Friday Fictioneers is hosted by the wonderful Rochelle, the undisputed master of what I call Sound Bite Fiction.
She sets the weekly challenge, and the standard.
And the prompt, which this week is provided courtesy of Jeff Arnold.
The idea, as always, is to write a story of around 100 words based on this picture, below.
© Jeff Arnold
Click here to hear the writer read his words:
Babysitter
I tell them I don’t need a babysitter.
But they don’t trust me, I guess.
I am too wild, too irresponsible, too callously violent.
I am only 11 years old, what do they expect?
So when they ‘have’ to go out, mostly to the pub with their friends, I am confined to my room.
And this stupid girl is here ‘just to keep an eye on you’.
She is clueless, of course.
The police arrive as the house burns.
My mother faints when I take my hand out of my pocket.
I laugh.
‘She still has her eye on me.’