BUFFALO - 100 word fiction

We have a busy couple of weeks ahead of us - my OH has been Chairman of the Royal British Legion Tenerife Branch for the past twelve years but is retiring this year. Before then he hopes that our members - all 17 of us - will win the Noel Rogers Trophy for the most Poppy Appeal money collected per capita. We have won it seven times in a row - last year we raised over €11,000. - and other branches haven't even come close!

So, with the Official Launch this Saturday, poppies to distribute, collecting boxes to round up, the Remembrance Service to organise, and the AGM to attend, the OH is a bit stressed, and my writing has had to take a back seat.

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Therefore I wrote this week's 100 word story in a coffee break half-way through shopping for groceries. Thanks as always to Rochelle for the photo prompt.

http://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/

BUFFALO

Each photograph identified a building on the skyline but Buffalo ignored them. He climbed over the barrier to the beach where, with wavelets lapping his boots, he could open his memories.

Instead of buildings, trees and totem poles scraped the sky; tendrils of smoke pinpointed his village and their nearest neighbours a mile away; kayaks bobbed on the lake and water-birds soared.

Then a siren burst his dream and a patrolman said, “No-one’s allowed down there – go home.”

“I fished this lake before you were born,” Buffalo said, but he went.

Overnight all the photographs were obliterated by tribal symbols.

Please leave a comment - I promise to anwer them all!

POPPIES, PICTURES & PLAYSCHOOL

 POPPIES There aren’t many left of the servicemen who fought in World War Two, but there are still servicemen and women being injured today. This is why the Royal British Legion in Tenerife supports the POPPY APPEAL. 

There are only a handful of us – my OH is the Chairman – but 2012 was the fifth year we won the Noel Rogers Trophy for the overseas branch that raised the most money per member.

It helped that we were invited to sell poppies on the cruise liner Mariner of the Seas when it called into Santa Cruz. We were given lunch and a guided tour, including the bridge, before we stood in the sun for a couple of hours while the passengers re-embarked after a day ashore. 

"Gee! Is it Veterans' Day already?" one American asked, and donated all his left-over euros.

PICTURES

Only a few years ago I would have had to PORE over library books to find the PHOTOS I wanted to help my research. Now all I have to do is to ask the internet the correct questions.

Photographs of common people in the early 1900s were difficult to track down – only wealthy people could afford cameras then – but find them I did.

 Such faces! Black and white or sepia are so much more evocative, aren't they?

On the other hand there were lots of photos of WW2, and those of Dunkirk beaches,with lines of men snaking into the sea are gut-wrenching even now.

My local photo for today is of the nearest PLAYSCHOOL. Those handprints create a lovely image of a caring environment. Unfortunately, my friend recently found a toddler wandering in the street, and she discovered, after carting him round the local shops and bars, he had escaped from this Guarderia un-noticed. We can only hope they have taken this lesson to heart.