It’s a day late, a dollar short, and a good 25 words over weight, but in the interest of maintaining some semblance of a normal posting schedule during NaNoWriMo, I present to you this week’s Friday Fictioneer’s story!

Short-Lived Light

“The specific energy of a lithium battery is about a million joules per kilogram,” Grandfather said. “The human body, meanwhile, requires six to eight million joules each and every day.”

My grandfather was always a very bright man.

“So it would take about 15 pounds of lithium batteries to sustain a human life for one day—you see?”

He lifted his jar and beckoned me to follow. He opened the door to the basement, flipped on the yellowish light, and descended.

“One hundred joules per second,” he said, pointing to the bulb. “Same as you and me.”

At the bottom of the stairs, he pivoted and scooted the jar into the corner.   The room was full of hundreds upon hundreds of jars, glinting sadly in the short-lived light.

Friday Fictioneers is hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields and this week’s photo prompt was provided by Sean Fallon. Check out both their sites (and Sean’s 100-word novel project, which is cool), then click the little blue dude up above to read more of this week’s stories!

As always, let me know what you think below. Happy (rest of the) weekend!