Find the Story Friday!!! (Better late than never, right?) Fireworks and Lake Louise!!

OK, so I may be a tad late in posting this... (ahem.)  BUT - I'm still posting on the 15th, so it totally counts!!  How are you all, btw?  :)

So, it's Find the Story Friday.  And guess what?  You're actually going to find a story here on Friday!  I'm participating in Ali Cross's Independence Day Flash Fiction.  (click the link to check out other contestants, please!)  The challenge was to create a piece of flash fiction @ 250 words or less, with the prompt:  It's Independence day and something unexpected happens...

Here's my very thrown together attempt...(warning!!  Major suckage may follow...except for the picture, it's kind of cool...):

I'd watched fireworks in the park on the 4th of July for a long as I can remember. There were events that my family was absolutely required to do on certain holidays. And we never strayed far from home. Today marked the first time I'd spent the 4th away from home.


But, the fireworks show I was about to see was set up in the most picturesque spot. My feet dipped naked in a warm mineral pool. Pines and the tall, snow-capped Rockies flanked me on every side. As the sun dipped low, the lush greens turned a darker shade and torches lit up the perimeter of the resort. The air was a plethora of smell - fresh rain, leaves, smoky wood, pine, and sunblock. As the sky darkened, we heard the boom that signaled the "show" was about to begin.

The sky exploded in a rainbow of color and lit the tips of the trees with their various hues. The pool reflected colorful zigs and zags, spirals, spider-webs of light.

"It's stunning," I whispered to my husband.

So in awe were we that I didn't hear the screams until my back felt like it was on fire. The bear took another swipe at me, but my husband hauled me away. My body went limp in his arms and I marveled at the blood dripping down my arm and how it matched the color of the last firework exactly.  (239 words)

******

Ok, now it's your turn.  I took this pic at the GORGEOUS Lake Louise in Banff National Park in (crap, can't remember if it's in B.C. or Alberta...the border's close, at any rate...).

Tell me how it make you feel?



Stunningly gorgeous, right???  :)  And certainly inspiring.  I hope it's inspired you today, and that you share a little of that inspiration with me in the comments.

And I hope you all have a FABULOUS weekend!!  :)

Broken Rule Reminiscing....

Happy Release Day, POSSESSION!! *throws bacon-bit confetti for Elana* :)  Check this out:

I haven’t read Vi’s story yet (picking up my books soon! Yay!), but I’m pretty sure she’d grant me membership into her RBP (rule-breakers posse).

Talking about the game, Sardines, yesterday – I started to think about a different hide-and-seek game I used to play in high school. During my senior year, the big thing to do (and don’t ask why, please – because I honestly can’t explain it) was to sneak into the local cemetery to visit Flo.

Flo was the name of a ghostly girl who died too young in life in the late 1800’s. To get her to come out and play, you had to walk down to her headstone, read the epitaph and then walk back up the lane slowly without looking back, until you reached the top/starting point. Flo would appear as a green glowing ball and follow you up the lane.

I think it worked. I think I may have seen something. It could have been a random headlight, hitting a reflective bulb positioned just so in a nearby tree to make me think there was a green, glowing ball. It might have been something else. I had a few friends tell me that Flo appeared to them as a girl in a long dress. Of course, that was all the times I wasn’t with them. Hmm…

Regardless, the cemetery closed at dusk and being inside after dark was technically trespassing. But, we did it anyways. And several times, my friends and I even had to duck behind headstones and freeze like statues as patrol cars passed a few feet away from us, their searchlights panning the grass and paths for movement.

*shakes head* Ahh. The things kids do… Still -I never got caught. I broke the rules. Successfully. :) Would I recommend cemetery-dodge-the-cops-hide-and-seek to future generations of teenagers? As a mother to a teenage girl, I know I should answer “NO!” to that question… I plead the fifth.