Written as part of a challenge called Flash Fiction for the purposeful practitioner. Details can be found at https://rogershipp.wordpress.com/2016/03/31/flash-fiction-for-the-purposeful-practitioner-week-15-2016/
“Stop saying ‘It’s just the circle of life’. I mean it makes no sense. Plain stupid, if you ask me.” Oliver splashes water over at Gabriella.
“It is. The small fish eat the big fish. They die and get picked apart by small fish. The plants get eaten by cows. The cows feed us. The waste is cycled back as fertilizer. Everything completes the cycle.” She ignores her younger brother and talks to the sea.
“So I get ate by a shark,the little fish pick at me after I become shark meat. Right?” Oliver can’t find a better way to aggravate sister.
“No, Oliver. You would be shit out and the kelp would be fertilized. The little fish would eat the kelp. The shark gets to eat twice.” Gabriella’s smile shows how much thought she put in her response.
Oliver decides to watch the waves instead of talking to his sister.
Coloring Outside the Lines 
Hahahahaha! I love her response to her little brother. …”and the shark gets to eat twice.” LOL! Cute story, Mark.
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Thank you darling. Kids are fun play toys in these stories. Unedited child remarks are genuine and coarse but loving and playful
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That’s true! Children say anything! LOL!
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That’s a great story – the dialogue between the siblings is very real, competitive and tetchy. Lovely take on the prompt 🙂
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Thank you. The snarky exchange seemed to fit well here. The circle of life thing seemed more fun with children telling the story.
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You told the story really well – snarky sibling in your family by any chance?
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Mostly my sister. I’m the nice little brother 😉
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Wonder if she sees you as the snarky one? 🙂
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I’m going to guess yes.
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Haha! I suspect my brother would say the same about me and I’m self aware enough to know he’d be right. I was the epitome of the irritating little sis. 🙂
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I think the older kids set us young ones up. But it taught me the importance of a low profile and a quick response to trouble.
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Some valuable life lessons learned there. Though I confess, I was usually guilty of anything I was accused of.
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I tend to forget details when guilt and innocence come too close. I probably was on the guilty side too long. If I had only the normal sense of fear, maybe I would have stayed on the innocent side. I’d be really boringand have less character.
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*snorting with laughter* … how siblings will poke and jibe …. and yet, sometimes, there is truth and knowing in the wicked words 😉
great take on the prompt 🙂
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Sibling rivalry prepares us for the horrors of interpersonal struggles later in life. The older jealousy that Mom and Dad will let the younger kid play in traffic and the younger one seeing the knowledge the older one has attained. Of course, an older brother would throw him in and scream “SHARK”. Such is the circle of family life 😉
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kids can be and usually are so perceptive …. generous and yet absolutely, wonderfully cruel at the same time …. it’s that lack of “censorship” …. your comment has me in the frame of mind of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.
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Oh, I needed wild boar heads on sticks! I’m glad I could conjure up that level. I totally agree about the freedom of expression that children can pull off.
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Great tell. Little sister had the last word!
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They usually do.😉
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