Friday, October 14, 2011

Grandmother's Picture

This is a photo prompt for the 100-words Flash #FridayFictioneers. If you would like to join us, come to http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com/ and try your hand. It truly is a lot of fun.


Grandmother's Picture

The ornately framed picture hung predominately on grandma’s wall for years, while smaller pictures of her grandchildren hung, like an afterthought, around the over-sized eyesore.

Grandma noticed me studying it with a critical eye.

“Lovely, isn’t it?” she said with a smile.

I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but lovely did not come to mind.

Dark. Gloomy. Despair. Decay.

Her eyes roved tenderly over the framed picture and I could have sworn I saw a light
glow faintly from one of the doors.

 “Soon, my dear George.” she whispered her late husband’s name. “I will be there soon.”

9 comments:

  1. Interesting, how you turned the image into an actual prop in your story. I'm not sure I've seen any of the Fictioneers do that before!

    Also, the last line makes me wonder what Grandma really meant by those words...

    (Side note: I also like how the image goes well with your blog's background. Hehe.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ooohh, I like the magic in the picture, the light beckoning Grandmother home. :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Mahjira,

    This was well done. Placing the picture on the wall was a bit of genius. Freed you up to go in a lot of directions with your story. Good for you.

    Aloha,

    Doug

    ReplyDelete
  5. You captured the last remnants of a perhaps long standing touchy relationship between the family and the loss of the grandfather, was it something supernatural she was hinting at or was it her growing old and knowing/wishing her time was near to be with her husband? Everyone I'm sure has experienced something similar.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Creepy old pictures that come to life. Definitely the stuff Stephen King is made of - which for me makes it VERY good! :)

    Nicely done

    ReplyDelete
  7. I thought this very well-written and the idea of using the picture as a *picture* on the wall was a great idea!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wonderful.

    "a critical eye" meant that when she started talking we took her seriously. Nicely done.

    Robin

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mm. I agree with Madison that making the inspiration image an active object -- the picture -- is really original. And the dialogue is refreshing. Thanks for writing!

    ReplyDelete