Prophet holds a special place in my heart. It's a work of microfiction and the winner of the Ontario Writers Conference (OWC) Story Starters Contest from February 2017. Unfortunately, the OWC is no longer in operation, and its website featuring the contest's stories is unavailable; so I thought it would be worthwhile to share Prophet here.
For context: the contest called for stories, 100 words or less, that were inspired by the work of a local artist from Ontario, (Cheryl Andrews, featured below). The entries were then judged by Canadian author and poet James Dewar, as well as the attendees of the 2017 Festival of Authors.
PROPHET
by Carolyne Topdjian
Head in hand—script dancing on the backs of his eyelids—Yousef perches on his cane. The fog will screen his break from routine but only for a breath. Already, Omar whistles for the goats and announces that he is merely steps away. Yousef hasn’t long to read the ink and to translate its message.
He squints in blackness. Meteors twirl like spindles feeding wool into weaves. Allah shows him more than he wants to see—wills to believe. War is coming. Men with guns in their hands, rage in their bellies. Yousef’s home, isolated inside a thirsty vein of rock, will burn.