She lived in a mango tree until she fell three stories trying to pluck one from the highest branch to put in her morning smoothie.
Her daughter, Magdalene, moved her into her basement where there was no window or sun to wake her for her routine jog at dawn.
For breakfast, she unwillingly drank Naked protein shakes with the chalky aftertaste.
“I wish you’d stop buying these. They’re not even organic,” she complained, curling her nose at the orange bottle in front of her. “And it’s soy. You know I hate soy.”
“Well there’s some pancakes and bacon left over on the stove,” Magdalene said nonchalantly as she tucked in the shirttail of her son’s school uniform.
“You don’t look like this at 90 eating pancakes and bacon.” She pointed to her toned arms and the tight skin around her neck as her grandson giggled.
“A silly old woman with a broken back?” Magdalene asked.
word count: 149
—Nortina
Mondays Finish the Story: a flash fiction challenge where we provide you with a new photo each week, and the first sentence of a story. Your challenge is to finish the story using 100-150 words, not including the sentence provided.
Click the froggy icon to read other stories and add your own.
Lovely Curses 
There’s a meanness in the household! The basement of a treehouse… clever!
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Well done! Locked in the basement of the tree! Who would have thunk? 🙂 Thank you for participating in the Mondays Finish the Story challenge. Be well… ^..^
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Who would have “trunk”? 😉 Thanks again!
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The daughter is quite evil… Nice story Nortina:)
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She is quite sinister. The apple fell very far from the tree . . . or did it? 😉 Thanks for reading!
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Sure hope my kids do not do that to me I hate dark basements.
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Me too! *knocks on wood* Thanks for reading!
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Nice story
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As usual, you have a grasp of very good dialogue and quirky story line. I certainly didn’t expect the age of the mango tree climber. Only one thing I’d change, because the title says Mango Smoothies I think it would be okay to switch one of the uses of the word ‘Mango’ in the first paragraph. Once in the title, once in the first paragraph and change the third reference to a more generic word like ‘fruit’. Otherwise, the reader sees the word Mango three times in the first 28 words. That’s a lot of mangoes.
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Good eye! And the perfectionist in me is always looking to cut down on unnecessary word repetition.
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How sad that she has to live in a dark basement, drink soy smoothies, has a broken back, has a daughter who isn’t very nice to her and she’s 90 years old. Great story Nortina! (Maybe she should throw her daughter from the treehouse). LOL!!
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She’s pretty fit for 90. I bet as soon as her back heals, she’ll be able to toss her ungrateful daughter right over that balcony! 😀
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Haha! I think you are right!
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Magdalene is pretty nasty to her mother. Moved her into a basement where there were no windows and calls her a silly old woman. They do not have a good relationship. 😦
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Yes, it seems Magdalene wasn’t all too excited about playing parent to her elderly mother.
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Well I hope the mother’s back heals soon so she can get back to making her Mango smoothies. 🙂
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