FF Challenge May 26th – Soaring with Unclipped Wings

I pledged to myself that I would write an upbeat story for this week’s Friday Fictioneers Challenge. It was all planned in my mind, I knew I could do it. And then our host Rochelle Wisoff-Fields posted this week’s picture. I struggled, tamped down many thoughts that lead me down dark alleys and I knew my story would not be a happy one. For those who have read my stories in the past, please stick with me through another dark story. It is an important one that needs to be shared.

Please visit Rochelle to get all the rules to this 100 word challenge. And thank you J Hardy Carroll for such a thought provoking photo. Enjoy reading short stories click HERE for more stories based the photo prompt.

PHOTO PROMPT © J Hardy Carroll

Now my 99 word story – Soaring with Unclipped Wings

I never wanted to clip her wings. I wanted her to fly. Lord knows where her creative streak came from but it defined her. My bold, beautiful, colorful daughter Cassandra. She spread her wings at 18, drawn to the artist mecca of San Francisco. I clung to the infrequent phone calls, her familiar voice tearing me apart.

“Mom, it’s sick, everyone’s an artist.”

She was so happy, so alive.

And then the news flashed across the TV screen, 36 dead in Oakland Artist Collective Fire. My husband said I screamed. I don’t remember.

My beautiful baby flies no more.

Thanks for reading. This story rose from the ashes of the Oakland Ghost Ship fire. On Dec 2nd 2016 a fire destroyed an abandoned warehouse that had been used to house artists and as an impromptu music venue. 36 young people lost their lives when they were trapped in the rabbit warren of rooms that had sprung up in the warehouse. It is a tragedy that never should have happened. Click Ghost Ship for more information.