Flash! Friday–Vol 2 – 43: Dirty Money

October 3, 2014

Every Friday our challenge is to craft a 150-word story (10-word leeway) based on the photo prompt. We must also incorporate a specific word or topic.  This week's special element was "a politician." This week's photo prompt was:

Local fisherman, Yugoslavia. CC photo by GothPhil.

Dirty Money
(158 words)

“I always loved this spot.” I smile at my granddaughter, Hope, as she helps to lower me onto the dock’s edge. Within moments she plops down beside me and begins swinging her feet in the air.

“Why?” She peers around. I don’t follow her gaze; instead, my wrinkled hand traces the gnarled and graying planks of memories.

I pull a photo from my pocket. “I snapped this with my first camera.” I hand it to her without looking. I don’t need to. I will always remember the diamonds that danced in the waves that day, bearing the fishermen along on a sea of sunlit fire while the frogs in the rushes around me chuckled and chirped.

Hope’s voice interrupts my musings. “Where’d the lake go, Grandpa?” She tosses a rock into the dirt below the dock.

I half-glance at the weed-choked plain in front of us. “Senator Wantdemoney built a pipeline and sent the water to Urbana County.”