Never, a 100-word story

A 100-word story I wrote recently is now live at Friday Flash Fiction, https://www.fridayflashfiction.com/100-word-stories/never-by-laura-mchale-holland. I wrote it based on a prompt emailed by Meg Pokrass, who sends out prompts to her subscribers.

I’m posting the story here, so you don’t have to go to Friday Flash Fiction unless you’re curious about the site. I created the images for this post using AI at NightCafe. Some details in the images don’t match those in the story. I just found them to be evocative in different ways.

Never
By Laura McHale Holland

Miss Millie never had a job as far as we knew, never had family over, never greeted us from her porch when we sashayed by. But every weekday afternoon, with her hair piled like vanilla soft serve topping a giant cone, glasses studded with rhinestones, and white fur hugging her neck, she drove to school in a white Lincoln with her albino poodle drooling out the back window. When the bell rang and we dashed from class, she'd be in line with the moms as though she had children of her own. Why? She's gone now; we'll never know.

This image and the one above: two very different renderings, each telling a story of its own without words.