Above is the photo prompt for this week’s Friday Fictioneers a flash fiction challenge offered up by Rochelle. You can find her response to the challenge and those of her contributors at:

http://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/5-december-2014/

Here is my response.

Encased:

By JE Lillie

The days which followed the ice were dark and cold not  because they were dark and cold.We had no lights, no heat, no refrigeration, no phones, no computers but all that was expected. The felling of 10,000 trees had cut us off from the rest of society. It was the loneliness that nearly drove us mad.

It was a week before we heard the chain saws coming up our road. Someone in town hall had remembered we were out there and thought we might need help. That was the year Daddy stopped being a doomsday prepper and moved us into the condo in town.

I am back practicing another Friday Fictioneers prompt.  This is a great exercise to stretch your writing muscles. If you feel inclined to try a piece of flash fiction yourself or if you want to read what others have extrapolated from this photo prompt go to

http://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/7-november-2014/

Now on to the story:

Tonka

by JE Lillie

He bought me the set one Christmas: forty little matchbox cars in a black case

I was dazzled by the red fire engine and the “yellow taxi- shovel”.

“Thanks for the tonka trucks, Daddy!”

“Matchbox cars.” he corrected me with that thin-lipped expression I was so used to.

“Matchbox cars.” I returned chastened.

I played with them for days and was sad when Mommy took them away because I couldn’t have anything from “Him.”

I found the set in her attic after she died.   I discovered then I could still cry for what had been stolen from my childhood.

I haven’t been able to Fictioneer for a couple  of weeks but here I am visiting the Friday blog on Monday. Thanks Rochelle for the prompt.

Reader, when you have finished basking in the Ambience why don’t you go on over and read a submission or 10 from Rochelle’s other contributors.

http://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2014/06/04/6-june-2014/

AMBIENCE

by Joseph Elon Lillie

I light candles for ambience. Ambience is important to me. Somehow it makes the stacks of crap less crappy.

I’m sure she’d say, “You could clean.”

I use to… before.

But now living here, clean and dirty look about the same. It’s all still piles of stuff stacked against camper walls.  It only smells different and maybe that’s the point. I can stand the smell as long as I have candles to change the lighting.

There is something romantic about stink by candlelight.

I can remember the good times and nobody wants to get close enough to break my heart.