Firstly this week, I must share my little bit of good news: I’m happy to say that my story ‘Snared’ has won the flash fiction competition for the month of May on an excellent website, Magic Oxygen, where entry fees go towards planting trees, a ‘word forest’, in Kenya, and building projects in a nearby school. My story will be read on radio and the winning story for each month will be published in their 2017 anthology.
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Rochelle’s lovely photo is the prompt for this week’s Friday Fictioneers flash fiction event. You can find the other 100 word stories here, on Rochelle’s blog ‘Addicted to Purple’. My story follows the picture.
Photo Copyright – Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
I am struck by the beauty of lace against an icy window. Just a curtain, just another midwinter morning. It’s the delicacy that fascinates. Fragile threads. Intricate twists and knots enclosing the emptiness and holding it together, patterns bestowing meaning and purpose on spaces where nothing is.
A call from the bedroom and I go to her. She’s looking at the photos on her nightstand – our children and grandchildren. She’s worried they’ve forgotten.
“Forgotten what?” I ask.
“It’s important,” she urges, gripping my arm, “not to forget.”
Delicate, twisted threads. Holding it together. Her hand like ice on my skin.
*****
Onto the page 
I like the mirroring of cold and icy hands, of lace and memory
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Thank you, Neil. I’m glad that worked.
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I loved the vocabulary here – delicate, fragile, intricate, like the threads of memory. Well done Margaret and congratulations on your success with Magic Oxygen. 🙂
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Thank you for your congratulations, Sandra, and for your lovely comment about my story.
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Nice story, Margaret! And congratulations on the win! Personally, I would have preferred receiving trees made into paper with pictures of dead Presidents on them, but whole trees are good, too. Needed in Kenya. Anyway, congratulations! Our FF writers are on their way to becoming award winners!
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I’m not sure I know of any competitions with prizes like that, but I’ll keep my eye out and let you know if I discover any. Any particular Presidents in mind? Thank you for your warm thoughts, Kent. I do get excited when a piece I’ve submitted does well. I guess we all benefit from encouragement like that, and from the encouragement from Friday Fictioneers too. Very precious.
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Well, my favorite was not a President, just a statesman, Ben Franklin. 😉 That’s about the highest it’ll go in public circulation. Now Woodrow Wilson, on the other hand … his is on the $100,000 bill. GIMME! But, those go to the U.S. Treasury, not for public circulation.
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First of all a big congrats…good purpose and a great honor. Secondly the story which is great in the delicate sadness you tell it… wonderful.
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It’s a great idea – to use the proceeds from the competitions to help the environment and the children in the school. Each story submitted results in one tree, and the writers are given the GPS co-ordinates of their tree. I’m happy you liked my story – thank you Bjorn.
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Your story could be the first chapter of mine. I like the wistful quality of this piece. Congratulations on your success with Magic Oxygen. I’ll have to stop by and check it out.
Tracey
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Yes, our stories would fit together quite nicely, in storyline and feelings. Thank you for your congratulations and your lovely comment, Tracey.
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Stunning! I love that image you drew of lace threads holding spaces together.
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Thank you, Liz. What a lovely comment.
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Beautiful descriptions, and well done on “Snared”!
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Thank you so much, Alistair. Twice.
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First of all, congratulations on your win. It’s nice to see good writers get the recognition they deserve, and in my opinion, this piece is a winner as well. Beautiful analogy between the frost pattern and what goes on in the mind during the early stages of dementia.
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I’m so encouraged by your comment, Russell. Thank you. I’m intrigued by the power, and vulnerability, of the human mind, and especially the workings of memory.
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As already stated brilliant use of imagery. And congrats on your win
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Thank you, Mick.
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The frost, the lace, and the memories, that goes together perfectly. As everyone else said, the images are stunning. And congrats on the win! What a worthy cause, too.
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It is a worthy cause. I think it’s a brilliant idea to use the entry fees in this way. Thank you for your congratulations and for your very lovely comment about my story. I had just read an article about dementia, and straight away I connected memory loss with the lace. I don’t usually get inspiration that easily.
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Wonderful descriptions in this – lace, cold, longing. Well done. And congrats on the win! Thanks for letting us all know.
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Thank you, Alicia. I’m glad you liked the descriptions. Thanks also for the good wishes – I get very excited when I have a little bit of success.
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So beautifully told.
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Thank you, Ottilliah.
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Dear Margaret,
Lovely descriptions and metaphors. Congratulations on the wind. 😀
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thank you, Rochelle. Glad you liked the descriptions. Thanks also for the congrats – just a little win, but still encouraging.
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Congratulation your story won.
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Thank you, Indira.
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Congratulations on your story. If it is anything like this one I would love to read it. Is there a link?
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Congratulations, Margaret, on winning the flash fiction competition on “Magic Oxygen”. That’s just great. I love in this story how you’ve compared the twists and knots of the lace with the woman’s memories and the cold of the window with her hands. So well written. 🙂 — Suzanne
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A moving story and one that will impinge on most of our lives.
Congrats re the win and I will visit their site – I like the idea of planting trees!
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Beautiful Margaret. Lovely imagery – the lacy curtain, snow – the old lady’s mind. So very delicately and gently told, too. Gorgeous
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I like the idea of the curtain holding the space of that window together as if it’s a living thing and then how the ice is then the touch of her skin. It works like a cast spell. Congrats on your win!! What a lovely way to spend the entry fees, too. I’d enter the contest for that reason alone.
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I’m so glad you liked it. Thank you, Amy, for your lovely comment and congratulations. I feel the same about the Magic Oxygen competition. I’ve only recently discovered it, and decided I’d enter as often as I could.
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The piece is like a delicate tapestry – yet the last bit caught my throat. Congratulations on the win 🙂
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