When Winter Comes - Micro-fiction
Hello friends! Here is my #fiftywords short story for this week's prompt, "snowflake."
Something surprising happened as I was writing this story and finding images. I'll share that after the story.
When Winter Comes
Hilde took her daughter’s hand. They trudged on. They had come to gather wild mushrooms — buttons, chanterelles — a few for their simple meals, a few to sell at the market.
But their baskets were empty.
Winter was coming too soon.
The temperature dropped. And snowflakes fell — slow and menacingly silent.
For a bit of backstory, I will share what I was trying to convey. Also, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I want to share something surprising that happened.
I was trying to convey how something as lovely and soft and amazing as a snowflake can be menacing in certain contexts. Snowflakes are so delightful when you have food and warmth at your disposal, and dangerous when those things are scarce, or you are dependent on the land for food. I love writing stories based on prompts that could go in many different directions, depending on the imagination of the writer, as my regular Fifty Word Short Story Challenge participants will tell you.
The surprising thing was that the two images above came from two different photographers who post their photos for creative commons use on Pixabay. The first one is by biancamentil and the second one is by Nick_H.
These pictures are of the exact same bench, taken from the exact same angle, right? Do you think the photographers separately captured this bench in different conditions? Or do you think the second one doctored the image from the first, digitally turning fall into winter?
Thanks for reading, friends!
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://jaynalocke.com/2018/11/29/when-winter-comes-micro-fiction/
Lovely piece of writing @jayna
As for the photos, I think it's impossible to get these two photos this exact, especially by different people presumably on different days.
I think the snow was added (very expertly wow!).. but every single branch and twig is in the exact same place! Things would move around a bit, especially if it's snowing. Also there is one piece of evidence that stood out straight away to me that proves it's doctored.. it was the FIRST thing I saw haha. That's probably because of how many photos I take.
Thank you for the compliment, @adetorrent. And thank you for the forensics work! Brilliant! Yes, I had come to that conclusion too, that the sameness of the shapes and directions of branches and twigs make it clear that the photos are one and the same. But you found the exact evidence. Good work!
Hi, @jayna. Thanks for keeping this space open and taken care of :)
I loved the delicate darkness of this tale:
Smart write!
And I think the original picture is the first one :)
Thank you so much, @marlyncabrera! I do love the power and beauty of words.
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STOPNice story, @jayna. Something so beautiful and delicate as snowflakes can have a different significance when it comes of surviving.
It must be horrible for a mother to know she cannot provide for her children.
Ooo, a slightly dark angle from @jayna. I like this. After spending Thanksgiving up in WI last week, and enduring the menacing cold (and lack of beautiful snowfall), I certainly was glad to be inside a warm(ish) house then and a warmer climate now.
For those pics...the snow pic was a doctor of the autumn pic. Still...assuming the bench had a view of something reasonable, I wouldn't mind sitting there for a brief respite if I was fully bundled up with only my eyes exposed. Assuming I wasn't lost in the forest or something at the time...
Thanks for reading and commenting on my story, @negativer! That was my thought too, about the image. I found the snow one first, and then the other one. I was so amazed at seeing the same bench, same location, same everything, but by two different photographers in two different seasons.
You just missed the snow here. We got fresh powder last night, and there's more coming this weekend!
p.s. Sorry for the pathetic vote. 30% for me shows up as a big fat zero. I'm possibly a bit over-delegated. :-)
Hey, @jayna!
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Thanks for reading and commenting, @roxy-cat! Yes, agreed. I want every family and every child to have enough. With all the intelligent scientists and caring charity organizations in the world, you’d think we could solve this.
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