copyright-claire-fuller
“WHO DID THIS?!”, Father bellowed, pointing to the heart on his nearly finished work.
I thought it was beautiful… that it’s what the man in the statue needed…
Father’s face was distorted with rage, enough to make the four year old me sob hysterically.
“I FEED AND CLOTHE YOU UNGRATEFUL LOUTS AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME…”
I closed my eyes, anticipating the familiar pain of his riding crop…
It never touched me.
I opened my eyes to see Mother clutching the sculpture, her eyes wild.
Father lay limp on the ground, his head creating a crimson pool.
The Eclectic Eccentric 
Oh oh…nicely told
thank you 🙂
Ouch! Now there’s a mom with “clout”. I wonder how many times she’d experienced his riding crop. I hope the jury will let her off. Kudos on a sensitive story, KZ.
Shalom,
Rochelle
i hope they ran away and got away with it 🙂 thank you
Nice. I loved it kz.
thank you 🙂 glad you did
I love this! A very innovative use of the prompt – literally.
haha yeah ^^ thanks 🙂 and thanks for the photo
now there’s a man with his priorities out of whack. (I didn’t write that with a pun intended, but I’m not going to change it now. 🙂 ) It’s a great use of the sculpture and the heart both.
haha your comment made me smile. glad you didn’t change it. thanks ^^
Sheer utter brilliance – it doesn’t matter if you like the story r not, it is told with such vivid imagery, and that extra key ingredient, use of rhythm/timing and pacing, that it is an example of great story telling – but I did like it, very much.
ah but this one i do like ^^ thank you so much
Never mess with a mother who trys to protect her children.
so true. thank you for reading an commenting ^^
Ohhhh YIKES, KZ!!! Super job. Your writing continues to grow … keep going!!!! You’re doing great!
thank you 🙂 i believe joining friday fictioneers has helped me a lot
I actually can see that it has. Good for you!
What goes around…
oh yes 🙂 thanks
It’s true–two heads are better than one. 🙂 The timeless story of a mother protecting her children against anyone but told in a very fresh and readable way!
janet
oh, good one here. gotta love that Mama!
Ah! never underestimate mother’s love.. Loved your story, Kz.. Good job! 🙂
Nicely done, and unexpected ending.
An unusual take on the prompt but an honest one. Well told.
Very intense!
Can a nice artwork like that come from such a brutal man?
I think it can, it’s a strange world we live in.
Well done!
As an artist I’ve often wondered about this very thing, in studying the lives of ‘great’ artists. I cite 20th century artist Eric Gill as an example.
Good for mom. Good story.
I’m so impressed with the imagination in this community. But this is simply mindblowing.
Very powerful message about what is valuable in our lives, very nicely written.
thanks so much, Keith 🙂
I was wondering if it was plausible that the mother could lift this sculpture and that perhaps something else had happened to cause the ‘crimson pool’. She might have been clutching the heads as they sat on the bench. Then, a mother protecting her children, children not strangers to the father’s brutality. The rage of ‘one last straw’ can I think empower a person with immense physical strength. Pushed over the edge into a moment of utter madness. So the story offers up two roads for me. I like mystery!
I thought she was going to threaten breaking his beloved statue. Not his beloved skull!
He had broke the mother’s heart years ago so she broke his head…Fair enough. Good job.
Tom
Whoa, wasn’t expecting that ending! Awesome job 🙂
Dear Kz,
A lovely ending, though gruesome. Pefect for your story and the prompt.
Aloha,
Doug
Clever – and nicely told 🙂
I shoulda seen that coming…good!
Scott
Mine: http://kindredspirit23.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/3636/
The little girl had a heart to share. Her father did not, so her mother ended his abuse. Murder is murder, but sometimes it is a lesser evil. Nice work kz.
Hi K.Z.,
It seems we found similar uses for the sculpture in our stories, though they are very different. Great story of family conflict. Ron
Truly and unexpected end. The child believed that the dad needed more love, just as his or her father did. The sculpture may have been destroyed but the child now has a brand new picture that will be in his or her memory. Sad but it does happen.
Well, THAT’s going to show up in every biography of the great artist! Seriously, I like the way this story builds from an innocent childish scribble to the shock at the end, and the way you made use of the whole picture.
Oh my. Good ole Mom. Nice job.
Whoa! I didn’t see that coming; ha, and neither did he! 😉
I like the idea here – you might see a few echoes in mine, although I promise I hadn’t read any of the others before I wrote it.
If I can offer one crit – I’d have liked a slightly subtly key to the narrator’s age: “four year old me” seems a little expository. Maybe you could have mentioned something else to indicate a young age – crayola, perhaps? Or something in the narrator’s language.
Just a suggestion, the last few lines are a great reveal from the POV of an adult looking back.
An entertaining tale of a true face off!
face off — i like the sound of that 🙂 thanks for droppin by ^^
what an ending! very well done, kz
ouch! killed by his own art! well done.
Wow, you are great at finding a twist, I had this image of a slight grumpy father who had paid a lot for a sculpture, as a child most of us had crayoned somewhere we shouldn’t have! I thought the mother had picked the sculpture up to keep it safe, so the ending hit me fast! How rose tinted my view was!
thank you, that’s very kind 🙂 haha rose-tinted optimistic views are great
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