Each week I participate in these Flash Fiction challenges, some are easily inspired, others not so much and I have to dig deep to find my words. This week the prompt is fruit.
To me, fruit is well just that, fruit. Something I buy a lot of at the grocery store and in exact even amounts because my kids love the stuff and are at the age where everything has to be equally divided or “that’s not fair”. (I detest these three little words.) And then if on the rare occasion, we have some that has over ripened, I am finding other ways to use it so it doesn’t go to waste. Just an FYI, my family is not too keen on orange bread.
So as far as fruit, it has never crossed my mind beyond the grocery store and then into my kitchen to be eaten. I do not think I have even included eating/cooking with fruit in any of my novels. Other foods, yes, never a fruit.
Reading some of the other participants, I must say that Irene’s, over at Reflections and Nightmare’s- Irene A Waters, flash was brilliant. Her description’s brought her story alive and then her twist at the end had me laughing in delight. Oh, how I love a good twist. But Irene had me thinking outside of the {fruit} box, and I learned something new about mango’s, that fruit isn’t always considered a desirable food.
This brings me to my flash…
The July 24, 2014 challenge from Carrot Ranch Communications was to: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that includes fruit. It can be mythological, metaphorical or realistic. Think of fruit as a way to create tension, add a twist or something unexpected to your story. Use it to define a character or make it her obsession. Is it abundant, absent or desired?
A Fine Line
The grudge had thrived for decades. No one understood what fueled it. No one dared ask. Some whisper it was a girl from childhood, others murmured it was a parent’s favoritism. Fools they all were, for this bitter dispute was rooted within the ground.
A lonely apple tree perched high on a hill, dividing two property lines. The land left behind by a father to his two sons.
The brothers planted two seeds, only one of which grew tall. Each year they fought over whose tree the fruit fell from. Then, who would get the first crisp, juicy bite?
So how’d I do?
~AJP