MftS & SPF: A Sister’s Love

Posted on by Louise Bunting

This post is in response to both Monday’s Finish the Story and the Sunday Photo Fiction flash fiction challenges, run by and Alistair Forbes, respectively. Monday’s Finish the Story, run by Barbara W. Beacham gives  a picture prompt and the first line and asks that you finish the story in 100-150 words. The given line is in italics. Alistair Forbes Sunday Photo Fiction challenge gives a photo prompt and asks that you complete the story in around 200 words.

2015-08-24-photo-taken-of-an-old-photo-in-2014-barbara-w-beacham
2015-08-24 – Photo taken of an old photo in 2014 – Barbara W. Beacham

A Sister’s Love

The family had no idea that little Luigi would grow up to be anything special.

After all, how could he, with blood tainted by an unmarried, working-class mother? His arrogant relatives rarely missed an opportunity to remind him that they fed and clothed an orphaned by-blow out of charity alone. Even decades later the pain of their disregard stung.

Only Edith had supported him.

Luigi touched gnarled fingers to the faded face of his beloved half-sister, the picture drawing him to days nearly a century past.

“My success was all because of her,” he told the biographer scribbling notes.

Edith’s affection never wavered, despite her mother’s disdain. She’d dried his tears and encouraged his play among the cogs and wheels, uncaring of the smears of grease; she’d praised his strange contraptions. Later she’d used her own allowance to augment the pittance granted to him, allowing him to follow his dreams of intricate clockwork.

Without her he’d never have become one of the world’s greatest horologists.

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An intricate wristwatch – © Alistair Forbes

Word Count: 150

mondays-finish-the-story             spf

To read other entries or to submit your own, click the little blue frogs.

               Monday’s Finish the Story                                                  Sunday Photo Fiction

                        wpImg                                                              wpImg

43 thoughts on “MftS & SPF: A Sister’s Love”

    1. Thank you! I’ve never combined prompts before and found it a very enjoyable task! I’m very glad you liked the end result. 🙂

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    1. I’m glad you enjoyed it! Learning new words is always fun. 🙂 I’ll check out your prompt – I do like to have a number of them to choose from. Unfortunately, I generally only write a couple of flash fics each week so whether I write a response or not is another matter. 🙂

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      1. I just write to prompts. I tried once trying to have something for folks to respond too. I like writing pieces better.

        So many good prompts – so little time 🙂

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  7. Very nice story. No matter how badly one is treated, often times if they have one person that believes in them and supports them emotionally it can completely change the outcome of their life…and that act of compassion and support is never forgotten….like in Luigi’s case.

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    1. Definitely true. Without his sister there to support him he may have grown up to be a very different person, living a very different life. Thanks for visiting. 🙂

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    1. All it takes is a bit of support and encouragement for you to be given the scaffolding to reach your highest potential. I’m glad you liked it, Michael. 🙂

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    1. I’m glad you liked it, Ineke! Family can give either the support structure to help you achieve provide the shackles that hold you back. Luigi was lucky to have his sister. His life may have been very different without her. Thanks for visiting. 🙂

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  14. You wove these prompts together effortlessly. One does not need to wonder where he would have ended up without his sister.

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  15. Very well done Louise. I loved the way you tied the two challenges together. Thanks for the addition to my line up and I hope that you return for the next one. Be well… ^..^

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