Time for another Friday Fictioneers entry – my first in a few weeks! The challenge is to write a 100-word story in response to a weekly photo prompt chosen by our host Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. Follow the link to her blog for more information. Thank you to all who take the time to read, like, or comment.

PHOTO PROMPT © Connie Gayer

Holes

“What are you doing?” The boy asked.

“Digging,” the man replied. “One hole for every life I couldn’t save.”

The boy gazed out across the horizon.

“How many?”

“Enough for you to understand that I’m not the hero you’re looking for. Go home kid, I can’t help you.”

He watched the man a while longer, then silently picked up a shovel and joined in the work. By the end of the day he had added two holes of his own to the already pockmarked landscape.

“Who are they for?”

The boy looked down at his blistered, bleeding hands.

“My parents.”