Microfiction #Friday Fictioneers: Home

A little 99 word writing exercise to kick off the day. This is for Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers.

Photo courtesy of CEAyr

ceayr2

“Volcanic, I’d say.” He ran a proprietorial hand around the mouth of one of the holes, as if the rock was an egg he had just laid. “Would have been full of poisonous gases…or something.”

She reached out, touched the edge of the hole. “Sharp. Like it’s just been…” She dipped a finger in the glittering stone dust that lay inside and hesitantly put her ear to the rock. She straightened abruptly, grabbed his hand and turned, braced to run.

“What’s up?” He stood his ground, obstinately.

“Not gas bubbles. Teeth. And the chewer’s still in there!”

 

 

Published by

Jane Dougherty

I used to do lots of things I didn't much enjoy. Now I am officially a writer. It's what I always wanted to be.

90 thoughts on “Microfiction #Friday Fictioneers: Home”

  3. ‘Proprietorial’ you say – I’ll endeavour to use that in conversation…

    A great little grotesquery!

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  6. That’ll teach him not to mansplain! (Well, it probably won’t, but we can always hope) . Those circular pits are intriguing, aren’t they? And you gave us a nice imaginative explanation for them.

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      2. It’s a brand-spanking new concept, considered sexist (by some) when men explain things they possibly know nothing about to women who possibly know more about it than they do.

  7. At least it’s trapped. Perhaps just like the violent desires.. That attracts the curiosity of many..

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      3. Thinking of Buddha, Subjective Truth… Hmm.. Wonder if we can paint it more accurately as ‘limited interpretation’?

    1. It’s true, Kelvin, that it’s a common theme of mine—two people, one with a critical inquiring mind, the other who’s content to spout platitudes without looking or listening for him/herself.

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  12. An intriguing flight of fantasy. What lies inside and how much damage can it do?
    As for man-splainers, I’d never heard it either. Is there a female version? ‘Cause I may be guilty of that myself at times and if someone’s dissing me I’d like to know it. 🙂

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    1. I don’t think you can have a female version since it’s traditionally men who have patronised women with their explanations. Women can spout rubbish too, but men have had a monopoly on being founts of wisdom. I’m glad you liked the little story 🙂

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  13. Whoa, I can hear the chomping from here. Great ending, and he’ll probably insist that he was right with his ‘or something’.

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  14. Thank you very much Jane for adding “manspaining” to my vocabulary. I’d never heard the term either and it’s fabulous. My mother seems to get this a bit with so many men of a certain age needing to feel like they’re King Tut.
    Interestingly, my husband also gets it. He’s a senior Network engineering in a university IT department. Despite being considered a “guru” by many other than himself, he gets non technical people thinking they know better.
    We subscribe to the view that the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know and you become humble.
    BTW I’ve been doing a bit of research this week and came across Green Man, which I thought would appeal to you, if you haven’t heard of him before. I’ve seen him depicted in garden tiles etc but not the history behind him http://www.greenmanenigma.com/history.html
    Hope you’re having a great week!
    xx Rowena

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    1. I used to get it when I worked in the wine trade, a notoriously machist domain, and by doctors at the maternity hospitals who of course knew far more about having babies than I could possibly know.
      I know the Green Man, and have always thought he was a reasonably new creation, not truly pagan and not predating Christianity. Folk tale material rather than myth. It doesn’t seem logical to me that early people would have chosen a male figure as a fertility symbol, but the Christians would.

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      1. I feel your pain on the mansplain front. Some of them can really pontificate and I could just imagine that in the wine industry.
        I hadn’t considered that gender aspect of the green man. You’ve mad an interesting point. Further research required.
        xx Rowena

      2. I used to end up walking away from customers lecturing me about my wines, or even asking if there wasn’t a man they could ask instead. I used to send them the Pakistani cellar boy who couldn’t even speak French.
        Anything that had a resurgence of interest in the nineteenth century is a bit suspect. Like the Eisteddfod—invented in its entirety by the Victorians who wanted to ‘revive’ the bits they approved of of what was a very old idea.

    1. Thank you! He doesn’t seem like the resourceful kind. More likely to stand his ground and tell ‘the thing’ it doesn’t exist, with the consequences we can imagine 🙂

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      1. You’re right. I was expecting a lot of monster stories this week, but not a whole lot of them showed up. Better for you because yours is crafted well. Very imaginative.

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