Spare Wheel

Rochelle Wisoff-Fields provided her own photo this week.

Spare Wheel

“Where we’re going, we don’t need roads!” Danny shouted, bumping onto the sand.

Lucy squealed and put her hand on his.

“Y’know,” said Raymond, “Ronald Reagan quoted that from Back to the Future after they referenced him in the…”

“Yeah, Ray, we know.” Danny caught her eye and winked. Lucy giggled.

“Remind me why we brought your brother?” she whispered. Apparently not quiet enough.

“Mom says ‘Teen pregnancy is through the roof and Raymond’s better than anything at the drug store.’ And I like watching the waves.”

Danny put the Jeep in park and leaned across. “Watch the waves, Ray.”

Extroduction

So much going on in Rochelle’s photo but as a jeeper myself, it was the Wrangler in the background that caught my eye. The original characters here were Lucy and Danny, but I think Raymond’s the one who makes it a story. Wranglers carry their spare wheel on the outside, which I suspect is where Danny’s hoping he can persuade Raymond to be.

And since we’ve found another set of brothers, here’s an old favourite.

Being Big Brother

Photo credit Rowena Curtin

Being Big Brother

Joe had four chores every morning before school. Danny only had one – fill up the dog’s water bowl. Mam said it was because he was only little. Being big sucked.

Their sister, Milly, had a bunch of chores. But she got the bus. Joe had to walk. And now he was big, he had to drop his brother at Kindergarten on the way.

Sometimes he thought about ditching Danny in the park, or selling him to strangers in white vans, but the strangers never seemed to stop.

He kicked over the dog’s bowl on the way past. That’d show them.

Extroduction

Poor Joe, he’s certainly feeling his age. I’ve written a pair of brothers, Matty and Luke, quite frequently, but this story didn’t feel like them, so Joe and Danny were born. I don’t think his daydreams are actually anything to worry about, but I doubt I’d be impressed if I were his mother!

Apparently we’re on a Canadian country jag at the moment. Here’s more Dean Brody for you – and a “try not to cry” challenge I fail every time I watch this one.

FF – Fight At The Museum

Photo credit – Liz Young

Fight At The Museum

“Who invented the aeroplane?” As his mother, I can distinguish Luke’s ‘I’m about to wind up my brother’ grin from his ‘I learned something new’ grin at 100 paces.

“The Wright Brothers!” Poor Matty, he’s like Wile E. Coyote, charging confidently into the trap.

“Nope! The Wrong Brothers… they just couldn’t work out how to make it fly.”

“It isn’t though! Read the sign!” The rising whine in Matty’s voice tells me he’s had enough. It tells his brother no such thing.

Luckily, Grandad saves us all. “Anyone want to see the plane that my Father went to war in?”

Extroduction

Luke and Matty, and their patient parents, are some of my favourite characters to write. You can read more of their stories here. The real boys in my life were tiny when Luke and Matty first came into my mind; now they are roughly the age of their fictional brothers and share a lot of similarities. Last weekend, Seb was away on a special Daddy-and-Me road trip. So yesterday, they were inseparable, eventually deciding to have a sleepover together on the Family Room carpet.

They fight like brothers and love like brothers, and I couldn’t ask anything more.

FF – A Galaxy Near, Near At Hand

Rochelle has chosen my photo this week!

A Galaxy Near, Near At Hand

“I’m trying!”

“Do or do not. There is no try.” Luke’s enjoying being the one who finds something easier for once.

“Shut UP!”

We’re 15 minutes late and it’s taking everything in me not to tie the damn shoe myself. But if I step in now, he’ll never do it, so I watch in agonising impatience, while he makes the bunny ears too small or too big, or puts the rabbit through the wrong hole.

“The greatest teacher, failure is,” Luke says, as Matty pulls too hard, ruining an otherwise perfect bow.

“Enough, Yoda. Go and wait in the car.”

Extroduction

My Mum and I sometimes laugh at how the brain can take a circuitous journey through several unspoken wormholes so that “That reminds me” can lead to what appears to be a complete non-sequitur. The same is true of Friday Fiction photo inspiration sometimes. This story was not, actually, inspired by the Galaxy chocolate bar. The title came after the story and the fact that it matched the chocolate only occurred to me afterwards.

My mental path from photo to story went something like this: “Order among chaos … I could write something about how clean the colouring is compared to the dirty surroundings … Ooh, or how the colouring clears my mind. There’s a metaphor there somewhere … I’m better at colouring than I thought I would be. Maybe that’s what gave me the confidence to paint the kids’ murals … Dominic wants to paint part of his own and I don’t know whether to let him even though he might be disappointed by the outcome … actually, it’s funny, Dominic is a kid who does things even if he can’t be sure of doing them well, whereas Sebastian holds back until he’s confident … the difference between brothers is so interesting … I wonder if there’s a Luke and Matty story here … if so, I want Luke to win for once … maybe Matty finds it hard to tie his shoes, but Luke can do it already …”.

The contrast between my two boys shows up in many places; their chosen bedroom walls being just one.

FF – Volcano Warning

Image copyright belongs to David Stewart. The story is mine, with a little inspiration from the real-life Luke and Matty

Volcano Warning

“Over easy,” giggles Luke.

“What’s so funny?” Matty’s building up to blow. The lava was already rising when I made him wear socks, but it’s the job of a big brother to see that and needle.

Maybe Luke’s not trying to annoy Matty, maybe he’s just being a preteen boy who’s discovered the hilarity of innuendo.

“You’re too young to understand.”

Nope. He’s definitely trying to cause an eruption.

A secondary vent spits at me, “Tell me, Mom!”

Throwing myself in the crater won’t help anyone, and it’s too late to run. All I can do is move glassware away.

FF – The Best Soil

Another week, another picture. This time from Ted Strutz. I’m over 200 stories now, that’s more than 20,000 words in 100-word chunks and enough for a novella! Your feedback on this one is welcome. No offense is intended to either of the locales mentioned; everywhere has its good and bad parts, and its good and bad people.

The Best Soil

Her brothers, who’d never been further than Romford, described India as ‘the toilet of the world’, but Stacy liked the idea of endless curry, and helping people who had even less than her. Being thousands of miles outside their shadows wouldn’t hurt either.
The curry was a disappointment, tasting nothing like the real stuff back home, and some areas did smell terrible. But three weeks in, she found herself not minding. The love of the children she taught made it all worthwhile, and Stacy, against all her brothers’ warnings, found India a fertile place to plant some roots and grow.

Friday Fiction – Another Brother

Last week’s story seemed to stir a lot of emotions and sympathy. I hope the Fictioneers are as kind and generous in person as they are too my little stories – thank you all! This week, I’ve gone a different way and I anticipate a lot less sympathy for my narrator. He’s a product of his upbringing, but that doesn’t make him right.

I welcome your comments and critique: good or bad.

This week’s photograph comes from Sandra Crook.

Another Brother

A big family fits together over the years, tessellating like triangles and hexagons, so newcomers always have a tough time fitting in. You can’t just add a square without putting some corners out of joint. Shelley was in love: she thought we’d all love Johnny too. But Mum and Dad struggled to lose their princess to anyone, and the last thing we needed was another brother, even one –in-law.

Then Bradley introduced his own deviation to the mix and Johnny seemed homogenous beside Elliot. None of us had ever worn tight pink t-shirts and hot pants, not even the girls.

Friday Fiction – What’s In A Name?

Another week into my own personal challenge to move away from Illustration and follow more closely Inspiration for my FF stories. Rochelle leads the way; I’ve got a long way to go to catch her. This week’s photo is from Douglas MacIlroy. I recommend both their stories to you without having read either; and many of the others besides. If you read mine, I’d love to receive your comments, thoughts and critique. Thanks!

What’s in a name?

I could hear them playing – Matty’s laughter carried and I was proud of him for finally letting his little brother borrow his new plastic lightsaber.

“Use the force, Luke,” he intoned like a monastic chant. I daydreamed over our naming discussions – the jokes that we should have two more: John and Mark, or have them re-release “When Will I Be Famous?” when they were older.

It wasn’t until I stood up that I saw the young padawan blindfolded and cowering as tennis balls pelted through the air at him from Stuart’s stupid serving machine, the coveted lightsaber prone beside him.

Friday Fiction – The Price of the Prize

Rochelle’s provided us with a bit of a mystery prompt this week, courtesy of Kent Bonham. You may recognise the boys in my response from another unsavoury prompt some time ago. Eat up, now!

“It’s club rules.” Owen tucked his thumbs into his waistcoat as he’d seen father do.

“But it’s gross.” Liam stared at the lollipop and then at the expectant faces surrounding him.

He’d been begging to join his brother’s treehouse club for weeks, but now the initiation ceremony didn’t seem worth the prize. Feathers and the legs of beetles were held to the stick by an icky white substance he couldn’t even guess at.

“Do it,” Owen snarled.

“Leave him alone, he’s just a baby,” said Tommy.

Liam stuck his tongue out and closed his eyes. Nobody called him a baby.

Friday Fiction – Testing Spelling

Maybe it’s the grammarian in me, but one thing jumped out of this week’s FF prompt, copyright to and courtesy of Randy Mazie. And it gave me a chance to reprise three of my recurring characters. If you like them, check out their previous exploits here, here and here. However, this story is designed to stand entirely alone. I welcome your honest feedback.

Testing Spelling

“Next one: Trespassing.”

Matty chewed his lip. “T…R…E…S…S?”

“No!” Luke shouted through the wall. “One S, then two!”

“Shut up, Shrimp!”

“Boys,” I warned.

“I’m helping,” Luke said from the doorway.

“You’re not. I can do it.” Matty is sharp as a tack, but he’s not as academic as his little brother. It drives him nuts.

“Luke, back to bed.”

“Think of trees, passing,” Luke whispered. “Then take out the extra e.”

Matty glared at the door as I pushed it closed. “T…R…E,” A longer pause for the e, “S…P…A…SS…ING!”

The muffled sound of proud applause came through the door.