Taking the Highway
Words 199
Lata put away the dinner things and looked over to Tumul, her husband of three decades. As usual, he was blowing smoke rings.
“Why do you insist on smoking?” Lata burst out. “The doctor…”
“I’m not smoking dammit! Can’t you see I am practicing for the smoke rings competition?” He coughed. “This year I will beat that insufferable Ghosh…”
“But at what cost?”
“Death is inevitable.” He lit another cigarette. “May as well do something great before then.”
“Why choose something so destructive? Why not do some charity…?”
“Reserve the lecture for your students.” He snapped. “Go away and leave me alone!”
A smoky heart floated across to her.
“As you wish.” She dragged out a packed suitcase.
He blew another ring that slipped down over her head to encircle her throat.
“I’m sorry Tumul,” her voice cracked, “But I cannot sit and watch you kill yourself…”
“Don’t be a fool Lata.” He rasped. “I’ll stop once I win…”
“What if you don’t win? What if you fail?”
“Real failure is not in failing but in not trying.” He intoned.
“It is also failure not to know when to stop trying.” She swallowed. “I’m done being a failure.”
***
Written for the Sunday Photo Fiction – a story in 200 words or less. Thanks to Alistair Forbes for hosting the challenge and John Robinson for the photo prompt. To read the other stories inspired by this prompt, click here.
Thanks for reading 🙂
Dahlias – need I say more 😀 Now for some fun stuff
A dancing tree on top of the other trees!
A depressed lion in Hyderabad outside the Salar Jung Museum
Another depressed lion at Lucerne, Switzerland. Perhaps they are long lost brothers, separated by continents…
A duck, just to prove I know what the challenge is all about 😀 Unless this is not a duck…
The deserted streets at dusk
A designer house or is it a cafe restaurant? And don’t miss the redefined green wall-to-wall carpeting.
Dancer balancing on an earthen pot balanced on another earthen pot on the head of another dancer…whew
Dancers on stilts. I have featured these dancers before and if you missed them the first time or would like to revisit, click 
At first I though she offered high rise apartments for rent. 😀 But on a closer look I realized they aren’t bird nests but scars from old wounds – branches that she has nurtured and in all likelihood mercilessly cut off. Does she not feel the pain of loss? How could she not? Yet she continues to grow and bloom, undeterred.
Waiting for daybreak. Did you notice the sun rays shooting out just like they used to when we drew the Sun during our childhood? At least I did! 😀
At the Golconda fort, Hyderabad waiting to be explored.
A family waiting at a station for our train to pass and theirs to arrive. Or are they waiting for a loved one to arrive? They don’t seem to have any baggage with them. But then again, who can decipher baggage by just looking at people?
These young men wait for their break to be over so that they can get back to work. 😉
You can’t deny these two men are waiting for us to pass 😀 Don’t miss the lovely fields in the distance which was what I had been aiming for…
Then there are books waiting to be read – so many and so little time 😦 Hey BS say hi and thanks to you Jiji 😉 😀
Well? What are you waiting for? Go on don’t be shy, have a bite, have the whole thing if you like, it’s the non-fattening kinds 😀
I find it fascinating (and a bit eerie) when I capture the propeller blades in mid-flight 😀
Did you see the tiny airplane against the cottony clean (happy) clouds?
And in contrast we have here dark rolling clouds ready to erupt into a storm any minute.
Contented clouds float lazily over the Vltava river, Prague
And follow it up by a sightseeing trip to Old Castle, Prague 😉
Before rushing off to Chidambaram India. Only some of them managed to make it so far. 😀
Or perhaps they preferred to visit India’s Tinseltown 😉
Before regrouping at the Kolkata airport to catch the return flight.
Back to cloud 
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