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Please be considerate of 70 or more participants and keep your story to 100 words. Thank you.
The next photo is the PROMPT. Remember, all photos are property of the photographer, donated for use in Friday Fictioneers only. They shouldn’t be used for any other purpose without express permission. It is proper etiquette to give the contributor credit.
PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz 😀 (Thanks, Ted)
Genre: Historical/Biographical Fiction
Word Count: 100
STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT
After thirty hours of labor, at 3 o’clock in the morning, Dolly’s desperate physician resorted to forceps to deliver her baby.
Dolly clutched her sister’s hand. “Josie, is it a girl? I don’t hear her cry. Is she—?”
“Stillborn,” said the doctor, sweat beading his forehead. “He nearly killed his mama.”
The midwife laid the motionless infant on the kitchen scale. “Thirteen pounds. Big boy for such a tiny mother.” She held him under running water. “Sveglia!”
He sputtered and cried.
“Hello, piccolo sconosciuto.” Dolly Sinatra took her wailing son in her arms. “Just listen to my Francis sing.”
*piccolo sconosciuto is Italian for ‘little stranger’
Sveglia is “Wake up!”
Because a story about Old Blue Eyes wouldn’t be complete without a song, I leave you with one that Frank Sinatra hated when he first heard it. Doobie doobie doo.
