Sorry, I’m afraid my take is a little obvious. No excuses here. Just, it’s what I saw when I looked at the photo prompt. Once you have seen it, it cannot be unseen.
Every Friday, authors from around the world gather here to share their 100-words and offer constructive criticism and encouragement to each other. Readers are encouraged to comment as well. The prompt is from Kent Bonham. For details, check out Rochelle Wisoff-Fields http://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/
“What is it, Mom?”
“Ahh…it was once a tree, a long time ago, Honey.”
“What’s a tree?”
“If you really want to know, you ought to ask your pre-fall holographic history module.”
“Aww, mom!”
“Fine. A tree was…well…it was a kind of plant that grew really tall.”
“Like cactus?”
“Yes…but trees had flat, green disks called leaves instead of spines.”
“…what happened?”
“Trees needed lots of clean water and sunlight to live.”
“So…when everything got bad…the trees died?”
“Yes.”
“All of them?”
“Yes.”
“What was it like?”
“There once were giants to blot out the sun.”
“I guess we aren’t missing much then, living underground.”
TheDustSeason 
Dear Kiri,
Beautifully disturbing. I hope this isn’t prophetic. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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I have yet to find the courage to watch An Inconvenient Truth. I suspect I would lose what sunny optimism I have managed to horde in the thimble-sized space in my soul. (If souls came in colors–mine would be pessimism black.) I don’t know if there are any workable solutions to our climate crisis and self-destructive ways. Sometimes, the best we can do, is to stand in the storm and cry out at its fury.
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Dear Kiri,
I love the elegiacal tone of your title and its inclusion in the second to the last paragraph. The last line adds a sickening punch to the gut to an already gobsmacked reader. Very dark, very true and very well done.
Aloha,
Doug
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Thank you, Doug. And here I wondered whether it was lazy to incorporate the title into the text. I may now lay that concern aside. I must ask, does your own writing ever seem overly obvious to you?
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That was powerful.
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Thank you, Pam. I have to ask, is your icon reflective of your personality? Are you a little blue bird of happiness?
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I’d like to think so. I love those little blue birds. This guy was in my backyard one winter.
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Wow, you got an excellent picture of the bird. However, when I imagine my own little Blue Bird of Happiness, winter is never in the picture!
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What a sad possibility your story poses. Well done! 😀
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I excel at misery.
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Oh no! 😉
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You saw a leaf and wrote a very good story. I saw a mussel shell!
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I’m not entirely sure I could identify a mussel shell if I saw one. So, I defer to your greater knowledge.
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In France they call them moules and cook them in white wine. Here in Tenerife they are known as mejillones and often served with tomato. Wonderful eating, and afficionados use the hinged shell of one to remove the mussel from the rest. So now you know as much as I do!
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And now that I’ve Googled it, I know where Tenerife is. Thank you for my continuing education. I will say, however, I am unlikely to know what a mussel tastes like. Not on purpose, anyway.
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Your interpretation of the picture wasn’t at all obvious. I love the title and how you’ve used it to create a highly emotional line after the ‘matter-of-factness’ of the dialogue to this point. And I think the irony of your last line is a perfect follow-on from that. They’re missing out on so much!
Cheers
Marg
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Thank you, Marg. This is why the internet exists. To massage my ego. Seriously though, feedback is greatly appreciated. Do you suppose there is a writer alive who is 100% confident in their writing?
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Living under ground would be incredibly sad. Living under trees that occasionally block the sun is much nicer. Great story.
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And yet, living under trees in a rainforest probably has its drawbacks too. Giant snakes, for example. Moderation in all things, I say!
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Dear Kirizar, Oh how I hope this doesn’t come to pass. To lose all our trees would be the death of our planet. They are the living, waving plants letting us know that all is not lost. I cannot imagine Earth without them and don’t want to. Excellent story – very well done! Nan 🙂
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Thank you. Yes, I often wonder how much deforestation would stop if we could see the effect on the Earth in less subtle ways. By, I don’t know, a giant thermometer with the mercury line in green dropping lower and lower with each tree cut?
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I love photo prompts. Well done. Thank you for the link to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields.
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