Here Today…
It’s Friday Fictioneers time, hosted by Rochelle.
I haven’t felt very well the last couple of days and couldn’t come up with anything cleverly witty, but I finally put something together. This week’s photo comes from Jennifer Pendergast.
To read all the other stories for this week, click on the blue froggy.
Copyright Jennifer Pendergast
Bartholomew stared out across the desert, watching it shimmer in the heat. Seemingly barren, he knew it teemed with life. Such rugged beauty, stretching endlessly into the distance, a primitive land where only the strong could survive.
He reached into his backpack and retrieved his camera, snapping off a shot. “Desert framed by Railway Carriage” would look good on his wall, he thought.
Finally tearing his gaze from the awe-inspiring sight, he motioned with his hand. The sides of the carriages dropped, disgorging trucks, bulldozers, all manner of equipment.
The desert’s all very well, he thought, but everybody loves a mall.
Speak to me - I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Click for a random post!
Woohoo!
I totally didn't win!
Share Your World
Friday Fictioneers
draliman on life 
Nature — and developers — abhor a vacuum. Feel better!
LikeLike
Soon there’ll be cars and teenagers hanging round, the whole shebang 😦
Thanks!
LikeLike
There’s no stopping progress.
LikeLike
I wish there was 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
One person’s oasis is another person’s shopping destination
Sorry you aren’t feeling well, hope you feel better soon.
LikeLike
I would prefer the oasis.
Thanks!
LikeLike
Hope you feel better soon.
Hmmm, I don’t like the heat, but I don’t like malls either…but I love trains. 🙂
Take care, hope you make a full and speedy recovery. 🙂
LikeLike
I like trains and the idea of a desert but I don’t do well in the heat!
I’m a bit better today, thanks 🙂
LikeLike
Hope your better soon, although your stories with a message are poignant. Funny how our mood affects our writing like it does.
LikeLike
Yes, I’ve noticed how I feel dictates whether it’s a comedy or whatever.
Glad you liked my story.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Please ask him to pack up…I prefer the desert….Nice one.
LikeLike
Me too. Maybe he’ll go bust before he does too much damage.
Glad you liked it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
A fantastic take on the prompt, loved it. Say no to the shopping mall, it was a great ending 🙂
LikeLike
Glad you liked it! There are enough shopping centres and not enough nature.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh! this is perfect. No need to apologize. That last line caught me off guard.
LikeLike
He won’t let anything get in the way of his bank balance. I’m glad you liked it!
LikeLike
At least he took a photo for posterity. Now he’ll work towards prosperity, but I hope he gets kicked in his posterior(y) 😀 Great zinger at the end D-Man
LikeLike
Ha, nice play on words 🙂
Yeah, at least he has a photo to remind him what he’s spoiled.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Malls are instant happiness.. yeah.. and i guess, we are losing touch with nature.
LikeLike
I’m hoping it all falls through and he leaves the desert alone.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are right and especially for teenagers – you can’t stop them from going to the mall! Good story! Nan
LikeLike
I’m sure the kids are very excited a new shopping centre is on the way! I wouldn’t be 😦
LikeLike
Oh I love the hypocrisy of him! Nice one. Hope you’re feeling better now.
LikeLike
He’s very much “oh, look at how beautiful it is, now dig it up” isn’t he? Glad you liked it!
I’m a bit better today, thanks 🙂
LikeLike
I hope you get well quickly, Ali. Your story shows your great regard for nature. Contractors only seem to see the money. They dig up, build, and move on. The worst are the ones who build buildings that don’t have proper support and fall down on people’s heads. Well done. — Suzanne
LikeLike
I understand the need for new houses and the like, but nature needs protecting too. I’m sure we have more than enough shopping centres.
LikeLike
HaHa! What a surprising twist. Feel better soon! 😀
ps. We are fighting off ‘developers” periodically here too.
LikeLike
Glad you liked my story! I think I’m a little better today 🙂
LikeLike
That had me chuckle at the end. The nerve, to look for the best spot for a picture, and then to dg it all up. Great take on the prompt, too. And, I hope you feel better soon.
LikeLike
I bet he puts a “before and after” picture on his wall too. Here’s the desert and then here’s my wonderful shopping centre.
I’m a bit better today, thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Malls are steadily vanishing from America, often bankrupted. But maybe we’ll get a few mall speculators sealed into their own parking cement, before they’re all gone.
LikeLike
Now I have an image of them up to their waists in cement frantically waving their arms around while people stand around and laugh 🙂
LikeLike
What a perfect place for a new Mecca!
LikeLike
Shall I put you down for a transfer? Nice desert location. Plenty of parking.
LikeLike
Only if it’s haunted by an old Indian spirit like my current store is!
LikeLike
Don’t tell me your Mecca was built on an old Indian burial ground? Don’t go into the light!
LikeLike
*gasp!*
LikeLike
Hee hee.
I remember that post now 🙂
LikeLike
Well done, especially considering yiu are under the weather. I’m envious–I’m not that creative when I’m sick!
LikeLike
I’m glad you liked it! I was beginning to despair when suddenly this eco-story popped into my head 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
cleverly written as could be expected from you. but get well soon. 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks!
I’m starting to feel better now, thanks. Just a bit of a cold, I think.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m so sick and tired of over development and this sort of greed. Grrrrr… Next we’ll have malls floating on water? Or has that been done.
Really liked this one, doc. I hope you’re feeling better soon
Ellespeth
LikeLike
I wouldn’t be surprised if some old ships get converted into shopping centres. I think some have become casinos in the past.
I’m a bit better today, thanks! Definitely on the mend.
LikeLike
Great story. Developers are always cutting down trees to build shops or apartments. 😦
LikeLike
Indeed they are. There should be more protection.
LikeLike
Sorry to hear you were ill, but this one was definitely worth holding out for. I love the flip in character there. Good stuff!
LikeLike
Thanks, I’m glad you liked it. He’s not going to let anything get in the way of his bank balance, no matter how lovely he thinks it is.
LikeLike
So he got the last shot before he destroyed it all. If only he truly understood.
LikeLike
I don’t think he ever will. What’s he going to do with the photo? Proudly proclaim at a dinner party “look, I destroyed that”?
LikeLike
That’s how some people think. But it wold be nice if he came to his senses and became an advocate.
LikeLike
It would.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Didn’t see that coming – a story in two parts. I love his name. Put me off the scent completely for some reason.
He could sell the final picture at the poster shop in the mall.
LikeLike
He should really have had a more hard-core name. Like “Brett Masterson” or something. I can totally see Brett Masterson destroying the desert.
That’s a good idea for the photo. “How it used to look…”
LikeLike
Great story! Even though he is awe-inspired he won’t let it get in the way of ‘progress’. Sad but true, unfortunately. Hope you’re feeling better. 🙂
LikeLike
Money’s the bottom line for him, sadly.
I’m a bit better today, thanks 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, I hope it’s an inside mall with air conditioning. All that life is going to have find a new home, probably. Here I thought he cared! This is really a two-part story. Well done, Ali. I hope you’re feeling better soon.
LikeLike
It’ll definitely be air-conditioned, given its location. I think all that life would rather he left the desert alone, though. He appreciates beauty but only cares about money 😦
I’m a lot better today, thanks 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent! That last line put a real smile on my face — I couldn’t see that twist coming at all. 🙂
LikeLike
I’m glad you liked it! I thought I’d start the story by making him seem like such a nice chap…
LikeLike
What a lovely creative piece of writing! I’m really impressed. That first paragraph is excellent, as is the overall message. Progress stops for no man – or desert landscape! Hope you’re feeling better now. You did brilliantly to write this when you were ill. 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you for such a lovely comment 🙂
Some people look at a natural environment and all they see is profit. Bartholomew seems to see both but prioritises the profit.
I’m feeling much better today, thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad to hear that. Take care.
LikeLike
Dear Draliman,
I hesitate to ‘like’ this story lest my energy contribute to another desert being blighted by a mall, but it was funny and good and in reality, i loved it.
Aloha,
Doug
LikeLike
Dear Doug,
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I think the world has enough shopping centres now. It’s time to look after the open spaces we have left.
Ali
LikeLike
Great story Ali! And the beautiful desert has to suffer for the mall.
LikeLike
I’m afraid so. Glad you liked the story 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good story and your twist is always intelligent.
I agree about cutting down trees to build with all the abandoned buildings they could tear down but not the desert. Our deserts here are really vast, as in huge.
I told you I’ve four wheeled through the desert, amazing but very scary.
A person lost off trail usually is not found.
LikeLike
Living in the UK, it’s difficult for me to imagine an open space that vast. Obviously we have large stretches of moorland where people can disappear (until the search parties find them) but nothing on the scale of the deserts in the US and elsewhere (or as dangerous).
LikeLike
I’ve always known about our desert’s, parents drove through it on family vacations and I saw.
Until the week long jeep tour through the upper, lower deserts and foothills I had no idea of the vastness. What surprised me was the homesteads around a hill that had well water. No we never asked for water, drove very slow as to not disturb the dweller. Crazy people live back there. Really!!
Info just for you, ha.
LikeLike
I guess it takes a certain sort of person to choose to live out away from everything in the middle of nowhere. Sounds kind of peaceful, though.
LikeLike
Hope you’re feeling better soon!
Sad that this vision is a reality for lots of beautiful spaces nowadays. Hope we don’t turn them all into photo memories!
LikeLike
I hope not too. We have precious few left here in England.
LikeLike
The US still has a good bit of open space. I pray it lasts.
LikeLike
Me too.
LikeLike
So much truth in this! Although in the UK, it’s anything that resembles an open green space.
Another great story, and get well soon!
LikeLike
I just worry that in a hundred years “green belt land” will be exactly that – little strips all that are left.
Glad you liked it, and I’m feeling much better now, thanks 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Draliman… you are too funny. Loved it.
Randy
LikeLike
Glad you liked it!
Ali
LikeLike
Dear Ali,
I hope you’re feeling better.
Your story’s so true of today’s shifting landscape. I’ve seen them come and go here, the mall’s I mean. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
LikeLike
Dear Rochelle,
Me too. Unfortunately when they go we’re left with a dilapidated building rather than the original nature.
I’m feeling better now, thanks!
Ali
LikeLike
What a good story! He seems so appreciative of the natural scene, and then with a gesture he begins to destroy it. Sorry you’ve been unwell – and glad you’re on the mend.
LikeLike
Nothing gets in the way of his bank balance, even though he thought it was a lovely scene.
Thanks for your well wishes!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Get well soon… But even sick… you pulled it off. As the kids would say… “Whata sick twist to that prompt!” You’re right… I shouldn’t have…
LikeLike
Ha 🙂 Thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love that last line! Hope you are feeling better.
LikeLike
Thanks, glad you liked it!
Yes, I’m a bit better this week. I’m putting any lingering issues down to Monday morning blues 🙂
LikeLike
Progress has a way of eating at the vistas… better capture it in pictures before it’s too late.
LikeLike
It does indeed. A photo’s better than nothing, I suppose. Though I’d rather have the actual desert.
LikeLike
Nice one, I love the twist.
LikeLike
Thanks, I set it all up to make him sound like a nature lover before turning it around.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And you succeeded.
LikeLike
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love the surprise ending. Very clever.
LikeLike
Thanks, I often like to pop in a twist at the end.
LikeLike
I don’t love a shopping mall 😦 Give me good old Mother Nature any day! I like your thinking with this photo. Hope you’ve recovered and are fighting fit now 🙂
LikeLike
I prefer nature to shopping malls for sure.
I’m recovered now, thanks – slightly deaf in my left ear, but that’s a common side-effect of a certain sort of cold for me (it’s usually the right ear, mind). Very weird.
LikeLike