FFfAW Challenge-Week of May 16, 2017
GOODBYE TO FLOWERS
By Neel Anil Panicker
I was halfway through my fractious teen years when I realized that flowers are the glue that binds the world. That all homosapiens were one or the other: gender divided into flower givers and flower receivers. And that there was no breaking through this rule cast as it were in stone. And Doubting Thomases, if any, were hurled the universal dictum: Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus.
And so it was that one fine summer afternoon, I, all of thirteen, accosted the rosy cheeked, chubby faced, forever chocolate chomping Rose and, gallantly offered her what was my first ever offering to anyone__ a bright red rose.
To my consternation, she looked at the object as if it were a wild beast, a poison fuming dinosaur, and snatching it vilely from my gentle hands, proceeded to stamp it to the ground.
And with that got crushed, ended even before it had begun, my love affair with flowers.
And that’s how it’s been since then: I’m neither a flower giver nor a flower receiver.
(c)neelanilpanicker2017 #fiction #FFfAW #175 words
Written for https://flashfictionforaspiringwriters.wordpress.com/2017/05/15/fffaw-challenge-week-of-may-16-2017/
WELCOME !
115th Challenge
Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers
Week of 05-16 through 05-22-2017
Very well written, Neel.
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Thanks Moon.
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Wonderful take on this one.
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Thanks a lot.
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Wonderful piece of writing, Neel. I liked the set up of your premise and the swift crushing of it for him!
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Thanks a lot. Lian.
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How sad! He gave rose a beautiful rose and she stomped on it! It would feel like someone was stomping on my heart. Wonderful story, Neel!
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It was very cruel of her to do that. Thanks PJ.
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Offering a rose to a Rose. Maybe she thought it an insulting play on her name.
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HOW could she but then quite possibly she could. Thanks James
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You capture the power of those early innocent, dangerous years so well, that one wrong move can feel like the whole world collapsing, that one girl (or boy) acting a certain way dooms you to think that way of all of them. Although hopefully only for a while, until he recovers from that roller coaster of emotions!
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Absolutely, the dillemmas that beset adolescence and early youth.
A definitely make or break period for impressionable minds. Thanks Joy.
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such cruelty for a tender bud – much emotion in your words Neel
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Thanks
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Rose is a Philistine who has no appreciation for the finer things of life.
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Absolutely Jackie
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