Please Note: 100% fiction!
“I remember coming to this beach a lot when I was a kid. There were people lying around from inches from the water to the boardwalk. I nearly tripped over people’s legs a few times. What happened? Where are all the people?”
The man scratched his head, “Missy, are you a journalist or something?”
“Oh, no,” not anymore, “I’m just surprised by the lack of people on this beach, that’s all.” Once a journalist, always a journalist.
“If you’ve been around town, missy, you’ll noticed we’re quite sparsely populated these days.” He sighed, “Yes, we lost a lot of people.”
(100 words)


Oo. I don’t want to think about where they’ve all gone. I know a lot of small towns lose their young people to bigger places with more opportunities, but this story seems to suggest something more sinister – the man’s words, his sigh. Well told.
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Thank you. I think it’s a little of both – young people moving to other places for opportunities and perhaps a hint of something more sinister at work.
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Sadness.
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Hello friend, I enjoyed your post. I subscribed. See you often. Have a happy day🌙💫🔆😸🌷🍀
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I think a come-back is in the pipeline.
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Now that you’ve mentioned it, yes, I absolutely can feel a come-back coming.
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Mysterious and discomforting not knowing where everyone as gone and why. Interesting take, Yinglan.
~ Nancy
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Thank you.
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I’m wondering if there isn’t something nasty going on with that body of water? This is a great introduction to a longer story.
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It was direction I was going toward initially – mysterious algae in the water – but decided it would take more than 100 words and the plot is just much too complicated.
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The mind wonders at where they’ve gone and why they disappeared. Was it a normal evolution of the town or something more sinister?
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My mind is wondering that, too, but I can’t decide.
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part of the blame can be increased social media use.
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Perhaps…
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An apt story, we told. I enjoyed reading it
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Thank you.
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there’s definitely a story there (inside your story) that the journalist we’ll sniff out.
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I agree and I don’t think there’s just one story, I think there are multiple. This story can go in so many directions.
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I look forward to reading them, if you choose to pursue them
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Perhaps, somewhere in the future, I’ll continue this story.
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