Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge & Fandango Story Starter # 3 – Mars Landing

Fandango is the host of Fandango Flash Fiction and Fandango Story Starter

Welcome to Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.

The photo below is from the Google Photo Frame.For the visually challenged writer, the photo is of barren and weathered rocky landscape featuring a large stone arch.

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Alan took a deep breath and opened the hatch. It opened with a loud whoosh. He checked his instruments. The gravity was the same as on earth. The readings were showing air as breathable but of poor quality.

He decided to keep his oxygen gear on. He hesitantly step on the red soil. It felt firm under his feet. Suddenly he felt jubilant! He was standing on Mars. The first human to do so.

He thought, I’d imagined this moment so many times, but I never expected to feel like this.

Something felt off. The gravity should have been lesser than earth. The atmosphere should have been scarce. What has happened? Did the navigation system malfunctioned?

He looked around at the eerily red rocky landscape. It surely looked like Mars.

There was a vibration in his pocket. He felt and brought out his cell phone. It was showing full signal strength. That was very odd. The number displayed was unknown. He clicked to answer the call…..

It was a wrong number.

Alan was confused. He went back inside the shuttle. And re-checked the position of his craft.

The map showed his location in the gobi desert.

He had landed back on earth. Never made it to the Mars!

“Honey! Time to get up, our you’ll be late for office!”

Oh thank God, it was just a dream. He thought. Time to get ready for his first solo flight.

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#Keepitalive

#FFFC

#FSS

Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge-

Fandango is the host of Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge

Welcome to “Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.”

The photo below is from Nicolae_Balt at Pixabay.com.

For the visually challenged writer, the photo shows two men in a field on a windy day attempting to inflate a hot air balloon.

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“Hurry up, will you. All the balloons are already up in the air”

“It’s not up to me, this blasted gas cylinder is broken. The flame goes sideways and the air is not heating up to rise the balloon”

“I want to win this race, whatever the cost!”

“You don’t mean to…….. I don’t think that’s a good idea!”

“I have no choice, do I?”

Merlin waved his wand clandestinely and the balloon was up right and ready to rise. What he failed to realize that these weren’t the medieval times. It was the 21st century.

There were several clicks of mobile phone around them. Within moments, the pictures were all over the internet. Merlin had to forge his own death. And he was put on probation from the wizarding council for public display of magic!

#Keepitalive

#FFFC

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #113 – The masterpiece

Fandango is the host of Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge

Welcome to “Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.”

The image below is from the Google Photo Frame.For the visually challenged writer, the image shows two women on a small rocky island in calm waters at early sunset with tall mountains in the background.

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“This is beautiful Sheri”

“I had no idea that you are so good!”

Sheri smiled with pleasure. It was a joy to hear such praise from her fellow art student.

“Thank you, Jim, the scene was inspiring and I chose the right medium. I think this new technique is wonderful, layering the image with painting” She said with a question in her tone.

Jim nodded in agreement. “This looks like a painting, yet you didn’t have to spend hours or days working at it”

“I think you have a talent for this technique and can make a career out of it”

“By the way, who were your models?” He asked casually.

Oh, there were a couple of women, exploring the island. I asked if I could take a picture and they agreed, why?

“Oh nothing, just asking”, said Jim

Leaving Sheri’s studio, Jim calls Rob, his best friend.

“I found your wife Rob. I can help you locate her!”

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#Keepitalive

#FFFC

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #113

Fandango is the host of Fandango Flash Fiction

Welcome to “Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.”

The painting below is by Edward Hopper.For the visually challenged writer, the painting shows a woman sitting at a table in a restaurant or diner. A man is sitting at an adjacent table and seems to be staring at her.

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He thought he knew her, she seemed familiar. But he couldn’t remember if he had actually met her or had seen her somewhere before.

As the waiter served her afternoon tea, he caught his eye. “Do you know who this lady is? ” He asked in an undertone.

“No sir, she is new here”, replied the man as he hurried away.

Meanwhile, the woman was joined by someone. And Jarred immediately knew him.

He quickly left some money on the table and walked away. It wasn’t safe for him to be seen by this man.

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#Keepitalive

#FFFC

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #112

Fandango is the Host of Fandango Flash Fiction

Welcome to “Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.”

The image below is from the Google Photo Frame.For the visually challenged writer, the photo shows two sets of parallel railroad tracks heading toward a pedestrian walkway that crosses over the tracks.

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Staying on track was very important for Mark. All eyes were on him and how he performed.

He had with great effort taken control of his life, which was previously getting away from him like a runaway train. No more drugs, no more wild parties, he had sworn off them and had cleaned up his act. He had to show his father that he was the responsible adult that he proclaimed.

After all, he had no desire to lose the family millions to strangers, which his father had threatened him of doing! In fact, he was enjoying the new lifestyle so much that it had become real for him, instead of the show that he had been putting on for his father.

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#Keepitalive

#FFFC

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #111

Fandango is the host of Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge

Welcome to “Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.”

The image below is from Celine Ylmz at Unsplash.For the visually challenged writer, the image shows a man with longish, gray hair wearing a brown trench coat standing in a bookstore.

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Books held a very strong attraction for him. The fact that new books were now too expensive for him, made buying many out of the question. But he still saved some money every week from his pension and would browse in the old book store near his home.

Cathy owned the store and noticed him standing by the display many times, only to go out without buying any books. She guessed that the price of even the used books may be out of his reach. She thought of a clever way of helping him.

“Hi!

Can I help you with anything”, she asked.

“No thanks I am just looking around”, replied the gentleman.

“You do know we have a lending system here as well. You can pay security of $5 and take two books home for reading, just like a library. When you are done, you can exchange them for more”

The light of happiness in his eyes made telling the fib worthwhile.

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#Keepitalive

#FFFC

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #107

Fandango is the host of Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge

Welcome to “Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.”

The image below is from Pixabay.com.For the visually challenged writer, the photo is of a human skull placed on top of an old book. To the left is an hourglass and to the right is a single smoldering candle in a glass candleholder.

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Studying human anatomy was taxing. There were 206 bones in the human body and they were not only required to learn their names but also their position in the body.

Mostly they used plastic models to study the bones but James had gotten hold of real bones from an unknown source and though it was more interesting to study from them, they all felt a bit discomforted when touching them. They all had tried to get James to spill the secret but he would just say that someone had given them to him.

The most intriguing was the skull. It rested on the thick anatomy book and appeared to stare at them from its empty sockets.

Years later they learned the secret of those bones when James was arrested and convicted of multiple murders.

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#FFFC

50 Words Thursday # 111

Kristian is the host of 50 Words Thursday

So its time for the latest 50 Word Thursday challenge.

So Today’s challenge:

The Rules:

Find the muse within the photo or line provided and follow where it leads. It can be a story, anecdote, poem. Anything!
The Story must be between 50 and 250 words, in 50 word increments. (so 50, 100, 150, 200 or 250 words)
Link back to this post with the tag 50WordThurs so that everyone can find it, or post your response in the comments below.

Here’s the picture:

And the words: “Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

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Jason wasn’t a patient man. He had read somewhere that Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule, but he wanted his vengeance now, as soon as possible.

Hiding behind the wall of one of the waterfront houses, he kept an eye on Pat’s movements. She was leaning lovingly on the arm of her boyfriend and was whispering something in his ear. His blood boiled. How dare she dump him and take up this Romeo, he thought. He could feel the bulge of his gun in his waistband. He will show them both who had the last laugh.

He silently withdrew his gun, checked that it was loaded, and aimed. He felt there was someone behind him and was poking him with a blunt object in his kidney area.

Jason hastily dropped the gun and turned around.

He was staring into the steely eyes of Pat’s boyfriend!

150 Words

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#Keepitalive

#50WordThurs

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #106

Fandango is the host of Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge

Welcome to “Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.”

The image below is from the Google Home Photo Frame.For the visually challenged writer, the photo is of a grassy plain of grazing bisons in the foreground with soaring, snow-covered mountain peaks in the distance.

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The heart of Mother was heavy

The savanna was wilting and turning dry

Animals in herds roaming to find fresh food and water

There was water and snow on top of the mountains

But nothing reached the dry parched Mother Earth

It was the fault of these interfering humans

Who had raised the temperature of the atmosphere

To a point that weather all over the planet had turned topsy turvy

One never could predict what revenge mother was planning

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#Keepitalive

#FFFC

One Minute Fiction- January 27 2021

Cranny is hosting this challenge

What’s the ”One Minute Fiction” challenge about?

Easy. Each week I’ll provide a prompt to inspire you to write a very short story. The idea is to manage to type your whole story in a minute or less. Of course, you can think about it before hitting the keyboard, and you can take all your time to edit it afterward…

Just make sure to tag your story with #1MinFiction, and create a pingback to my week’s challenge post, so I can easily find it!

So, here is this week’s picture;

IMG_20181029_185356_247

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He picked up the lunch from her favorite bistro and waited by the bridge where they often met.

She came but there was someone else with her and she didn’t even noticed him sitting there with lunch for two in front of him

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#Keepitalive

#1MinFiction

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