Weekly Prompt: Fooling Yourself
The most believable lies are the wallpaper of your mind.
Welcome to the last challenge for April, where our theme is Fool Me Once:
In this last prompt, I’m bringing it home with a sucker punch
You told us stories about how you’d imagine you’d fool us all. How you’d pull the wool over the eyes of an unsuspecting public.
Well, that’s all good and well, but now let’s try a bit of therapy, shall we? A little healing after all that damage you’ve done. Hmmm?
Tell us a story about fooling yourself. Or a version of yourself. Or a fictional, much cooler, but still self-deceptive person. Whatever degree of truth and introspection you feel most comfortable with.
This week it’s about sailing down the longest river of all. Denial, the one with all those hidden rocks and many wrecks.
How have you lied and tricked yourself?
What has that face in the mirror been telling you all these years that isn’t true.
You’re not good enough? You’re too tall? Too short? Too fat? Too bald?
What insidious soul worming lies and tricks and ploys have made a lovable fool out of you?
A simple question, but not so simple answer
Draw this as inspiration and write whatever story you feel most comfortable with. Change names, places and any other facts.
But try for the Truth in the end.
Mike lay in an uncomfortable bed, struggling to breathe, while his family came and went. Those that still cared for his outcome. But tubes and beeps kept him company all through the night.
Shadows of those paid to care came and went, tender and kind, to a point. Administering their care in allotments based on survival averages and typical cases. No one’s a genius before Death.
His health had failed before his ambition. Ambition that he rode like a bucking stallion for decades. Untamable and swift, it trampled everything in its path. A drive that created masterpieces across the world.
He’d spent years away from his kids painting a ceiling, ingesting paint and ruining his back, and nearly blinding himself with dust and colour.
But what a wonder he’d wrought, a testament to his genius, irrefutable evidence of his worth shared with the world.
They’d see, one day, when I’m gone, that I had a right to be here.
A small hand held his large calloused one, fine bones and delicate pale fingers squeezed a meaty arthritic paw, paint stained and inked for life.
He squeezed back and opened his eyes for her, to look at her and how she’d grown, who she’d become and what he’d long to see now.
“I’m sorry, little one,” were his final words.
“I know,” she said, and kissed his forehead. A painful chapter closed.
Challenge Requirements
Your story must:
- Tell us a fictional story inspired by a lie to yourself.
- Be min 100 and max 1000 words long, excluding the title, subtitle, and any post-story bio/links. (We use Medium’s own word count feature.)
- Use “Denial” as one of your five tags.
- We recommend Fiction, Flash Fiction and maybe your genre too. But it’s your choice.
- Please link back to the prompt so others can find it easily.
New here? Come, write with us. What bold stories do you have?
