Evolution

This is my response to the Friday Fictioneers prompt for December 12. The challenge is to 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. The photo prompt this week comes from Sandra Crook.  My piece this week weighs in at 99 words.

Copyright Sandra Crook

Evolution

Everything changes over time. Given enough time, the changes can be radical.

These thoughts drift through Sonora’s mind as she steps from her cliff-side dwelling to view the rising water. Large rodents, descendants of something her great grandmother called a “beaver,” were building downstream. The beavers had used felled trees to create dams. These new creatures use bits of plastic, rocks, and metal as well as scraps of wood.

A thin cry coaxes Sonora back into her home. She bends over the cradle, caresses her baby’s face. Picking him up, she admires the three violet eyes blinking at her.

A Child Shall Lead Them

Welcome to Friday Fictioneers for October 24. Each week around 100 bloggers from around the globe play along as conducted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, who provides the photo prompt, which was captured this week by The Reclining Gentleman, and a bit of encouragement to those of us who live to write. The challenge is to compose a 100-word story inspired by the prompt. My story this week weighs in at exactly 100 words. So without further ado . . .

Copyright The Reclining Gentleman

A Child Shall Lead Them

Her entire life, Miranda had lived on the island, the only child in a community of aging castaways. Few islanders ever had children. Infertility was a side effect of the plague.

By Miranda’s tenth birthday, the community’s population had dwindled to a couple dozen. The radio in the meetinghouse squawked news of proposed hydroelectric developments that would flood the island. Most mainland dwellers believed the quarantined colony extinct.

When planes began buzzing over the island, the islanders hid until Miranda’s papa had an idea. Surely when the mainlanders saw a girl playing on the shore, they would reconsider the development.