and former astronaut Buzz Aldrin

3D36C51A-E5F0-4817-847D-72D2091C9993Some sources attribute this quote to Frank Zappa. Either way, it’s very true.

Written for this week’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt from Linda G. Hill.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #36

Fandango14 Comments

FPQWelcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration. By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

For this week’s provocative question, I am asking about means and ends. I have often heard people say that “the end justifies the means.” Conversely, I’ve heard others say that “the means justifies the end.” So what about you?

Do you think the end or the means is more important? Explain.

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

The issue with pingbacks not showing up seems to have been resolved, but you might check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.