“Every day the world grows darker, intolerance and bigotry keeps growing…”
Hammad and Johnny stood towards the back of the crowd , hand in hand just listening. Behind them a thin line of policemen protected them from hatred.
“… but remember that there is light at the end of the tunnel… “
Johnny smiled when a beer-bottle suddenly crashed in front of them and it started raining shards of green glass. Everything flared into brilliant colors before it all went dark.
Hammad woke to blackness with a silent headache, knowing that he’d lost Johnny and his sight.
Now, he knew what darkness was.
I couldn’t avoid thinking of the light at the end of the tunnel. Of always having hope… the only problem is that you never know if you can fall even further. As some of you have seen I have real problems to comment before Sunday… stay patient and I try to return to you.
Friday Fictioneers is a group of authors who try their best to write good stories in hundred words to the same picture. Rochelle keeps us all in line and always tells wonderful stories. This week she gives us a glimpse from the past and a lesson of how everything has changed.
—
December 5, 2018
Björn Rudbergs writings 
As long as I read that first line of your story, I knew I was in for a grim, emotional ride, and you didn’t disappoint. You portrayed a very stark snippet of our reality, and I hope Hammad is able to find light in his new darkness.
P.S. Hope you’re doing well, Björn!
Oh I write dark but feel great… not a personal experience.
Punchy and very visual.
Thank you, writing from an image is a lot of fun and it becomes visual
the light at the end of the tunnel is, sometimes, an oncoming train
It can be… or you start to think about exiting the tunnel before you even entered.
But yet, your fiction is always so dark…
I have tried to write happy… but it’s so easy it get’s sappy.
This could be so many things, a peace march, a gay pride march, a march in solidarity with Muslims. But the intolerance and hate on the other side of that thin line is just as dark. Johnny was not very loyal was he? Poor Hammad.
Oh I didn’t think about that.. but you are right, Johnny might have abandoned Hammad… I thought that Johnny died… but I see your point.
I wondered why he was smiling.
He was smiling just before disaster hit.
I find this poem fascinating because, though it clearly presents tragedy, loss, and pain, it also is so very beautifully written and artistic:
“it started raining shards of green glass. Everything flared into brilliant colors before it all went dark”
That is gorgeous. To me, it shows that out of pain, comes brilliant artistic expression and revolution. I think maybe in losing our sight, we finally see.
I like that you chose the name “Johnny” — it allows this to be a gay couple, or Johnny could be a girl’s name.
I love the expression “silent headache.” I’m going way out of bounds here, imagining scenarios in which he has a mental disorder that makes his identity change, and/or also allows/forces him to time/space travel.
I think knowing darkness better can be a very good thing, depending on how you choose to embrace it.
To me going blind would be so scary… but I think maybe when you finally have reached the bottom maybe there will be some light seeping through
I know exactly what you mean when you say as long as you have hope, “you never know if you can fall any further”. I understand it for the individual and from a society’s perspective. In these times, so many people at least in the US keep saying it can’t get any worse because we remain hopeful things will turn around. But if we were to accept we can’t just sit here and something or someone else turn them around, we would be motivated to take to the streets and help. This may be way beyond the scope of your poem, but it inspired a closer look at the concept. For that I thank you.
I think it was in the back of my mind (and we certainly have a piece of that as well)
Wow, Björn. This is really powerful — and heartbreaking, too.
Thank you… I seem to always write from the darker side ….
Owwww…..
🙂
😳🙄
Very emotional and powerful read.
Thank you Lisa
Dark stuff, grim is the word that I heard!
Great stuff as ever
We seem to be falling in love with night.
Interesting exploration of two aspects of darkness.
Sometimes they becomes one and the same.
Ah, how sad. And how amazing that even after such a loss there is still a shred of hope.
When there is life there is hope…
Recently, someone told me they found my insistence that things could be worse extremely annoying. I just shrugged. I mean, as your story suggests, it is just the truth. There is always one more thing to lose.
I think that is true … then there can always be a new light even when it’s darkest.
It’s a grim world we are living in, my friend.
Indeed…
The grim reality of this story is haunting.
So much darkness… but we mostly do it ourselves.
Oh! what a heart-rending tale.. your flash fiction speaks to a multitude of intolerant opinions, sadly so much a part of modern society even today, when everyone should know better than to judge another person’s choices in life.
I always thought that you can only judge yourselves is the core in most religions… but it seems like people forget that part of their belief.
Very sad story, very realistic and so unfortunate that one person lost his vision. Mob violence leads to consequences that often go out of hand.
I have a tendency to think that mobs are the same as violence.
Very moving, and obviously heartfelt. Thinking of you.
The only thing I’m intolerant about is intolerance
This was powerfully written. While I think there is always a possibility for just outcomes to the world’s problems, it’d be mad of me to think that can be accomplished without some people paying heavy, heavy costs.
Maybe any just case (and probably unjust cases too) need their martyrs
Oh! I actually read that again desperately hoping for a different ending! So sad and well written, of course.
I had hoped for a better ending too, but I couldn’t write anything else today.
Dear Björn,
Hammad and Johnny had the right idea. Too bad the intolerance flares around them. Sadly, it seems, we’ve learned nothing. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
I think that they had an idea of living their own life… but there are too many provoked by borders crossing…
Literal darkness among the figurative. Nicely done.
Darkness comes in many shapes.
The line of police hinted that something bad was going to happen. Sometimes their very presence can fuel the fire.
I think the police might provoke,… but sometimes they protect too.
Very grim. Darkness both literal and figurative.
Life is dark and darker…
So very well done, Björn. Intolerance and hate are not going away any time soon, are they?
I think it’s always going to be there…. it takes real courage sometimes not too hate…
So true
As powerful as ever, Bjorn, but your writing seems to get increasingly darker.
I like what you do, but…
hint taken… I will try sappy romance next week 🙂
Nicely done, Bjorn. You lead us down a dark alley and leave us there wondering what will happen next.
Part of me believes that Hammad will prove that a blind man have better vision that we who see.
Worse yet, it could have been even worse.
It could be even worse… for instance Hammad still had two legs left.
the other end of the tunnel is always a mystery
The light in the tunnel is the oncoming train
So much loss for Hammad, so much darkness within those who killed Johnny and took his sight. I certainly hope he finds some light at the end of the tunnel.
I hope so too… but some days I’m not positive.
I enjoyed the juxtaposition of light and dark, despair and hope, tyranny and enlightenment. Nicely done my friend.
Thank you… chiaroscuro is the best way to show the world.
The lessons we learn the hard way, as children seem to be the ones that impact us the most. I’m unsure if it is our innocence or the gravity of the lessons…… Very thought provoking write.
Yes, I think that on innocence you can paint both compassion and intolerance… childhood is a canvas and we the grownups have the colors.
Sometimes there is no light at the end of that tunnel. Dark and reflecting the harsh realities. Nicely done.
There are endless tunnels with a drop at the end.
This made me realise that sometimes the darkest dark comes from the inhumanity of peoples thoughts.
I think humans know the darkest colors.
I like how you combined several things here to call out bigotry. It’s a very sad climate.
I hope everything will be different.
I hope so too.
A beautifully crafted story, very strong sense of the couple and the mob violence exploding around them. Your matter of fact tone in describing the grim outcome heightens the sense of tragedy for me.
Thank you… the matter of fact tone works so well in flash fiction
You structured your story very well, giving us a happy introduction to the main characters, and then shattering the mood with an act of hatred. Very powerful and moving.
We have plenty of hatred and bigotry in this country, and unfortunatley, we are not alone.
This is heartbreaking!
Oh no. This is tragic. Deeply dark and emotional. Such great loss
Wonderfully written. It hit the heart with a strong message that hate and biggotry are not worthwhile ways to live. You took it from dark to darker and that light at the end of the tunnel could be getting further away.