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Welcome to the latest installment of Friday Flash Fiction. Enter your short
work of fiction (generally between 100 and 1,000 words) based on this prompt by
midnight Saturday to be eligible to win! The best entry will be published on the
site, along with a short author bio; bringing you fame, fortune and bragging
rights. Winners also receive a small prize. Entries may be posted in the
comments or emailed to theoneminutewriter@gmail.com.
If you post in the comments, please be sure to leave us a way to contact you in
case you are our winner. Good Luck!
The newsprint is fragile with age and attention. Carefully stored in a special place, this clipping holds incredible meaning for someone. A yellowed photo, a few details, so many memories....
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Friday, December 28, 2012
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Lining a drawer in an antique dresser a fragile, yellowed paper caught my eye. The names of several of my husband's relatives were printed boldly in an old fashioned typeface. Martha was at home in Isabella. She was visited by many friends and neighbors to celebrate her housewarming. Fancy food was served and useful gifts received. I turned the tissue thin paper over and read the lurid headline of the day. JAPANESE BOMB PEARL HARBOR! I wonder what my young mother-in-law felt on this day that would live on in infamy...
Sarah paused to brush her hair back into a ponytail. She had been working all morning cleaning up the old house, backbreaking work but the painters were coming tomorrow.
While sorting through the previous owner's abandoned belongings - most of it Good Will bound - Sarah discovered a small antique jewelry box in the upstairs closet. As she raised the lid expecting to see jewelry, Sarah was surprised to find an old newspaper clipping: "Zelda Mackelroy Weds In Grafton,June 4, 1925." "Zelda Mackelroy," Sarah said aloud, silently thinking this clipping holds incredible meaning for someone. But who?
Next to the fragile clipping lay a tattered yellowed photograph of a smiling young woman in a long lace gown and cloche hat, holding a flowing bouquet of flowers. Precious memories of Zelda's past?
The old house had been vacant for over a year before Sarah bought it from the bank. At closing Same Jenkins mentioned that the previous owner, Miss Minnie Riehl, had been in her 90's when she died. No one in town remembered anyone visiting Miss Minnie, and she had never gotten around to connecting her phone. The old Model T in the barn hadn't been started in years.
Sarah wondered what she would do with the handsome old jewelry box and it's precious-to-someone contents.
Sarah glanced at her watch. Uh-oh 4:00, only an hour before the bank closes. She sighed and closed the jewelry box lid, gently sliding her fingers over the hand-carved mahogany.
Such a treasure! beautiful box holding a clipping from long ago, carefully stored, so that it could be retrieved and enjoyed again and again. And the yellowed photo must hold incredible meaning for someone. But who?
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