Sunday Photo Fiction is a weekly challenge presented by my old friend Al Forbes.
The idea is to write a short story (200 word max) inspired by what you see in his picture (below).
This week, once again, Al provides us with a photo with a million options.
This is probably not one of them.
Click on this link to enter your tale, and to see what others have written.
Copyright Al Forbes
Click here to hear me read this 100-second story:
The Cyclist
The hill seems steeper tonight.
The cold snap is not helping my breathing.
And my old knee trouble has flared up again.
So I am toiling upwards, my mood, like the sky, growing rapidly darker.
I pause for breath, gazing up the long steep slope ahead.
A cyclist comes into view.
I see him as he passes under a street lamp, he has no lights himself.
He is sitting upright, phone in one hand, cigarette in the other.
He hurtles downhill, relaxed and unconcerned.
I am filled with an unjustifiable, irrational dislike, bordering on hatred, for this inoffensive youth.
I move to the kerbside, swinging my arm.
The heel of my hand catches him flush on the nose.
I don’t even turn my head to see the wreckage I have caused.
I go on with a spring in my step.
The hill seems much less steep now.
