“Smile!” chorused her parents, grinning themselves as Elaine stood beneath the rusted sign marking this trail as Route Illinois Sixty-Six. Elaine scowled.
How dare they drag her trekking through some stupid American Jungle when everyone else she knew was off to the new Neptune Spa Resort, or Jupiter’s six month musical festival, Fiz Brain.
“Come on sweetie,” her father coaxed. “What’s the matter?”
“Earth,” she spat. “Who even comes here anymore?”
“It’s very popular according to the travel agent,” said her mother.
“With old people” Elaine snapped. “It’s totally lame!”
“Honey-bee, please-”
“No Dad! This sucks. You’re ruining my life!”
(100 words)
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Published by Carol J Forrester
Carol J Forrester is a writer and a history geek. Her debut collection 'It's All In The Blood' came out November 2019.
She has a 2:1 BA degree in history from Bath Spa University, enjoys judo at least twice a week, and tries to attend poetry events around the Midlands when she can.
Her flash fiction story ‘Glorious Silence’ was named as River Ram Press’ short story of the month for August 2014 and her short story ‘A Visit From The Fortune Teller’ has been showcased on the literary site Ink Pantry. Her poems ‘Sunsets’ and ‘Clear Out‘ were featured on Eyes Plus Words, and two of her poems were included in the DVerse Poets Pub Publication ‘Chiaroscuro’ which is available for purchase on amazon.Her poem ‘Until The Light Gets In‘ was accepted and published at The Drabble and her poem ‘Newborn’ was published by Ink Sweat & Tears.
She has been lucky enough to write guest posts for sites such as Inky Tavern and Song of The Forlorn and has hosted a number of guest bloggers on her site Writing and Works.
View all posts by Carol J Forrester
Hah – love this. ‘Some stupid American jungle’ indeed!
Claire
Glad you enjoyed it.
Her parents are incredibly cruel, I would say.
Carol, a very different, enjoyable, and all too often true, POV. You could substitute any “undesirable” destination (to young people) and it would work.
janet
This was great and so funny! Popular destination: travel to Earth. haha!
Thank you very much. 😀
well, the daughter should be allowed to take their pictures then. 🙂
Perhaps. She may choose to mess them up on purpose out of spite however.
Ha.. Yes even in Sci-Fi there has to be teenagers.. So lame indeed. And the last phrase with ruining her life.. Perfect
Thank you for saying so, I was a little unsure about how it fitted with the flow when I read it back. It’s good to hear that it works for a reader.
Very clever. Kids will be kids – actually that’s somewhat comforting.
What an interesting way of thinking about it.
Dear Carol.
Some things never change. Your story picks up steam and is going full speed by the time we reach the last, perfect line. Very well done.
Aloha,
Doug
Thank you very much Doug. It’s lovely to hear that I got the pacing just right. 😀
Dear Carol,
There’s nothing new under the sun, is there? I enjoyed the idea of interplanetary and the teenager’s whiny voice in this. Clever and imaginative.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Thank you. 😀
I had a couple of other ideas that for the prompt that were just not working and this was the one that seemed to come together best. It’s nice to see it getting such wonderful comments.
I wonder how many times ‘you’re ruining my life’ is heard by parents. And some parents truly do make a good job of it, in ways much more horrendous than simply taking them to a planet of old people. Nice one!
The parents may be sorry they took their daughter along by the end of that trip. She sounds like she’ll complain the entire trip. Wait until she has kids and is on the other end of the complaints. Good story, Carol, and well done. 🙂 — Suzanne
Thank you Suzanne. Indeed, it tends to make for a miserable holiday when one of the holidaymakers doesn’t want to be there. I’ve been quite lucky with family holidays in that my parents always run ideas past my sister and I. In this character’s case though, I just think there will be no pleasing her.
Teenagers are the same – whether they are from this planet or another. Fun read.
Thank you for saying so.
I like sci-fi so I really enjoyed your story. A very fun read!
Thank you for saying so. If you like sci-fi may I recommend my ongoing story ‘Headquarters’.
Ah well.. I for one would have loved having the adventure of going through the jingle ! And hey I’m not THAT old before you get any other ideas, Haha 😀
Haha. I’m making no judgements, don’t worry.
Pheww, thanks 😀