Friday Fictioneers – Safe haven

~ neilmacdon
dales-broken-door
Photo Prompt © Dale Rogerson

I don’t even recognise the handwriting. So much has changed since I wrote those words in my journal. Can I believe them? Searching my memory offers no answers. I have no recollection of those woods, the cottage, the break-in. Did it really happen?

A story slots into place in my narrative. Comfortable.

That would explain my fear of dark tree stands. But I’m an imposter in my own life. There is now an uncertainty at the core of my life, a swampy place where the footing is unsteady. It threatens to swallow everything.

 

Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here

87 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers – Safe haven”

  15. Hi Neil strong stuff, I got a feeling that the narrator was suffering with some sort of dementia and that may be completely off what you were trying to achieve, but hey you know what they say, its not what you look at that matters… 🙂

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  34. Though we know intellectually that memory is fallible, we tend to base our identity on our memories. “A swampy place where the footing is unsteady” is such a great image to represent the uneasiness one feels when faced with a failing memory, whether for a specific event or in a general sense. Thought provoking.

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  39. ‘A story slots into place in my narrative. Comfortable.’

    I liked the placement of this line in the midst of all the uncertainty. Sometimes we tell (or are told by others) stories about ourselves so often that we become comfortable thinking of them as ‘the truth’, even though they may differ from the actual events.

    Nicely told, Neil.

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