Time again for Friday Fictioneers. A 100 words of fiction based around the photo prompt provided. The sun is shinning, tomorrow is payday and yet I’ve once again channeled the dark side. Maybe next week I’ll write about bunnies!! Follow the link to join in the fun.
Photo Copyright : J Hardy Carroll
She gripped the wall for support. The hairs on the back of her neck stood. The temperature dropped 20 degrees.
“DON’T GO IN, WALK AWAY” screamed the voice in her head.
She couldn’t listen.
The window bounced light across the floor. Prisms of colour, frenzied and feverish, danced to its frantic score.
All that pain, all that shame. Echoes that still ricochet 60 years later.
The baby had never taken a breath. No cries to give her away. Swaddling the body in her bloodied school skirt, she’d buried it beneath a stack of broken chairs.
Then left the school.
Left the town.
Left herself.
helen midgley 
This is so strong… Actually I swear the temperature dropped here as well when I read it.. the shame. the guilt. and I think this happens still today in some places.
Thanks Bjorn 🙂
Wow! I can’t say more
Delighted you thought so 🙂
Devastatingly sad.
Thanks for reading 🙂
Unfortunately, this has happened in my area a few times. Abandonment to the point of oneself is probably one of the worst things imaginable.
You brought it big time! Good job, H. Midge!
Thanks for comment, sometimes my dark side takes over 😉
So much emotion in this!
I was channeling darkness, I think it was raining, lol 😉
Dark and tragic. Very well told!
Thanks 🙂
A little tragedy, written in so few words, but opening a lifetime of pain and loneliness and guilt. Gorgeously sad and a fantastic story
Thank you for such a great comment 🙂
Pleasure
Too much feeling!
Thanks for reading 🙂
Rivetting, Helen; just perfection in building tension, and a sense of overwhelming grief. Wow!
Thank you 🙂
A whole tragedy in so few words. Brilliantly told
Thanks 🙂
You did a great job on this, Helen.
Thanks Sandra 🙂
Big, powerful emotions in so few words. Well done!
Thank you 🙂
Tragical and powerful. Great story.
Thanks for the comment 🙂
To convey such emotion is so few words is simply brilliant.
‘Joy’ a very short story!
Thanks for the great comment 🙂
Powerful writing, Helen. I especially liked “Left herself.” It says so much about what was at stake.
One word: wow!
So powerful and written so well…conveys her guilt and the torment she continues to feel.
This one was powerful, Helen.
Greetings, Helen!
A dark and tragic story. I stumbled a couple of times, first with the line about the frantic score. Is the score from the movement of the light through the window? I loved the imagery of the line “…bounced across the floor” but did not get a musical reference from it. ? Maybe I missed something? Often in prose I find numbers (20, 60) to be a bit jarring, as opposed to “twenty” or “sixty.” Last question: If she wrapped the baby in her skirt, did she walk home in her underwear? How did nobody notice?? I was very distracted by that detail! 😉 The last few lines were the most poignant and lovely. They really drove home the desperation of her situation.
Thanks for sharing, and for stopping by to read mine and comment!
Happy trails! 🙂
Thanks for reading 🙂
That was emotionally wrenching. I never considered the walking out after using her skirt to wrap the baby until reading the previous comment. Now, I can’t get it out of my head.
You set the stage well with the 20 degree temperature drop.
Thanks for reading. I used ‘school skirt’ to highlight her age, I was thinking she planned ahead and left the town straight after. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, ha ha
😉