Unheard Melodies

PHOTO PROMPT ©David Stewart

The crowd had gathered around the bandstand.  He shuffled to his usual spot, nodding his head in acknowledgement to the other regulars and was greeted with smiles of recognition. He had been away a few years but there was no mistaking him, back again a little worse for wear.

The conductor moved his hands and opening notes hit him, “da-da-da-DUM;da-da-da-DUM”.  He closed his eyes as wave after wave of music washed over him and he felt the music reverberate through his body.

The land mine explosion had left him partially deaf yet the vibrations stirred his soul as before.

***

Too late to get my contribution for Friday Fictioneers but as the story was in my mind when I saw the prompt I got around writing it today.

Can deaf people enjoy music? Read more here.

In 1924, Helen Keller wrote this to the New York Philharmonic, describing her experience of "hearing" their radio broadcast of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.

A Royal Repast

Copyright Rachel Bjerke

Dear princess how I secretly follow you around in the castle’s grounds.  When you sit at the edge of the cool well under the old linden tree and play with your golden ball, I wish I could be with you.

Yesterday I heard your lamentations when the golden orb sank in the well.  I can’t swim but then he came.  That dastardly amphibian!

I heard the clever rascal forcing you promise companionship in return for retrieving the ball.

Fortunately you ran away and I caught him as he followed you.

The cook does indeed work miracles with his garlic sauce.

***

Written for Friday Fictioneers. Word Count : 100

And for those interested here is the classic recipe for Cuisses de Grenouille à la Provençale (Sautéed Frogs’ Legs) for those of you playing at home.  This is one frog prince who didn't make it past the pot.

Impure

PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

The changing colours indicate that our destination draws near.  Our eyes now pick out greenish tinges in the landscape.  Further away the brown branches clawing in the air bring an end to this accursed madness of a silver landscape that surrounds us, from the silver grassy knolls to the silver flowers that grow wild.  

In the beginning they told us that silver symbolised purity and would purge our land of its sins.  The diversity of colour had left us corrupted and deviating from the true path.

So they took upon the task of restoring our purity.  And we let them.

***

Written for Friday Fictioneers. Word Count : 100

A look at a dystopian world of the future this time with narrative implying a forced purity in a genetically modified world.  But is it really a dystopian world? Many ideas of  ideological identification, purity and conformity have been floating around during various stages of history all over the world.   Grading of humans has taken place in recorded history, the dystopian world seeks to highlight this point further.  Science fiction literature is full of stories that use genetic engineering as a theme or plot device. 

Magic Mushrooms

PHOTO PROMPT – © Erin Leary

“What do you have for dinner today Jack?”

Mr W was one of the oldest members of our home.  A retired banker, he was nicknamed ‘El Loco’ on account of the elaborate stories that he told.

“Mushrooms Mr W, a very nutritious dinner for you.”

“Nutritious? Bollocks!  I saw the secrets of the Cosmos in the Mixeteco Mountains of Mexico.  Visions conjured up by the divine mushrooms.  Horrible to taste but the visions were real. I felt like God himself.”

“That must have been nice Mr W.”

“Nice my arse, I take it that you’ve never had magic mushrooms before?”

***

Written for Friday Fictioneers. Word Count : 100

Magic mushrooms have existed long before the term was coined but amateur mycologist Rober Gordon Wasson was one of the first outsiders to participate in a Mazatec ceremony and describe it's psychoactive effects.