draliman on life

Here is my contribution for Mondays Finish the Story, hosted each week by Barbara Beacham. The goal is to write 100-150 words in response to both a photo and an opening sentence.

Of course, me being me, I wrote a story but forgot about the opening sentence. And there was no way to alter what I’d written to make it fit. So in disgust with myself I spent 15 minutes speed-writing another story. Never have I typed so fast. Maybe I’ll post the other one separately in a day or so.

Click on the blue froggy for the link-up. The opening sentence appears in bold in my story under the photo.

Copyright Barbara Beacham

Little did they know when the photographer took their picture that they would find themselves trapped in a painting. It came as quite a surprise to the photographer as well. Still, this “camera” thingy hadn’t been around very long. Perhaps this was supposed to happen? He wished now that he’d read the manual but, as his father had always said, “Real men don’t read the instructions.”

For years he struggled to find a way to release the little band of players. Their desperate faces as the years went by haunted his dreams. He pushed this button, he pressed that lever. All for naught.

Then it struck him. Opening the camera, he reversed the mirrors and activated the shutter. With a flash of light, the band was free! In celebration they began to play a jaunty tune.

The photographer covered his ears. What a racket! Quickly he reconfigured the camera and pressed the shutter, once more imprisoning them in the painting, never again to pollute the world with their annoying “oom-pah” parping.