Category: Monday Finish The Story

Green Mountain B&B

This post is written for Mondays Finish the Story. This is a unique flash fiction challenge where we are provided with a new photo each week, and the first sentence of a story. Our challenge is to finish the story using 100-150 words, not including the sentence provided which is in bold below. My story follows the picture prompt. Enjoy!

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© 2015, Barbara W. Beacham

From her small balcony, the witch watched the world go by.

The “witch” as we called her was actually Mrs. Wojtowicz. Mrs. Wojtowicz and her husband Horst had run a small bed and breakfast in this small town in Vermont for twenty three years before Horst passed away last winter.

Guest had to book rooms a year in advance at The Green Mountain B&B. Mrs. W. did all the cooking and a local village girl, a different one every year (Mrs. W. insisted a new one would have the opportunity every summer), would help with the household chores. Horst took care of everything else. The days were long in the summer in the north east kingdom and after an exhausting day Mrs W. would retire to the upstairs balcony and rock in her chair with Horst beside her.

Mrs. W. closed the business after Horst died last year.  She spent every day of that first summer after that on that little balcony.

She now resides in Clearwater Florida. Horst never liked the heat.

The Merry Go ‘Round

This story is written in response to Mondays Finish the Story. 

This is a unique flash fiction challenge where we are provided with a new photo each week, and the first sentence of a story. Our challenge is to finish the story using 100-150 words, not including the sentence provided (in bold below). My story follows the picture prompt. Enjoy!

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© 2015, Marcy B. Ayanian

As her mount shifted uneasily under her, she grasped the brim of her old felt Stetson, gazed upwards and remembered Jean Pierre.

She had led the sheltered life and she knew it. Her father, the US Ambassador to France, had made sure she had everything she needed or wanted. Her mother, the CEO of a famous magazine, was never around the mansion.

Jean Pierre, the butler of the household, was her best friend. Because of her family she never had any girlfriends. None was allowed beyond the gates that protected the Ambassador’s residence.  He was her educator and the one who would tell her stories about real people and how they lived.

She hated when her family had to return to their home in Texas. They returned without Jean.

It had now been over a year since her return. Her father, trying to help with her depression, had bought her a Stetson hat to try and help her forget Jean. She wore the hat every day. The family was getting concerned with her obsession.

Every morning she got on the Merry Go-‘Round that her father had purchased for her and wave it over her head in remembrance of her time in France.

 

 

Bruce and Will

This post is written for Mondays Finish The Story. This is a unique flash fiction challenge where we are provide with a new photo each week, and the first sentence of a story. Our challenge is to finish the story using 100-150 words and using the first sentence in bold below.

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© 2015, Barbara W. Beacham

The Mayor and the town manager waved as their next victim approached.

Well they weren’t really victims.

The couple approaching was there to get married.

Jack, the town manager and local minister, always preformed the ceremony, and Matt, the Mayor of Sherman Montana was always the witness. Together they had performed over 146 marriages over the years.

As Bruce and Will approached they were a bit apprehensive about how they would be received in this part of the country. After all they reasoned that gay marriages were not a very common event here.

The event went off without a hitch. As Bruce and Will were leaving both the mayor and pastor wished them well.

“We wish you both happiness in your future together. May you be together as long as we have. We celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary tomorrow.”

The Big Blow

This post is written for Mondays Finish The Story Challenge.  This is a unique flash fiction challenge where we are provided with a new photo each week, and the first sentence of a story. Our challenge is to finish the story using 100-150 words. My story follows the picture prompt below. Other stories can be found by clicking on the link at the end of this post. Enjoy! 2015-06-22-bw-beacham “Hey boys, how ’bout y’all makin’ yer Ma some wind chimes?”

He always hated it when his mother talked like that. After all she was a college graduate.

Now she was out in Santa Fe, New Mexico at some old style hippie ranch trying her best to fit in with the locals. She was claiming she was from small town in Mississippi when she was actually from Scarsdale.

He knew why is mother needed those wind chimes. It would serve as a notice to would be visitors that dinner was over and that she was getting ready to let go with a big wind of her own. “Look out boys, those wind chimes are about to start  a little dance of their own. Wee doggies that sure feels good. Everybody be better off getting up wind of me right now.” God he hated it when his mother talked like that.     http://new.inlinkz.com/view.php?id=536225

Wanted! More Thunderbolts

This post is written for Mondays Finish The Story. The challenge is to finish the story using 100-150 words, not including the sentence provided in bold below. My story follows the picture prompt. Other stories can be found by clicking on the link at the end of this post.

Zeus was not having a good day and he made sure everyone knew it.

That lightning bolt? That was just the beginning. There would be more, much more to follow. His life was spinning out of control by the minute.

Married to Hera was becoming more than he could bear. Her constant nagging. Always asking him to help out around the clouds more and more. She’s not leaving that’s for sure. Not on her own anyway.

After all I am the King of Gods. All other Gods rise in my presence. Even the Gods that are not my children addressed me as “Father.” But even they are getting to be a royal pain. All the other Gods want is their entertainment. I keep getting them mixed up anyway.

And our daughter, Aphrodite, now there was a serious problem. Even for me with my  many erotic escapades, her many amorous adventures put me to shame even after I arranged to marry her off to that ugly Hephaestus for a heavenly profit. How horrible to be known as the father of the goddess of procreation. Yikes!

I need to slow down or I’ll work myself to death. Ha!

What I really need are more thunderbolts!

http://new.inlinkz.com/view.php?id=53389

The Daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys.

Submitted for Mondays Finish the Story.

Finish the story begins with:  “Arriving at the beach, she reflected on her life.”

© 2015, Barbara W. Beacham

Arriving at the beach, she reflected on her life.

She liked this beach. She liked to sit here and comb her long blond hair and sing. She unfolded her fins and spread her tail to dry.

Looking in her mirror she could see the ship slowing sinking. Not all were dead. Yet! She had  a few more to lure to their new underwater world. She had the power to charm, by her song, the remaining mariners who would  be irresistibly impelled to cast themselves into the sea.

She would follow these young men beneath the waves. Here they would live in an enchanted state. Merrow music would be heard coming  from beneath the waves.

Never would she hear the words that were said about her sister.

I love the girl with all me heart

But I only like the upper part

I do not like the tail

 

Enemy Destroyed — Finish The Story

Written  for Mondays Finish The Story. this is a flash fiction challenge where we are provided with a new photo each week, and the first sentence of a story. The challenge is to finish the story using 100-150 words, not including the sentence provided.

Finish the story begins with:   “Silently as the people watched, the black hawk helicopter lifted into the air.”

My story begins after the photo. For other interpretations of  the challenge just click on the blue frog at the end of this post.

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Silently as the people watched, the black hawk helicopter lifted into the air.

“Mission accomplished Sir,” the voice came over the headset in commander Henderson’s helmet.

Henderson had been chosen for this mission based on his extensive  background in these type of tight operations. Over  twenty years in the field had prepared him for this dangerous job. He was the right man in the  right  time and it definitely was the right place.

He had been pitted  against the largest army the enemy  had to offer. The invasion force alone totaled over 10,000. All  tactics up to  that point had been a huge disappointment. Recon images showed the enemy had been hiding in underground caverns in the desert. But they were on the move now.

His black hawk held 16 Hellfire missiles. After firing only four of them the enemy was totally destroyed.

Smiling with satisfaction he  turned to  his co-pilot  and remarked, “Toughest bunch  of fire ants I’ve ever encountered.”

 

 

 

Water Therapy

Written for Mondays Finish The Story. For other stories click on the little blue box at the end of this post. My story follows the picture. Enjoy!

2014-12-08 - BW Beacham

Donning her fins and snorkel, she headed out into the deep water. She had practiced for this day for over three months with her husband Gary. It was all part of her therapy. All her life she had been afraid being in the water. Her therapist had suggested, and David agreed, that she should start out slowly to gain confidence over her fear of water.

Her fear of water not only included deep water but swimming pools and bathtubs. She knew she had a serious problem when she realized she was afraid of even entering the water and sometimes even to look at a large body of water filled her with fear. Aquaphobia her therapist called it.

 She never took ocean cruises with her friends. Once, she had worked up  her nerve and gone white water rafting with Gary. That experience set her back about two years she thought.

Her hope was that if she was able to overcome this phobia her crumbling marriage had a chance of being saved. David had been a saint in getting to this point. He had promised to keep the boat nearby so if she became anxious she could return to the safety of the boat.

Her confidence was high as she turned and looked for Gary and the boat. All she saw as open water.

Finish The Story — Picture This

In response to Mondays Finish The Story.

this is a flash fiction challenge where you will be provided with a new photo each week, and the first sentence of a story. Your challenge is to finish the story using 100-150 words, not including the sentence provided.

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The people waved at him from the bridge below. Actually he knew they were not really waving at him but at someone else. The lady with the camera and her little one in a harness on her chest was probably taking a picture of her husband who must be somewhere to his left high up here on the upper bridge above the fast flowing creek. The other mom and her little girl were also waving at someone who meant a lot to them.

Very few people knew he even existed. He had no family or close friends. Just himself, and he didn’t like what he saw.

No picture of him would be taken. He hated that the little girls would be witness to his final act. The water looked cold, the rocks looked sharp and hard. Perhaps if he yelled just before he jumped she could, if she was very quick, capture his last moments. She could even win a prize for her photo. He could  live with that.

 

 

 

 

Mondays Finish The Story — Hanalei Bay

Mondays Finish The Story

This is a flash fiction challenge where you will be provided with a new photo each week, and the first sentence of a story. Your challenge is to finish the story using 100-150 words, not including the sentence provided.

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The team headed toward the island not sure what they would find when they arrived.

The invasion of Hanalei Bay had started at 0700 hours on November 3, 1961. The elite rescue team consisted of eight highly trained military personnel in four F470 Zodiac CRRC (Combat Ready Raiding Craft) rafts lead by Skipper Jonas Grumbly. Their mission was to rescue the five passengers of a private yacht named the “S.S. Minnow.” Aboard the yacht, under the witness protection program, was a Professor Xia Wong.

Professor Wong had spoken out about the Communist Party’s efforts to tighten controls on public discourse and squelch discussion of democratic values.

“I’ve got a visual on Professor Wong,” First Mate Krebs yelled over the loud sounds of the heavy waves.

“Describe the situation First Mate.”

“Well Sir, he’s sitting at a long dining table with three other guest and being served by two very attractive girls. And Sir, he’s waving at us.”

“Does he look distressed First Mate?”

“Actually Sir, he’s waving for us to go away!”