Friday Fictioneers: Boots on the Ground

We who participate in writing 100-word stories for Friday Fictioneers are endorsed by no less than Lord Polonius in Hamlet, who famously said:

Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief:

And brief we are, although in some cases, the introductions and backstories more than double our flash fiction output!  To participate and get “the rules” as well as the prompt, go to the online home of Flash Gordon’s sister, Rocket Rochelle, and jump right in.  To dip your feet in by just reading, go to the end of my story (reading, liking and commenting fulsomely on it first, of course), then click on the blue critter at the end.  That will take you across the galaxy, through time and space, to a mad variety of stories all derived in some way, shape or form, from the photo prompt, although sometimes most tenuously.   Hold on to your hat and enjoy the ride.

Now before I reach “tediousness”, I shall end the introduction and become witty.  (I can but hope, right?)

Copyright Adam Ickes

Boots on the Ground

Alex being deployed overseas was always hard.  But those “special” postings meant I sometimes didn’t hear anything for days and, occasionally, weeks.  Whoever said “No news is good news” was clueless!   Always tamped down as deeply as I could squash it was the nightmare of two uniformed figures at the door, hats in hands, beginning expressionlessly, “We’re sorry to inform you…”

Walking back from the lake, I spotted an unfamiliar car in the drive. Deliberately stilling my mind, I turned the corner of the house… and spotted her boots in front of the door.   Thank God!  Alexandra was safely home.

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Disclaimer:

As seems to be the story of my life recently, I’ll be traveling or out of town Friday through next Wednesday.  Being gone six of the fourteen days before Christmas means the others will rather busy, getting ready for family and a friend to be with us at Christmas.  That means virtually no time for reading/commenting, so if I don’t get to your story, it’s not because I didn’t want to.  It also means that I won’t be posting a story (same reasons) the next two weeks.  They will be devoted to family, friends and the celebration of the birth of our Savior.  Real life trumps the virtual, especially during this season.

May this be a time of blessing for you, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, a time to share with those you love, and a time of blessing both in ending this year and in 2014.