Throwing Stones

Change, Fairy Tales, Freedom, September Stories 1 Minute
Photo by Los Muertos Crew on Pexels.com

A burley soldier shoved Hansel aside. The soldier had taken his father’s leather, paid nothing, and laughed when Hansel’s father said they’d starve if he made no shoes. The soldier said, “Old man, we fight for you.” 

Fight! But everyone wanted peace. Food and peace. Gretel, his sister, Jakob, his uncle, even his stepmother, though she gave no peace herself. Hansel stooped; straightened, stone in hand. In anger, he threw a rock at the swagger of a man. All of Hansel’s feelings, hopes, and fears flew with it. At the moment of impact, the world exploded into a forest path.

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Published by Monica McHenney

Monica lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two foster dogs. She taught parents how to raise their toddlers for twenty-five years before retiring in 2015 to write. The secret to toddlers is to make sure you get enough sleep. Monica hasn't found the secret to writing, yet, but is diligently working at it. See links to her on-line stories on the publications page.

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2 thoughts on “Throwing Stones”

  1. I’ve been reading about the wars on the frontier between Castile and Grenada. Your piece sums up the plight of the people just trying to live their lives perfectly!

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    1. I was thinking about war when I wrote this story. It was the Gaza war that inspired me because of the disruption to food supplies there.
      Hansel and Gretel may have been inspired by a famine in the thirteen hundreds that was caused by climate change. We remember times like this as best we can, I suppose.

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