Come along and join in with Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers. Rochelle asks that we use the photo prompt (©Jennifer Pendergrast) and limit our words to 100 or less. Click on the frog to read more stories.
Genre: Realism
Word Count: 100
A Venn Diagram Play
Mommy plays Lego with me
I’m four and she’s thirty-three
But I make up the games we play
And she does exactly what I say.
We share the firetruck and the fireman
He’s my Daddy and he’s her husband
I get Santa for a party favor on my birthday
She gets a candy for baking a cake so gay.
I get a funny-shaped red Lego piece
And save two for Daddy when he says, “Please.”
The red truck is outside my diagram
It’s for the children killed in Afghanistan
By an unmanned drone, they’re in no one’s Venn.
Don’t cry.
The Pentagon confirmed on November 3, 2021, that after the disastrously chaotic withdrawal of American troops which resulted in billions of dollars of military weaponry, hardware, and aircraft left behind as well as the suicide bombing of thirteen young American soldiers, three days later, it carried out a deadly drone strike that mistakenly killed ten innocent civilians on August 29: three Afghan adults and seven children.
This Jolly Beggar 
Wow! I didn’t see that twist coming. Powerful story, Dora
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Thank you so much, Neil.
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Well that was well written. Very good storytelling style, and a really original way of coming into the subject, so so clever. The unmanned drone error and lack of apology dums it all jpas far as I am concerned…the immense failures of intelligence behind the scenes while in the front lines the soldiers paid for it.
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Thank you so much, Ain. You express how I feel. Their arrogance and incompetence is damning.
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What a powerful piece of writing. Your ending is so poignant, and that addition, ‘Don’t cry’ – wow. You bring us to respond as you intend by telling us not to do it. I think this is an excellent story, Dora.
Pax
Penny
xx
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Thank you so much, Penny. What a waste of life!
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It started as such fun, before that serious turn, much like life I suppose. Another in a long line of atrocities in Afghanistan.
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That area of the world has been repeatedly ravaged through the centuries. This latest atrocity is all the more chilling done by someone sitting in an armchair operating from a screen. Adults playing “games.”
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Started off so light, I was smiling in that first paragraph, and then … Well done!
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Thank you so much, Trish.
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what a twist in the end. i didn’t expect it.
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This unjustifiable tragedy seems the ultimate mockery of a failed twenty-year campaign and ill-planned withdrawal. Horrific.
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This was a powerful write, Dora. Beautifully done. That right turn was so sharp, I got a kink in my neck!
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Oh no! 🙈 Thank you, Dale. These needless tragedies make the news and then are quickly forgotten, no one held to account. And so it goes on & on.
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Wow! Like everyone else, I was completely taken aback by the way this tender tale ended.
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Another reality intruded, alas, and I think kids pick up on a lot more than we think. Thanks, Keith.
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A lovely poem and a sad end, well done, Dora.
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Thank you, Mason.
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This was powerful poem, Dora and the ending was both unexpected and heartbreaking.
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Thank you so much, Adele. As I was writing. the tragedy overwhelmed me as it does us all. There’s only so much you can “sweep under the rug” of memory.
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Very sweet and then that tragic twist at the end.
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Thanks for reading, Ali.
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Dear Dora,
In an episode of MASH Hawkeye made one of the most profound statements when he said war in worse than Hell for in Hell there are no innocent bystanders. Powerful piece which as Dale said took a such a sharp turn it gave me whiplash. Well done!
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle,
Hawkeye could see right through things and never held back his contempt for the people running wars. They deserve the contempt. Sorry for the whiplash: must be more subtle next time. 🙂
Shalom u’vracha,
Dora
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So tragic!
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It is a haunting tragedy, as were all the casualties from that bungled withdrawal. Thanks for reading, Brenda!
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….and yes, you made the tears flow…
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It began so innocently, and devolved into multiple tragedies. Life. Please don’t cry.
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Truth.
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