I work on poetry at my other blog, A Full Cup of Tea, and dabble in some short stories and flash fiction here with the FRIDAY FICTIONEERS. Every Friday authors from around the world gather to share their 100 word stories based on the photo prompt hosted by Rochelle Wisoff. We offer support, constructive criticism, and encouragement to each other . Readers are encouraged to comment. My contribution for the week follows the photo prompt below…
PHOTO PROMPT – © Jennifer Pendergast
An aging woman with long black braided hair tugged on the canoe and shouted, “Do not leave me!”
“I must go. I am no longer a child; I have to make something of myself,” the young man answered calmly, without looking.
“You can do that here, among our people.”
“Now is the time for changes. These trees are turning from green to red after harvest just as my hair is beginning to fade from chestnut to rust.”
“Where will you go?”
“I will head south. Scouts told of the new army camp set up by the river.”
“Be careful, son.”
–Historical Fiction: 100 words–
Background: The characters in this story are based on my own family tree. My 6th great-grandmother on my mother’s side was a full-blood Cherokee woman of the Long Hair Clan. “Prisoners of war, orphans of other tribes, and others with no Cherokee tribe were often adopted into this clan”. She was married to a Scottish immigrant for a short time; I’m not sure how they met or became married. They had two children before divorce. Her son, my 5th great-grandfather, became and interpreter for the Cherokee Nation and a scout for the United States Army from the information I can find. I don’t know what they really looked like or if they really had any moments like this, but I imagine they had complex relationships and lived in a very dynamic time in history. I obviously took on the Scottish genetic traits with there being some Scotch/Irish on the other side of my tree to produce that double recessive MCR1 red hair gene.
nightmare of daytime 