Summer Drabbles 2014

Below are the responses to Flash Jabs summer Drabble challenge. A drabble is a story that is exactly 100 words (not including the title.) Each drabble was based on the same photograph.

Shadows

Birthday Afternoon Dilemma

Colin’s shadow mirrored his movement as he passed the decaying wall. 
It reminded him of another, seven hundred miles away. His cousin and best friend's 
names were etched in its shiny black granite. What was it about walls anyhow? 
Did they keep you in or keep the world out?

He shrugged; it was too complicated for him to figure out. 
This was his daughter's birthday and if he was late, Norma would squeeze him for extra support as usual. 

No way did he want to disappoint a three year old. He waved goodbye to his shadow and hurried on.

-John Clark

Senior Games

We sat on the porch of Harmony House rocking, and drinking iced tea. Bertram
pointed to a shadow on the wall across the street and said, "Like clouds,
you can see different things in shadows.

 "Let's try the shadow behind that man at the bus stop."

I said okay; the others thought it was silly.

Bertram said. "It's a man carrying a box with an arrow through his neck."

Before I could go the man fell over and I could see someone had shot an
arrow through his neck.

"Good guess," Bertram said, backing into the home with a bow.

-Paul Beckman

Hot Summer Nights

I had a wife named Maria.  Our red sedan entered the intersection on green.  Robert Green was drunk.  His blue pickup entered the intersection on red.  Maria died that hot summer night.  Robert Green went to prison.  I went to a different kind of prison.  Robert Green educated himself.  I intoxicated myself.  Robert Green was paroled and found a wife named Sarah.  I had a wife named Maria.  On a hot summer night, Robert Green left his window unlocked.  The shades were drawn and my silhouette materialized among the shadows of branches.  Now Robert Green has no wife named Sarah.

- Morgan Boyd


Untitled 

Raymond Brown's friends had disappeared and he was walking alone now with his head down, dragging his heavy sack behind him. Raising his eyes, he peered at a sudden gigantic shadow which stretched across the street and climbed half-way up the back of a house. How menacing that dark figure looked. He grabbed his phone and snapped a picture. Checking the photo, a big smile spread across his face. How menacing that dark figure looked. Wait until everybody saw all his candy, and the awesome shadow which made his Batman costume look ten feet tall. This was going to be the best Halloween ever!   

-Al Parrot

The Colour of Shadows 

The boy wonders what it would be like if shadows had colour. Would angry shadows be red? Happy shadows yellow? Would a shadow cast in spring be fresh and green? He forgets himself for a moment and smiles.

His father’s shadow looms up the wall, crisper in sunlight. The boy does not need to see the restraints to know they are there. 

‘Come out come out wherever you are, I can see you.’ Father’s voice echoes off the brickwork. The boy’s smile dries, sticks his upper lip to his teeth.

If shadows had colour his father’s would still be black. 

-Lucy Cameron