99-Word Stories of Memories

Great writing by all who joined in!

The challenge was to write a story using 99 words exactly, not including the title with the following words: mom, region, modern, wish. And this week, I’m sharing all who entered. Why? Because they’re all so good!

Prepare for wonderful reads on your Sunday afternoon.

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Choctaw Women by Kenneth

My mom and her mom were proud Choctaw Indian women. The Choctaw people’s ancestral region comprised most of Mississippi and parts of Louisiana and Alabama. The Choctaw were brave warriors, exceptional farmers, and savvy traders. Today, we live in Rapides Parish, in central Louisiana. My grandma was suspicious of modern ways. She made sure our mother knew how to prepare hominy, squash, and pumpkin using traditional methods. We were well fed children. Thankfully, Mom passed all those traditions down to me. Her only wish, before she passed, was that the old ways live on. My daughter has her hands.

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The Hidden Shoes by Laura Turzo

When my mom was a little girl, she was crazy about her grandfather. Her dearest wish was that she could always spend time talking with him. The problem was he lived in a different region. And in 1923, in rural Italy, the modern convenience of the telephone was not yet available to her. From time to time, he would come to visit and stay with her family for a few days, delighting her. When she knew he had to leave, she would hide his shoes to try to prevent him from going. Sadly, he always seemed to find them.

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Travel by Doug Hawley

Mom came from a different region of the USA. During the Great Depression, she came with her parents from Iowa in the Midwest to Oregon on the coast. It was a perilous journey along a Southern route with blown tires from the heat. Her wish was to go to law school, but lacked adequate money. She worked in her parent’s bakery until meeting and marrying my father. She lived from the racist President Woodrow Wilson when cars and airplanes were rare, almost until the first Black president. She lived through amazing changes, but seemed unimpressed by the modern world.

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Except for Irene Adler by Mark Ready

Harriott Holmes would miss the violin and the smell of chemicals. In these modern times, with telegraph and steam engines, the Charring Cross Station will be the entryway to every region of the Earth, but I will never see it.

A teenage boy entered the room. “How are you feeling?”

“I waited for you, son. I can’t wait any longer.”

Tears filled his eyes. “Don’t leave me. Please!”

“Observe and not simply see. Deduce and reason, and you will be the greatest detective who never lived!” Her chest sank.

“Goodbye, Mom.” Sherlock Holmes would never love or cry again.

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My One Wish by Thompson Emate

My mom asked what was my one wish. I told her that it was going through a wormhole to the past. She was startled to hear that I would want to go back in time. She felt going to the future to see modern inventions would be anyone’s heart's desire. She didn’t know I had made some mistakes in the past that had encroached on the present time. I was cloaked in its gloomy clime. I had painstakingly hid it in the deepest region of my chamber. My mom is my jewel. I'm worried that I might scar her.

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