Short Fiction – Page 6 – Prolific Pulse Blog

From the first time he saw her he knew he must touch her curly hair, not a freakish kind of way, but the allure of the softness, the scent of herbal shampoo, drew him to her every day she sat in front of him in 8th grade, and she always had her hair pulled back with a ribbon, making it even more irresistable to tug on the tail, and he did.

Turning around to look at him, she was immediately taken in by his warm, brown eyes, and dark curly hair, and she smiled and so did he, and this begin a ritual every school day; which did not end after he gave her a note in the class, which she held in her nervous, damp hands and discreetly looked inside, only to have nosy students peeking to see what they could see; the note was an invitation to a dance at his church and, “Would you like to go with me to my church dance on Saturday night?” She turned and smiled and nodded, blushing even more than normal, which is to say it was often her cheeks glowed scarlet.

As time went by too quickly, they dated, danced many dances and then attended prom, for which she made a dress complete with a ribbon waste band, to keep the tradition, whether consciously or not, and it was not long before they graduated, wondering if they would go their separate ways or remain together.

As time would have it, there was not enough time at all as the resistance was set up in Viet Nam and young men, such as he was, were sent off to fight the war, and his time came when he went to serve, leaving her behind, tears flowing once he was boarded, so to put on a strong front; tucked away in his pocket was a yellow ribbon to remind him that she would be waiting for him when he returned.

Watching the news became her obsession as she could not resist knowing each and every bit of information about the war, not only was he in the war, her brother was also serving, and it was a very uncertain time; It was just about two years after he left when she received a phone call that there was someone she needed to pick up at the airport, and she ran to her car, drove to the airport and there he stood, holding her yellow ribbon in his hand, and she held their sweet daughter in her arms, pink ribbons in her hair, and asking, “Is that my daddy?”

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And that is my Six Sentence Story, why not give it a try? Just go here: Girlie on the Edge

Short Fiction, six sentence story

Swept Away

September 27, 2020September 27, 2020 Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

Swept Away

Dudley French was a mediocre salesman, working for the brush and broom company, known as Schwepp’s Brush and Broom. Not that it mattered since he was one of very few salespersons still left with the company. Thirty years of door to door selling were behind Dudley; and more and more sales were generated through the internet.

It was just the other day when Dudley was called into his boss’s office when he heard the words her would never forget.

In a volume so low, Dudley strained to hear, his boss, Sherman Schwepp, Jr. stated, “French you swept me away when you were young, but now I am giving you your final pay check, it’s time to retire.”

Dudley looked down and then up, took the broom and swept the office floor, smiled at his to be former boss, and said, “thank you for not firing me, and if you ever want to have coffee, just give me a call,” to which Schwepp nodded, his throat too full for him to speak.

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This is my Six Sentence Story for this week. Would you like to submit? Just go to:

Girlie on the Edge and take a look!

Short Fiction, short story

Math Problems

August 17, 2020 Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

Perry Jameson always thought his station in life was to follow in the footsteps of his father, an accountant. There was only one small problem, Perry did not understand math. His father sat with him poring over math homework, Perry, staring of the numbers, his father scratching his head, rubbing his eyes, tapping his pencil in frustration. Determined to use the old school methods of writing out the problems, Perry’s father insisted that Perry must get the answers correct and they spent numerous hours, often on weekends, too. Then, it occurred to Perry’s father, when he was working on a reconciliation of accounts, that Perry may not see the numbers in the same way as his father. When he got home from work, Perry’s father sat down with Perry and they worked closely, one number at a time, not working on problems, but writing down and reading numbers and using some tools he learned about in his research; gradually, Perry gained a better understanding about math and his father sighed many sighs of relief and was, frankly, more than embarrassed that it did not occur to him, as one of the rules of accounting is to check for transposition of numbers when errors indicated this, which was obvious, when using proper tools.

Transposition Errors

Teaching Math to Students with Dyslexia

And there you have it! This is my Six Sentence Story for the week. Would you like to join? Go to this link to get more information!

Short Fiction, short story

Glassblower’s COVID-19 Response

August 14, 2020 Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

Ever since the pandemic made its first creepy appearance, Curtis Genaldi could not comprehend how he would be able to usefully function in his career as a glassblower. While he was able to perform his art, it became clear that the need for beautiful glass objects, no matter how practical, would not be in demand. What he did know was that the need for medical products was one of the greatest needs anywhere he looked. Putting on his thinking cap, Curtis researched and sketched out some ideas on how he could be a help in these hard times and occupy himself, as well. After spending long, tiring hours hunched over his sketch pad, Curtis had a flash, like a light bulb over his moppy head. Calling up his support network, Curtis joined the ranks to create splitters for ventilators, helping coronavirus patients.

This story was inspired by this news report about a glassblower who helps with COVID-19 You can read the article HERE

And that’s my Six Sentence Story! Go HERE to join in and read the stories of others.

Short Fiction

Hole in One

July 24, 2020July 25, 2020 Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

Jiminy heard a crash coming from the front of the house; having a hunch, it was his friend, up to no good, he hopped up and checked. Sure enough, there stood the little boy with tears rolling down his cheeks. “I didn’t mean to knock it over,” Perry cried, “I was just practicing my putting and got carried away.”

“Well, look there, little man, there at the cup, in all the excitement, you made a successful putt.”

“Y-y-you mean you aren’t mad at me?”

“Aww it’s one of those things and you just clean up the vase and let’s call it a done deal.”

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There you have it! This is my Six Sentence Story for this week in response to the prompt work “Hunch.” Would you like to see what lovely stories to read this week? Go to this Link.