CHRISTMAS DINNER

~ Iain Kelly

Bill forked the last of the fresh hay into the feeder. He patted the damp horses and headed back to the house through the thick falling snow.

As he stomped his feet at the door, Maude hung up the ‘phone.

‘That was Jessie. Their flight has been cancelled. They won’t be able to get here until Boxing Day now,’ she said.

Bill grunted. ‘Roads are all closed too.’

Maude looked aghast. ‘But I haven’t got anything in for Christmas dinner yet. What are we going to eat?’

Maude paused and contemplated the horses gathered round the feeder, then looked to Bill with a raised eyebrow.

‘Don’t even think about it,’ he answered.

horses-in-snow
© Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Written as part of the Friday Fictioneers challenge hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields (more details HERE). The idea is to write a short story of 100 words based on the photo prompt (above).

To read more stories based on this week’s prompt, visit HERE.

Published by Iain Kelly

39 year old writer, avid film viewer and book reader, employed in the media industry as a television editor.

90 thoughts on “CHRISTMAS DINNER”

    1. Thanks Rochelle. I suppose if you were a guest for Christmas dinner and you didn’t know what you were eating, would you be able to tell what meat it was….? 🙂

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  6. Pingback: CHRISTMAS DINNER — Iain Kelly – All About Writing and more

      1. Many of us do not live in the USA and, as I say above, see little or no difference between the animals we choose or choose not to eat.
        Why the phobia in the USA?
        Does it date back to the days when horse theft was a hanging offence, perhaps?

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  10. Iain, very well thought out story and I’m calling out to those poor horses: “Run!!!”
    I struggled to get started with this photo prompt. I’m Australian and although we do have a few snow areas, I live in Sydney and snow’s a very foreign thing. Struggled to get into the scene but I was really pleased with how it worked out in the end.
    I htink I might by-pass their place for Christmas lunch!
    xx Rowena

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    1. Thanks Rowena. Funnily enough a different flash fiction I wrote yesterday for a different prompt involved Christmas in the southern hemisphere and a lack of snow. I saw this prompt and it was such a nice scene I immediately thought ‘what’s the worst that can happen here?’ Not sure what that says about me! Thanks again, look forward to reading your effort.

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    1. Certainly plenty of times in history, many of them desperate, that horses have provided food. I wonder at what point in history it became wrong to eat horse but okay to eat sheep, cow, pig.

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  28. Then again… if you didn’t plan ahead… you just might deserve to eat… let’s say hay (not the alternative). 🙂

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  35. No Maude! You cannot eat the horses. They are like pets! Anything which is a pet is off limits. Lol. Funny ending Ian. Great write!

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      1. Haha I know. My Dad often visits China for work. They eat dogs and cats in some places and to me that’s awful. It’s not like that everywhere, but I think there are places one needs to be careful about the restaurants one eats at lol.

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  36. Maude sounds like a terrible survivalist — and a terrible cook, too. Snowed in for a single meal, and already she wants to butcher the most expensive and yet worst-tasting meat on the farm? They’d be better off going vegetarian until the snow lets up, geesh!

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  37. YIKES …!!! Necessity is th emother of invention … but … perhaps a few greens instead. 😁 If you’ll excuse me … run little horses run. 😥
    You wrote this so well, lain, that I thought this could happen. But, let’s say it’s all make believe. Have a nice weekend.
    Isadora 😎

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  38. Heheh, I’m sure she was teasing him. In this day and age, I bet her cupboards and freezer are full with food, just not what she had in mind for a feast. And even if not, a few days of fasting won’t kill anyone if there’s enough water. I’m dead set against eating animals that are acquaintances. If life depends on it, it’s another matter, but this doesn’t seem to be the case here.

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  40. This story reminds me of when I visited a friend’s smallholding once and I was just tucking into a meal she’d served up, when her daughter piped up, “Is this Bimbo we’re eating?” Okay, Bimbo was a steer and not a horse, but the fact that she’d been enough a part of the family to give her a name was quite enough to put me off my dinner. Perhaps if I was starving to death, I might think differently. I’ve heard that horsemeat is quite dark and tough D:

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