Friday Fictioneers for March 7.
The challenge: Write a 100-word story inspired by the photo prompt.
Play along by writing your own, reading others and/or commenting on the flashes we fictioneers create.
My piece weighs in this week at exactly 100 words.
Copyright Adam Ickes
Flavors
Missy’s aunt always bought her an ice cream during their afternoons on the boardwalk. Each time, Missy chose vanilla. The man behind the counter offered samples of his new offerings. Missy politely tried them and then ordered her usual.
Aunt Joy used to encourage Missy to order something new. She stubbornly refused.
When Missy was 14, Aunt Joy moved away. On the afternoon that she left, Missy wandered the boardwalk alone. At the ice cream stand, she purchased blood orange ice cream, the color of the canopy under which she and her aunt used to relax. Sometimes change is good.
Being MG 
Love this. Great job!
Thank you!
Nice illustration of one of the things, large or small, that starts us in a new direction.
janet
Thank you, Janet!
MG
This very lovely, with a perfect last line.
Thanks so much. 🙂
I’m simultaneously moved and hungry. Good stuff.
I’ve been searching the house for ice cream all afternoon since I came up with this story. None to be found. 😦
MG
a lovely last line. change and variety is definitely good.
and now i’m off to get some ice cream 🙂
I just called my wife to tell her she needs to bring some to me. 🙂
I could really go for some ice cream now… wonder if there is any in the freezer.
Hehe! It looks as though I’ve created a craving across Friday Fictioneers this week.
Cheers!
MG
Enjoyed this, a well crafted allegory.
Thank you. 🙂
A beautifully written story, MG. I hope she told her Aunt what she did; she’d be touched.
I hope so too, Karen.
MG
Judging from the comments, you woke up a craving not only for ice cream but for change!
So it would seem. Thanks for reading.
Cheers!
MG
Oh I could go for some vanilla right now. Great story!
Always happy to support the dairy industry. 🙂
And, thanks!
Cheers!
MG
Dear Marie Gail,
My story seems to have set off a craving for Girl Scout cookies. Maybe we should join for ice cream and cookies. 😉
You’ve dished up a nice serving of story and topped it with a dollop of poignance.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Thank you so much, dear Rochelle. When I saw this picture, I just had to write about ice cream. 🙂 How about setting up a stand at the Truman Festival this year? Maybe we can sell books along with the ice cream and cookies. 🙂
Peace,
MG
Good story. It was written so well it made a lot of people hungry for ice cream. Since reading Rochelle’s comment, I’m now hungry for both ice cream and Girl Scout cookies.
Thanks, Patricia. 🙂
Interesting bit of catharsis for Missy — allowing that change, paralleling her Aunt’s departure. Nicely done, darling.
Thanks!
A lovely way to mark change
I find that often a forced change becomes the catalyst for voluntary changes that also need to be made. Thanks for reading.
MG
Very sweet.
Thanks, Dawn.
I like that the aunt and niece were both determined to influence the other.
I hadn’t thought of that. Yes, I suppose they were. Thanks for your insight.
Cheers!
MG
Yes,change is good at times and your story says it so well Marie :-)Loved the contrast of a vanilla to the blood orange ice cream that Missy chose at the end.
Thank you. The blood orange flavor was inspired by the color of the canopy in the picture, but it is a radical change from vanilla.
Cheers!
MG
That it is 😀
I decided to take this challenge and share it with you because I loved what you did with it. I love the challenge of brevity…especially as one who is prone to using 50 words when 5 will do. I am enjoying your blog immensely! Mine is exactly 100 words, too. Thanks again for following and for your encouraging words.
—
When I was a child, the bridge from our house to Pappy’s seemed to go on forever. It crossed over a rather narrow brook and extended through field past the tall corn.
The older I got, the less daunting the bridge became. It was my gateway to joy, serenaded by the water rubbing the rocks and kissing the bank below.
Years had passed when word came that Pappy fell ill. Sorrow extended the bridge once more. On the day he died, the bridge was miles long and the water stopped sounding kind. And that’s the way it remains still.
—
Wes
Wes, you moved me to tears with this. Please do join us. I’d love to have another friend in the Fictioneers group. Did you find the link to Rochelle’s blog and the LinkUp? I definitely think you should post this on your blog and link it. 🙂
So happy to see you here.
All my best,
MG
Sometimes change is good, but sometimes something has to change around us for us to be able to make a change. I love the idea of blood orange ice-cream – definitely an improvement on vanilla.
Thanks, Sarah Ann!
Marie Gail
What a nice, poignant story and that flavor of ice cream sounds delicious. My husband likes plain vanilla, but every once in a while he will choose a weird combination. Me? I like chocolate. Great story, Thanks, Nan
Thanks, Nan. I’m partial to chocolate too. 🙂
Nice. Great job with succinct number of words that pack just the right punch. I like how it isn’t clear whether or not the girl is celebrating that her aunt is gone or whether she is feeling brave in memory of her aunt. Just enough of a tease to get our imaginations to fill in the blanks.
Thanks!