Life Revisited

A 97-word story to a picture prompt from Rochelle Wisoff-Fields and the Friday Fictioneers:

PHOTO PROMPT © Alicia Jamtaas

The young girl held her father’s hand.

“What’s that thing, Daddy?”

“Well, there used to be something here called an amusement park.”

“Amusement?” She wrinkled her nose. “What’s so amusing about a busted-up railroad?”

“It’s not a railroad. They called it a roller-coaster. Cars went up and down real fast and people rode in them.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “People paid to get scared back then.”

“That’s stupid. We’re scared all the time, and we don’t pay anything. It’s no fun.”

He squeezed her hand, thinking of the zombies.

“People’s lives didn’t have much meaning back then, honey.”

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My first zombie story! Join in the fun — write your own story (100 words or less) and post it online. Don’t forget to give full credit to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields and the photographer. Then follow the sad little frog to share your post by next Wednesday.

44 thoughts on “Life Revisited”

    • Thanks, Dave. I have often wondered why the free and comfortable world needs to seek out ways to frighten ourselves in order to feel alive, or maybe it’s a primitive need to prove that we are brave. But maybe the need only goes so far. I once was on a white-water rafting trip when one of the rafts flipped and was caught on a rock in the middle of the river. We had to help rescue the people, and one woman declared she was going to sue the company. We all told her if she wanted absolute safety, she should have gone to Disneyland!

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      • I’m shaking my head about the woman from your story of the rafting trip. Sounds like a reaction to swiftly blame others instead of herself. As for rollercoasters, I used to like them — but in my thirties, I found them too intense. I’m 48 now, and they’re *way* too intense. My theory is that some people are thrill-seekers, so they ride rollercoasters, watch horror movies, and the like. I enjoy a good horror book, but I’ve found many horror movies as (again) too intense and reliant on gore instead of suspense.

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    • Thank you, Dale! It’s funny but I just read a book (as I mentioned to Rochelle) by Nelofer Pazira titled “A Bed of Red Flowers” about her life in Afghanistan first under the Soviets and then the mujahedin. Even after escaping to Pakistan the women lived in fear of being shot by a Taliban rifle if they showed their heads outside the door without covering their faces and hair, and couldn’t leave their houses unless a man came with them. Her story made me realize how fear-free my life has always been. I’m not sure I wouldn’t have succumbed to depression like her best friend who could not escape living like that and finally committed suicide after Nelofer left. I have no idea how I would react to the kind of world in the zombie stories — which is why I can’t read or watch them. Never even wrote one before! But I sometimes wonder what drives us to risk our lives for nothing more than bragging rights.

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  11. Great story. I didn’t see it as a zombie write until you mentioned it. I saw it as a post-apocalypse tale. Maybe the Zombies are riding the roller coasters, now. Wouldn’t that be weird…. I wonder, would they lose their heads (or other assorted body parts) as they flew down the steep hill??? Great story!

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  19. I love a good post-apocalyptic zombie story. It’s crazy to think how dangerous life used to be. Now, we immerse ourselves in artificial dangers. Hopefully, we don’t get too far back into real dangers, other than our not-so-friendly neighborhood virus.

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