Day: December 3, 2020

Thursday Inspiration — School Daze

Fandango12 Comments

Harold was jaded by the hypocrisy of the politicians. It was the middle of winter, the flu season was in full swing, and COVID-19 was still out of control. Which is why Harold was not at all excited when he learned that, starting in January, the school district he was teaching in was planning to resume in-person, on-site classes.

He loved teaching from home. He could safely conduct his classes online via Zoom and his students seemed to thrive. Plus, working from home gave him peace and quiet. It was his personal refuge.

Why would they do this now, deep into flu season and with the pandemic still raging? It seemed to be ill-conceived to Harold. Was the superintendent a loyal, misguided Trump ally? Was it all some elaborate marketing ploy on the part of the local government? Why would they ignore the advise of scientists and doctors?

Harold had to make a tough decision. Should he cave to the insanity and risk his health, or quit the profession he loved? After carefully weighing his options, he made his decision.

Written for Paula Light’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, where the theme is “school.” Also for these daily prompts: Ragtag Daily Prompt (jade), MMA Storytime (winter), Word of the Day Challenge (excited), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (refuge), Your Daily Word Prompt (ally), and The Daily Spur (marketing).

FFfPP — The Campfire

Fandango19 Comments

The three 15-year-old friends, all Boy Scouts, figured it would be a fun outing to head deep into the woods, where they would start a small campfire, cook up a few hot dogs, and roast some marshmallows. Greg agreed to bring the franks and the hot dog rolls. Andy would supply a bag of marshmallows and the mustard and relish, and David would bring paper plates and cups and would also grab a six pack of beer from the stash that his father kept in the refrigerator in the garage.

After hiking for about an hour, the boys scouted around for a suitable place to start their campfire, which didn’t take long. They put down their backpacks and began foraging for kindling and some decent sized branches for the fire. Using their Boy Scout training, they set about laying out the wood for the campfire. Once it was ready, David squirted some lighter fluid all over the wood, lit a match, and tossed it on to the pile of wood.

The three boys cheered as the wood burst into flames. They took some long, thin sticks they had scavenged from the ground, stuck their hot dogs on the ends of the sticks, and held them over the fire. David popped open three cans of beer and handed one to Greg and one to Andy. David took a long slug from of the one he kept for himself and then let out a long, loud belch. The three boys started laughing hysterically. Yes, it was going to be a fun afternoon.

What none of them counted on was the wind beginning to whip up a bit, causing some sparks and embers from their blazing campfire to be picked up by the strong breezes and carried off a few feet and igniting the dry forest tinder.

What none of them had anticipated was how quickly that tinder would burst into flames and start to spread. David tried to douse the rapidly spreading fire with the beer that remained in his can. The other two boys followed suit, but it was to no avail. They decided that they needed to run for their lives before they, themselves, became engulfed in flames.

What none of them could possibly have imagined was the thousands of burned acres, the homes and businesses destroyed, and the people who lost their lives as a result of the out of control wildfire that they started on their fun outing that afternoon.

Written for this week’s Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner from Roger Shipp. Photo credit: Morguefile.

FOWC with Fandango — Refuge

Fandango24 Comments

FOWCWelcome to December 3, 2020 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “refuge.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.