RECCE - a story in less than 100 words

RECCE

Asbed scuttled up the shingle like a crab, terrified at the noise it made, and peeped between the seaweed covered beams of the breakwater.

After the filth and fear of the camp the peaceful town looked like paradise. He imagined clean beds, decent food, and freedom. If only...

From the dinghy Karim hissed, ‘Hurry up!’

Asbed sighed and took a photograph. They returned quickly to the yacht and sailed east again – just two men out on a fishing trip.

Back at the refugee camp Asbed’s photograph sold a hundred cross-Channel tickets.

*****

Sandra Crook's photograph could almost have been taken on my short break last week in Folkestone, where there is a vast shingle beach, empty on the cool and foggy morning of our walk, from which on a clear day you can see France.
That family visit, and the glorious weather over the Easter weekend, are my excuse for my absence from FF last week - I hope you missed me.

PARTITION - a story in one hundred words

PARTITION

A Government official drew a line on a map and overnight we became aliens in our own country. Old enmities rose like vomit – neighbours took our homes and land.

Driven by soldiers and by fear, we walked for weeks, carrying our young and old, until we reached this place. At first we were glad to rest, but the shelter was an illusion. Crammed in like market animals, fighting for space and food, the noise and stink were indescribable.

Then disease came – weakened by starvation, many died, and our prison oozed despair.

The day I buried my babies, even the trees wept.

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The plight of refugees in many parts of the world is close to my thoughts while we prepare for a peaceful family Christmas here, so Dale Rogerson's photo prompted me to write this story for Friday Fictioneers, hosted my the lovely Rochelle on her blog  https://rochellewisoff.com/

My book A Volcanic Race, which is for sale now on Amazon, is also available to borrow from the town library in Ingersoll, Ontario, which is some consolation in view of my failure to get a copy - or even a leaflet - into my local library. I would also be delighted if some of you FFers bought a copy of your own and posted a review :)

THE SHOE - flash fiction for the weekend

I am back at home! Two weeks in Canada was long enough to get to know my fifteen-month-old granddaughter, but not nearly long enough to be close to her and her parents. Skype is wonderful, if you can work out a mutually acceptable time with a five hour time difference, but I shall miss the cuddles.
Now I am home I can ease back into the routine of being around my UK-based family and, of course, of writing.
This week's photograph for Friday Fictioneers was taken by Rochelle herself and posted on her blog https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/  Follow the Blue Frog link from there to read stories from other Friday Fictioneers. After you've read mine - and left a comment if you can!

THE SHOE

We were on a half-term break, walking along a beach, when Alice ran up to me. “Look what I found, Mum!”

It lay in her hand, soggy and salt-encrusted – a small shoe with a barely legible name written inside – an Arabic name on an Italian beach.

I write Alice’s name in her shoes too, but the fear of losing clothes at school hadn’t been this mother’s worst nightmare.

“Why are you crying, Mum?”

I shook my head helplessly and Alice ran off again. 

How do you begin to explain such tragedy to a five year old?

UNDER THE WIRE - Flash Fiction for Friday

UNDER THE WIRE

Thousands of souls wait behind the wire, their faces etched with the pain of homes abandoned, lives destroyed, families lost in the frantic flight from conflict.

 In the midst of chaos there is routine. Women turn tents and pallets into homes and gossip in laundry-sheds, men pace the paths watchfully, children make mud pies or chant lessons in small groups. 
A people in suspension.

 Hamet crouches by the wire, solitary and yearning, until the day he finds some pliers. 

Stealthily he snips and rolls under the wire - into the camp  to join the other muddy, anonymous children around the food tent.

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This week's photograph was taken by Madison Woods, and I suspect I will not be the only one of Friday Fictioneers to have thought of refugee camps. To read the others, go to https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/ and follow the Blue Frog link.