Reading Between the Lines

PHOTO PROMPT submitted by Courtney Wright. Photographer prefers to remain anonymous

Reading Between the Lines
By T. Delaplain

Dear Trace,
I cain’t get away this summer for a visit. Fox says the price of gas is gonna keep climbing. Ol’ Doc King gave me a new heart medicine, expensive, but I guess I need it. They opened a new Wally World in Bozeman. It’s the damnedest thing, you can buy a month’s worth of canned chili for a couple of bucks. Sure glad duct tape was on sale. I been needing a few repairs.

I’ve enclosed a hundred for the boys to split, I know Pat needs it more for that fancy college but it ain’t fair to only give one grandson money.

Love,
E

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Write us a 100 word letter at Friday Fictioneers, the duct tape is optional.

Is duct tape an American thing? Just curious. There’s nothing that can’t be fixed with duct tape and determination.

I rarely write directly from the photo prompt or explain my fiction but here’s my thought process.

I’m sure I once saw these boots next to my Dad’s garden. His voice was clearly in my head. I was recently de-cluttering and found a few letters from my Dad written on scraps of paper, which inspired this imaginary composite of those letters.

Hunger has a solution.

Knowing my father, he would have bought 10 cans of chili and left 5 at the Senior Center. He grew a garden and fished for trout all summer but rarely ate any of it. His neighbors were blessed with his generosity.

If you feel inspired by reading between the lines please consider making a donation to a local food bank because there are good people everywhere who can’t even afford a week’s worth of canned chili.