Author: Reena Saxena

Inspired by Reena’s Xploration Challenge #283 – Fraud &
Moonwashed Weekly Prompt – Untouched

i wish we’d remained untouched
but the evil was pervasive
the fraud perpetrated left us in ruins
gutting our insides
and scarring our perspectives

but we fight
we overcome
and we rectify the misdeeds
restoring balance and harmony
the goodness will triumphantly rise again

Fraud can be a noun or a verb and if you do something fraudulently, then it is an adverb.  There will always be unscrupulous people around looking for ways to exploit others.  Perhaps the earliest recorded case of fraud in the Western world was that of Hegestratos and Xenothemis in 300 B.C.  A Greek merchant named Hegestratos took out an insurance policy on a boat for a large sum, with the deliberate intention of sinking it.  At this time, it was known as bottomry and not referred to as insurance, and a bottomry bond, is a contract where a shipowner provides his or her ship as security for a loan to finance a voyage or for a certain period of time.  Hegestratos secured a bottomry to cover the value of his boat in case it was to sink during the voyage between Syracuse (modern-day Sicily) and Athens, Greece.  If the ship successfully completed the voyage…

I wrote a Six Sentence Story yesterday about intrusive questionnaires at doctor’s offices and a possible downside from giving the medical community too much information about stuff that isn’t any of their business. Reena’s prompt gave me a wonderful opportunity to write a dystopian tale about that concern.

We have a single word prompt after a long time, and the word is

FRAUD

Gillian was, and always had been, an exemplary citizen. She believed in ‘goodness’ and honesty because she never questioned the motives of others as possibly being different from her own. She was well-liked and respected in her community primarily because of her uncompromising, somewhat naive, optimism.
Gillian enjoyed a long and trusting rapport with her doctor who had monitored her congenital heart condition since her early 30’s. She’d answered every question posed to her over 20 years there in a thorough and honest fashion because she never…

Th following poem was inspired by this prompt from Reena Saxena, and this prompt from ronovanwrites. I encourage you to have a look at them if you’re looking to give your creativity a nudge. 😉

It’s been said, “Time heals all wounds.”
Look around you; this isn’t true
Nay, mental wounds are more like glue
Tend to stick ‘til given heart’s heed