Well here’s my story for this week’s prompt. This is one of my own photos that I snapped in a little, off the road cafe in Alaska. Good memories of a good time. I’ve started a file and thus far have some good ones to choose from for next week. My story a complete work of fiction. 98 words.
Special thanks again to Madison Woods for initiating Friday Fictioneers and then entrusting me with her baby.
Copyright Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
A stunning contradiction of cropped black hair, bronzed skin and sea foam-blue eyes, Aggie McKewen’s face reflected her Inuit and Scottish parentage.
Keith, who worked at his uncle’s café in Seward County, Alaska, longed to speak to her but didn’t know sign language and she was fencepost-deaf. Every Saturday he served her grilled salmon in shy silence.
After six weeks of night classes he felt ready to declare himself and ask her out.
With a voiceless giggle she snatched his pen and order pad. There she wrote, “I’d love to but why did you call me a tampon?”
Rochelle Wisoff-Fields-Addicted to Purple 
Hahaha…love it. Tampon too funny
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Rochelle,
Reminds me of Seinfeld…thanks for the laugh and welcome to your first day on the job. I have some pictures I will send your way. Maybe you can use one or two of them. I posted mine http://blog.tompoet.com/?p=568 Let’s get this bus rolling!
Tom
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Talk about missigning! Good prompt, Rochelle–and enjoyed your fun response.
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Too cute! I loved it!
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Sounds like there was a typo in his message. So far, I’ve never called anyone a tampon, at least not a soiled one, Although, I do think I referred to someone one as a used prophyla–ctic one time, an unfortunate miscommunication on my part. It’s amazing how easily some people are offended . . . .
Loved your story Rochelle and looking forward others inspired by this photo.
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You are the king of humor, Russell. Even your comments make me laugh. I’m looking forward to your installment this week.
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Mine’s up now. Here’s the link.
http://russellgayer.wordpress.com/
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Love it! I had a deaf person chuckle over my signing once; she told me I spoke with a weird accent. 😉
My link will be up on Friday morning.
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Hi Rochelle: Love the photo. Love your humorous story. I’m getting off to a slow start this week. Once again…”life interferes with art” ..Thanks for the chuckle.
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Great photo Rochelle. And a charming vignette too with some thought provoking phrases in there. Loved ‘sea foam blue eyes’ and ‘fence-post deaf’. I also revisited the debate on Scotch or Scottish but with no apparent conclusion – there’s a common perception that ‘scotch’ should only be used with specific products, eg food and drink (scotch egg, scotch broth) but then I remembered ‘scotch mist’ … Thanks for exercising my brain at what is, for me, an ungodly hour. 🙂
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And thank you, Sandra, not only for your compliments but for the lesson as well. You’ll note that I changed it to Scottish. It’s akin to the lesson I received from my Japanese daughter in law: Oriental refers to rugs and Asian refers to people.
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Dear Rochelle,
Maybe he only called her a Tarpon, which is a Florida gamefish, if I’m not mistaken. Not much of an improvement, but you never know.
I liked Aggie’s name and her sea foam blue eyes and the earnest nature of Keith. Six weeks of study should be rewarded.
So how’s that bus seat feeling now? Your feet reaching the floor?
Aloha,
Doug
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Dear Doug,
With all the co-pilots I have I think it’s going to be an exciting journey. I did strap on a pair of platform shoes to help my feet reach the floor though. Big bus.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Very cute. I loved it.
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Haha! Cute success story but I can so imagine how horrid he must have felt.
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And the Fictioneers are rolling along just fine! You did a great job pulling all together so quickly 🙂
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Ha! So cute. 🙂
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Well, it just goes to show that humour works everytime Rochelle – even in sign language. What a great alternative look at the photo prompt you shared. 🙂
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Welcome to the driving seat Rochelle! Loved your story, reminds me of a story from my childhood, though that was a foreign language rather than signing 🙂
Mine is here today http://anneorchardwriter.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/friday-fictioneers-after-the-wedding/
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Oouch something lost in translation… I sympathize with Keith.
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Wow… right out of the gate with your story… only 98 words… tsk tsk… well, you are in charge, so we’ll let it slip this week. I will ruminate over this photo and be back tomorrow…
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p.s. how did Keith ask Aggie out?
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How else? Sign language. He took a 6 week course so he could communicate with her. See how well that worked?
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Less is more, Ted. My understanding has always been that it’s 100 words of less.
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Good one! Oh by the way… wipe the chagrin off my face… 6 weeks of night classes… I misread. Hope my writing is better than my reading.
Good story, btw…
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LOL, LOVED it! A lesson in navigating our world.
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That was amusing. Also, I’ve never heard of the term “fencepost-deaf” until now.
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Hey your photo worked… here’s my story… http://tedstrutz.com/2012/10/25/displaced/
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Sweet story. I can see Aggie looking up at Keith with laughter in her sea-foam blue eyes while he reads her message. It feels like a small piece of an beautiful, endearingly clumsy romance.
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That’s pretty much how I see it, too. 🙂
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Poignant. That’s the word I was looking for. Good work! 🙂
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Hi Rochelle,
Thanks so much for riding herd on this crew! A tampon, how romantic! You have a wicked sense of humor. Used to have a boss who was born in Scotland. He told me scotch is whiskey, but the people are Scottish. Thought you’d want to know this meaningless piece of trivia. Ron
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Dear Ron,
Whiskey is Irish. Whisky is scotch. Americans write both the same way, which tends to annoy Scots. Just thought I’d mention it, while we’re on the scotch/Scottish thing. Marilyn
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How about the French???
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Surprisingly, they seem to get it right most of the time. The whisky drinkers, anyway. They are pronounced differently in French. The Irish one is “whiskay” and the Scottish one is the same as in English.
Read your story via Email but haven’t been over to your site to comment yet. Will get there eventually.
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You’ll both note that I originally had Aggie of Inuit and Scotch parentage…fortunately Sandra caught it before it went much farther.
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I knew you would know… hey, what time is it over there?
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good one. It brings several puns to mind, but I refrain…. the story made me laugh.
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Thanks for the refrain, Bill. Glad you liked it.
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Very silly, but sweet, too. I have good feelings about their future!
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LOL!
This is awesome! Loved it!
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Just got mine posted: http://waitingforaname.wordpress.com/2012/10/26/friday-fictioneers-the-next-assignment/
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Aw, such a cute little romance – I hope things work out for them. There’s hope at least – Keith is earnest and she has a sense of humour about his mistakes. Great story!
Thank you for taking the helm, Rochelle. I’m looking forward to many happy Fridays to come!
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Funny, and sweet – liked that!
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I must remember that chat-up line, it seems to works. Well done.
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Nothing like a few communication problems to break the ice! Funny ending.
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Oh dear — and I now so want to see the signs, and wonder what he meant! HAHAA!
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Oh, ha ha. Very sweet. Yeah, who wants be called a tampon? Poor guy. Nicely done, Rochelle.
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Very cute! Goes to show you don’t have to be using autocorrect to have embarrassing miscommunications.
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Hi all: My story is up…come visit me at: http://www.triplemoonstar.blogspot.com.
Rochelle…hope you can get the linkz thingy up soon.
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Found it.
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Love it. So real with her giggling. I had the same thing happen to me once but with different results. I called a girl a tampon. I wasn’t signing, though. She slugged me! I’m at http://photovignettes.wordpress/2012/10/27-one-hundred-words. Or something like that.
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Oops. I can’t cut and paste on this Nook. Try http://photovignettes.wordpress/2012/10/27/one-hundred-words.
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Ok, got it this time. http://photovignettes.wordpress.com/2012/10/27/one-hundred-words.
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I give up!
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Thanks Rochelle. This is lovely – so much said and so tight. Loved the fencepost-deaf and Aggie’s eyes. I’m sure they were twinkling at Keiths mis-sign.
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Thank you, Sarah. In my mind Keith and Aggie have a bright future together, despite the communication breakdown. 😉
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This was hilarious! Thank you for sharing it with us! Here’s mine:
http://sarahthestoryteller.wordpress.com
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Thanks, Sarah. Going to check out yours now.
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Haha, cute and funny. I liked the description at the beginning and the slow buildup. Nice! (and congrats on the first week hosting).
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I laughed out loud.
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I LOVE THIS…can happen to any of us…at least he just called her a tampon and nothing worst. LOL..I love your post, love you blog …so cheerful and endearing just like you…following you and I want to THANK YOU for bringing us together. YOU are SO PRECIOUS!! hugs shakira
http://justmeshakirack.blogspot.com/2012/10/friday-fictioneers-and-saturday-centus.html
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Ha Ha. A funny one. At least they can communicate on paper if not verbally in the same language. Romance can always find other ways to communicate if one can be creative enough LOL
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Oops… correction…I’m #48 on the list. Lora
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Haha good one! I enjoyed this – will be back.
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Dear Sam,
Thanks for visiting and joining in.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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That’s just brilliant! I love it.
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Thanks for visiting an older story and commenting. They’re there for the reading and I’m glad you did.
shalom,
Rochelle
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LOL!!!!
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Rochelle,
I remember seeing this picture back in the, just as I was realizing that Friday Fictioneers was a thing. Seems like a long time ago, eh?
I’ve had similar mistakes in language learning as this guy, but probably not any quite as embarrassing. If I did, the other person was polite enough not to tell me. 🙂
-David
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Dear David,
I’m so pleased you came back here and took the time to comment. It does seem like a long time ago and, then again, not so much. It’s really sped by and I can’t believe I’m going into my third year. it still boggles my mind that Madison entrusted her baby to me as I had only been a participant for six months.
As for the story, there are always communication problems when two people are involved, but he did take it to a new level, didn’t he? I still think he deserves credit for going the extra mile to speak with her. I’m sure Aggie appreciated it, too. In my mind Aggie and Keith are still together. 😉
Thank you again,
Shalom,
Rochelle
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So funny D:
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PS Whoops, I’ll try again, I got my laughing smiley the wrong way round 😀
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Dear Sarah,
Love the dyslexic smiley. 😉 Thank you for coming back to read and even comment. Much appreciated.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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