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 this week she also provides her own cheery little photo as the prompt!
The idea, as always, is to write a story of around 100 words based on this picture, below.
© Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Click here to hear the writer read his words:
Fingernails
I check my fingernails.
They are filthy, packed with earthy crud, like hardened brown mud.
I sigh.
It has been a long, difficult day.
Not all my tasks fell within my area of expertise.
Like the flowers.
I have never planted anything before.
But a man’s gotta do…
I stagger to the bathroom, discarding clothes as I go.
I stand under the shower, the water scalding hot.
The muck dissolves slowly.
It runs away in streams of brown, red, and then pink.
The blood is soon gone.
Tomorrow I will check her grave again.
Make sure it can’t be seen.