Friday is another fictioneers day and Saint Paddy’s Day. I’m mostly Irish, but I never drink green beer and I seldom eat corned beef and cabbage. Who tells a better story than an old Irishman? Who does a better poem read than a young, attractive Irish actor?
Unable to find a suitable Irish lad or lass, Mistress of her storybook realm of fibs and fables, Rochelle, in her high magnificentness, dove down under to Australia. From there, she has shanghaied the prompt photo from Rowena Curtin to lead us into the temptation of creating a complete story with fewer than 101 words.
Click on Rowena’s pic to get the lowdown from Sydney on Rochelle’s blog page. When you’ve written your scoop, you can post it with all the other glorious wonders on inlinkz dot com (see Tim’s photo at the bottom of this blog).
If you can do this (and you certainly can), we promise to read it and comment (nicely) with hopes of delightful reciprocation.
Genre: Biographical Fiction
Title: Decisions Made
Word Count: 100
***
He felt betrayed. Trapped. Cheated. Conflicted. Confused. Rage simmered, but what burned him up most was his own self-pity. He was numb. What could he do?
Escape to Canada was wartime treason. If he joined the Army as a rifleman (eleven bravo), he’d be forced to kill or to die. He wanted neither. Everyone he knew would consider him a coward.
The walls closed in. What to do?
He could fight and die in a just war. This one was unjust.
He relented and lived through it all.
Then he wrote about it. Now they would all know his truth.
***
Look both ways because “the bad stuff never stops happening: it lives in its own dimension, replaying itself over and over.”
Mind the gaps because “you’re never more alive than when you’re almost dead.”
(Quotes are from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien)
Our Literary Journey 
Each wo/man’s truth is different, especially in war.
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If you’re lucky enough to survive it, the very least you can do is write about it. Good one, Bill.
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Thank you, Sandra.
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Life doesn’t give the less fortunate many options. Best we can do is live through it. Good one Bill.
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Thank you, Iain.
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in a sense, writing can be liberating and therapeutic. best of luck to him.
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Choosing the army, is choosing all that goes with. Not having the choice and being drafted, is not an easy pill to swallow. Here’s to the men and women who came out alive and had the guts to write about it.
Nicely done, sir!
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Thank you, Dale.
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I love your writing 🙂
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Awe, shucks, Ma’am. You just chuffed the hell out of this half-Irish ‘merikin. 🙂 Thank yee, Miss Dale. 🙂
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I am partial to a few ‘Muricans so… Half-Irish, eh? I’m half Scot!
And ’tis my pleasure!
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My other half is Scot and Welsh. 🙂
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Well now… That is a British Isles kinda mix! Oh wait… Wales isn’t part of them, is it?
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I thought Wales was. 🙂
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After I wrote British Isles, I googled it and it wasn’t included. Just now I flat out asked the question if Wales was part of it… and it is. 🙄
I really should just trust my instinct, eh?
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You have good instincts, eh?
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I’m thinking so!
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Good articulation of agonizing over a major crossroads in one’s life. We can look back forever and wonder if we chose best, but it can never be other than what it is (until time machines are invented.)
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Thank you, Lisa.
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You’re welcome, Bill.
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A heartfelt story, B. Poor guy didn’t really have any options. Conscription is terrible. My friend’s dad dodged ‘Nam by fleeing to Australia after his uncle (who fight in both world wars) said war was no good and don’t flee to Canada, they’ll still get you. His story always stuck with me.
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Tim survived and then wrote several books (based on his experience in Vietnam) that made him USA famous.
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I think he made the right decision. Great internal conflict depicted here.
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Thank you.
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I cannot imagine how it must seem to be faced with such a dilemma. Well done, Bill.
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Thank you, Keith.
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What a dilemma – well written Bill
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Thank you.
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Thank you Bill for your stringent dilemma story and thank you for Tim O’Brien’s quote. No way to avoid the evils of wo/man’s unrelentable urge to wage war, an inglorious trait of humanity.
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Indeed, Susan.
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Dear Bill,
Your intros are as wonderful as your stories. What a choice to have to make. Now I might have to look up Tim O’Brien’s book.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thank you, Mistress Rochelle.
You can read (or listen to) The Chapter “On the Rainy River” for free on-line and then decide.
Peace,
Bill
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I can’t imagine being faced with that. I wonder how many boys were drafted who killed, were maimed, or died for a cause they didn’t believe in.
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I personally knew one. That is enough.
Interesting. Tim and I graduated HS the same year (’64). He went to college, I enlisted in the Air Force. Four years later, Tim went to the Army, I started college.
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And it goes on and on and on. What a powerful story, Bill. And I’ll check out Tim O’Brien as well. Love the intro, too.
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Thank you.
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Walls closing in is such a great use of this image well done Bill
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Thank you, Laurie.
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What a dilemma. Sad, really. You conveyed this well.
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Thank you, Brit.
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