Sunday 3 July 2011

Succinctly Yours Week 15

Grandma's Goulash at Succinctly Yours hosts this microfiction meme.

Each week she posts a photographic prompt for inspiration and the challenge is to write a story using no more than 140 characters or words. 

As an extra challenge, a word is offered for inclusion and this week’s word is expedient.

Below is this week's photo followed by my offering. 

The frog waited patiently then flicked out its long, sticky tongue. It gulped and the fly was gone. Then the heron struck. Life is cruel!

(137 characters)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Felicity believed all life was sacred and allowed the creatures in her garden to share the bounty of nature. There was enough for all. The birds were grateful for the caterpillars, slugs and snails, and the fish varied their diet with things beneath and above the water. Dragonflies, those predatory survivors of prehistory, sped through the warm summer air, snapping up slower, less fortunate insects. Even wasps she didn’t mind, so long as they didn’t threaten to sting her.

The one thing she could not tolerate were flies. She hated the way they buzzed around her head and how they blundered into the lamps at night. Flies carried disease and although it was contrary to everything she believed, it was expedient that they were eradicated.

Swatting them improved her reflexes and helped her to become a champion tennis player.

(139 words)

19 comments:

  1. I agree with Felicity. Even that picture of the fly made me gag. :)

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  2. I hate flies too! EW! I'm glad they helped Felicity improve her tennis. Way to go! :)

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  3. A fly swat is so much easier to wield than a tennis racquet!♥

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  4. Very logical "Goulash" lol ! I don't like flies either, this year it's OK, but sometimes we have real invasions. I liked flies on my grandpa's bald head, when he slept I took my Grandma's fly flap to kill them. Poor Grandpa woke up of course. I have to admit that I was about 4 or 5 !

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  5. I can just see Felicity swatting those flies! :)

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  6. Nature red in tooth and claw ideed! But now I know how to win Wimbledon!

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  7. I kind of agree with Felicity! LOL

    I really like the first's take on the picture.

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  8. Hi J.B. ~~ Wonderful stories from you tonight. I love Felicity and the tennis player's exercise.
    I wonder if she has to stand up to do that swatting?
    ..

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  9. I loved your first take and laughed at your second! I can't stand flies either...

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  10. Both of these were quite entertaining. The first was a succinct description of the food chain and the second had a surprising, funny and ironic ending! Great job!

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  11. I was waiting for her to purr ...

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  12. I'm with Felicity on that one! I like your ending - who'd have thought fly swatting could lead to being a champion tennis player!

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  13. Enjoyed this very much. The laugh at the end was a bonus.

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  14. Hehehe. You even managed to include tennis! Loved them both.

    Ellie Garratt

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  15. Your line up of critters in the first is terrific, and allowed a natural progression of thought there. And the second went along so nicely descriptive, and then you got me at the end. Funny!

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  16. Ha! The biter bit! Great offering :)

    :Dom

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  17. How clever of you to do two pieces! They're both excellent, though I particularly liked the first. Life can indeed be brutal...LOL!

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  18. I like the circle of life perspective in your flash fiction. The longer one was good, too. I'm not a fan of flies, either, especially fruit flies. But, the cats love them!

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  19. i sure wish that swatting flies would fix my racquet sports!

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