Into the Light

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Photo by Mario Azzi on Unsplash

I stepped away from the console, rolled my shoulders and rubbed my neck.  The three of us had been working without speaking since dusk. The lights blinked on my panel and I waited.

Sister Minette glanced at me, pressed two more indicators on her screen, then turned her full attention on me.

“It will work, you know,” she whispered.

“I know.”

We turned to stare at Sister Prudence. Her face, illuminated by the lime-green glow of the screen, almost looked familiar.

She finished the sequence, then looked at me.

“Unless it kills you,” she said.

“Sister, we talked about this. It will work,” Sister Minette chided.

“You’re confident considering what you did to Alfred.”

“Alfred may be fine,” Sister Minette said.

“More likely he is dead. If it had worked, we would have heard. You and your damn optimism killed him. And you’re going to kill tonight,” Sister Prudence said. The veins in her neck popped as she spoke.

Sister Minette only started at her sister.

“This is foolish, and it’s your fault,” Sister Prudence continued.

I placed my hand on her shoulder. I could tell she had forgotten my presence as she jumped and turned ready to attack.

“Listen,” I said, “I know you have your doubts, but I don’t. If we don’t do this now, we will lose our window. Besides, didn’t you say this was my destiny?”

The console pulsed, lights flashed, and alarms sounded as a light filled my vision and the sisters faded from view.

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Until Death — Flash Fiction Challenge

Title: Until Death
Source:  Flash Fiction Challenge
Prompt: Write a story about Cora Kingston.
Word count:  99 words

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Photo credit: Canon Fodder on Foter.com / CC BY-SA

Cora read Papa’s letter again, hoping the words would change, knowing they would not. Her beloved John had succumbed. Typhoid. She pressed the letter to her heart and closed her eyes, remembering the last time they had been together, the day they said goodbye.

She was excited. Papa arranged for her to accompany cousin Olivia on her Grand Tour. They would be gone a year and when she returned, she and John would marry.

The thought grabbed her heart, squeezing, constricting, making her wish for death.

She sat, immobile, cold, her life disintegrating. Papa’s letter fluttered to the floor.

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Write

Diamond Dust — Thursday photo prompt

Title: Diamond Dust
Source: Thursday photo prompt: Beneath #writephoto
Word count: 110 words

the image shows a gnarled, winter tree, and the sun glowing behind the hills, reflecting in the waters of a clear lake.

I dipped my toe into the icy cold water and felt the chill spread through my body. The weak warmth of the winter sun would soon slide below the horizon and allow me to advance my work.

Father Boreas raced ahead of me, preparing the way for my transformation. Reaching, slowly growing, my touch crept forward in geometric progressions. I inhaled gasping gusts of air, harvesting heat from every surface, and exchanged the gift with crystalline beauty.

The sky devoid of sun, the deep darkness of the void reflected blackness and despair. But hope ascended with Sister Selene’s silver chariot and she smiled at me through falling flakes of snow.

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Art Depot — 3 Line Tales

From Sonya’s 3LineTales at Only100Words.
You can find the original prompt here. Thank you, Sonya.

photo by Jan Genge via Unsplash

Otto knew he would never understand the newfangled galleries.

Corrugated metal, curved plastic baffled walls he thought looked more like grain silos than repositories for great art.

He visited intending to condemn, to demand a proper exhibition space, but his opinion changed when he walked in the door.

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

O Tannenbaum — 100 Word Wednesday

Title: O Tannenbaum
Source:  100 Word Wednesday: Week 100
Word count: 100 words

We passed the tree lot as we were finishing our Christmas shopping, and Sissy begged me to stop.

“Can we get one?” she pleaded, painting on her ‘Daddy’s best girl’ smile and clasping her hands under her chin.

Who was I to say ‘no’? Besides, it brought back memories of my childhood.

We loved it.

“It is a Charlie Brown tree,” my wife stated.

“It is full of needles.  They’ll drop and make a mess,” she proclaimed.

She banished the tree to the den, far from her picture postcard perfection.

Christmas morning, we discovered Santa’s gifts under our beautiful tree.

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

What the Butler Saw — Weekly Writing Challenge

Title: What the Butler Saw
Source:  Weekly Writing Challenge #170
The five words: LIVE, KNEEL, PLAN, EGO, LINK
Word count: 150 words

lady-colin-cambell-(1897)-by-Giovanni-Boldini

Lady Colin Campbell (1897)
by Giovanni Boldini

This was no way to live. Her marriage was a sham, orchestrated by her mother to raise her social status. Her mother insisted the wedding would take place even though her husband was not suitable. The road brought them here.

Gertrude watched the jurors kneel on the floor and peep through the keyhole of the dining room door. The judge charged them with determining the accuracy of the butler’s testimony. Could the butler, peering through the keyhole, see Gertrude In flagrante delicto with Captain Shaw?

The plan, of course, was a divorce. Prove the infidelity of a wayward wife, establish her dubious moral standards and suspect character, and sooth the great lord’s ego.

In the end, the judge denied the divorce refusing to sever the matrimonial link. Ostracized by society, she forged a new path, gaining acclaim and genuine friends. But, still, each day she prayed for her husband’s death.

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Countdown — Friday Fictioneers

Title: Countdown
Source:  Friday Fictioneers sponsored by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields-Addicted to Purple
Word count: 100 words

Copyright –Douglas M. MacIlroy

During the previous window, there was a moment, when it almost connected. Since then, the sisters had been working ceaselessly. They consulted the ancient texts, checked the schematics and reread the prophecy.

Sister Minette insisted they were close. She felt the equipment only needed minor tweaking. Sister Prudence demanded they pull it apart, dissect and question everything they believed.

They had been pursuing the answer for centuries, and in recent years, technological advances had given them new hope. It was hope they needed.

Sister Minette was giddy when they loaded the equipment into their cars and headed for the rendezvous.

 

***Note: Read about The Rendezvous here.

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The Rendezvous – FFfAW Challenge

Title: The Rendezvous
Source: Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers
Word count: 170 words

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This week’s photo prompt is provided by Jodi McKinney. Thank you, Jodi!

Hours ago, I parked my Harley on the graveled shoulder where the road curved, creating a sightline for miles. Dead flowers, candles, and crosses piled at the base of a scared old oak bore evidence of the dangers lurking here. A faded photo flapped in the breeze.

I leaned against my bike, waiting. A well-worn path cut through the woods ending at a creek. Across the road, trees lined a soybean field and, in the distance, sat an old farmhouse. I had seen no activity, no cars, no wildlife and knew there was no satellite surveillance until 11:47 tonight. It would be close.

Dusk descended, and I waited in the darkness with my bike. Two cars, following closely, approached, pulling next to me. The sisters emerged, nodded in my direction and opened both trunks.

They assembled the equipment and nodded once more. Stepping to the control panel, my fingers flew, playing the sequence I had memorized as a child. Lights flashed. The sisters bowed their heads, and our work began.

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Painted Faces — Flash Fiction Challenge

Title: Painted Faces
Source:  Flash Fiction Challenge
Prompt: Write a story about graffiti.
Word count:  99 words

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Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

I work at night, heading home as office workers rise. Later it reverses. They sleep as I gather my tools and lock my door.

Deep into the night, I tread, cans clanking in my bag. The world is silence. A cat slinks through the alley and the wind whispers secrets.

Arriving at my chosen wall, I don my respirator and shake my aerosol can. The can’s clinking echoing the sound of the approaching freight train. Ever vigilant, I spray the wall according to plan.

The morning light reveals my newest creation, and they smile at yesterday’s plain brick wall.

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Drive — Thursday photo prompt: Onward #writephoto

Title: Drive
Source:  Thursday Photo Prompt: Onward #writephoto
Word count:  301 words

I adjusted the car’s rearview mirror for the hundredth time. There had been no cars for miles and I know where I have been. I shifted, peeling my leg from the red vinyl seat, my sweat pooling underneath me. I realized why granddad draped a towel on the seat whenever he wasn’t showing someone his baby with chest-thumping pride. The Goat, Grandfather of Muscle Cars, Grandad’s pride and prized possession. He bought the car, brand new, for $3,500, a lot of money in those days, all the money he had.

The Goat was a red convertible with a black ragtop and a big block V8 engine. In the blistering sun with no AC, I left the top on as I sped down the highway, watching the white lines streaming by, turning solid.

I stole the Goat from Grandad’s garage last night. Well, it wasn’t really stealing. The car would be mine someday he said, and I left a note. Grandad wouldn’t call the cops. I grew up listening to his stories. Stories of him evading the law, hiding out when he was my age.

By now they’ve told him what Hannah did, what I did. I pulled the chain around my neck working it free from my tee-shirt. The ring raked across my heart as I pulled, scratching my chest. When it popped loose, I pushed it onto my index finger to the first knuckle. A small diamond winked at me. I thought it would be enough. A promise. A place to start. I bought it using all my money.

I’m like Grandad. You don’t throw away the things you worked hard for, the things you love. I hold on to promises and the trinkets, thinking they are treasures. Like the weather, life changes. I kiss yesterday goodbye, and I drive.

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer