Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Flash Fiction



Two 101-word stories that I wrote for a contest.  Not suitable for children.

After

She’s obsessed with locks: deadbolts, chains, combination locks; doors, windows, car (even while driving).  There are nights she wakes up screaming and nights she doesn’t sleep at all.  She flinches when I touch her and it’s been three months since we made love.

I can’t tell her I understand how she feels because I don’t. I don’t tell her I’ll make it better because I can’t. I want to hold her to me and protect her from the bad people in the world. But when she needed me I wasn’t there. I’m useless to her.

It’s like he raped our marriage.


The Bridge

It was raining hard the night I met her. She was wearing that red scarf she likes so much.  Just a stranger on the bridge, but then I saw myself in her eyes and everything changed.

It wasn’t magic words but my strong, confident demeanor that changed her mind. She fell in love with that strength and confidence. I fell in love with her.

But sometimes I wonder what will happen when she realizes what I was doing that night on the bridge in the pouring rain. I dread the day she realizes that her strong, confident man needed saving too. 

7 comments:

  1. Two powerful pieces. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

    Arlee Bird
    Tossing It Out
    &
    Wrote By Rote

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  2. Amazing story-telling!!! Loved both, (smile), even through the pain!

    Thank you for voting in my Battle of the Bands, and Valentine bloghop post!

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  3. Gosh, this is powerful! The last one I may bring up in a weekly meeting I am taking about Mental health. I am a Credit Counsellor and see many people with many issues so I thought a course may help me better understand my clients and how to help them. This is truly a great piece of writing on both counts

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  4. i'm being a good blogger tonight and attempting to read all the posts of yours that i've neglected since you began sharing your thoughts with the rest of the cosmos, and that last one, the bridge. i LOVE that. the first one's got some good stuff in it, too. but that last one is beautiful.

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