Flash Club February Flash Fiction Contest

[Emily]

Happy February / First-Day-of-Spring (here, anyway!) /Imbolc / St. Brigid's Day (Lá Fhéile Bríde)

In honour of all things brightening up, this month's challenge is to write a minisaga of 99 words (no more, no less) along the themes of renewal / new life / hope

(And I do realise some of us are going the opposite direction into Autumn/fall, but please, humour and delight me )

The entry with the most votes on the 28th of February, 2023, will be the winner of an extraordinary hand-crafted (!!) virtual trophy. And, more importantly: some of our very prized, and internationally-renowned, virtual Litopi-cake.


***NOTE!***
A thumbs up/like = 1 vote
"heart-eyes" and a "laughing face" emoji vote = 2 VOTES.



The competition is open to all members. Feel free to enter more than once.


-The main rules here are:

We ask you not to critique

AND

Please make your entry anonymous by clicking the anonymous button, but if you forget, don't worry, that's okay too. (Note: Guardians can see who posts.)


Best of luck!

 

[Anonymous]

The Viewing Lounge

Through the jostling of the crowd, I spotted the planet. A largely moss-green orb with blue-grey patches of ocean, two bright stars beyond, and three moons of varied sizes caught in a snapshot of their orbit.

Beautiful.

We had left the junkyard of Earth behind centuries ago, been woken from cryo-sleep only days before to prepare for our new life. We were the lucky ones. We had won the lottery.

Literally.

Beside me, a heavily pregnant woman groaned, cow-like. I looked down to see her clutching her swollen stomach. A tremble passed through my body.

And so it begins.

 

[Anonymous]

Evergreen

She came with the spring. Her favourite colour was green.

Green, she said, was for shamrocks and Irish eyes, like her father’s. My grandfather, who I never knew. She called him Daddy, eyes growing bright as she tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

Later, green was the colour of nausea, of hospital gowns, and palliative care. Of envy, that other mothers got to see their grandchildren.

She left us on the last day of her birthday month.

The coming of spring, for me, will always be bittersweet.

 

[Anonymous]

An Unexpected Quickening

Magretha thirsted for knowledge. What else from a seventh-color mage? But more, she sought the oozing deference of her fellow wizards. Until, one day, she visited the base of her infinite tower and saw the beggars crowded there.
What good am I to them? she thought, surprising herself.
She fled back to the heights, but the surprising thought gnawed at her until all she valued became brittle, hollow and cold. In hard-won relief, she cast off her robe, abandoned the heights and learned to make bread for the hungry. Warm bread and old magic, she freely shared them both.

 

[Anonymous]

The day is as bright and shiny as a new dime making eyes blink to open wide. The breeze carries scents of recent rain and dank wood moldering in the garden. The brilliant rays bring notes of Easter morn. That gleaming season renews the wheel of time. Chartreuse blades of grass slice upward through the winter hard sod. Fingers are chilled loosening the soil while shoulders blissfully bake in the lambent sunlight. Wrens and mockingbirds and doves call forth their mates and busy themselves weaving their nests. Overhead, two geese circle again and honk. They missed their early flight.

 

[Emily]

Hilariously oops or not, the end of February and start of March completely bypassed me…

So, apologies for the delay in announcing that @Mel L is our February winner!! Mel's winning entry can be found HERE.

Congratulations and well done!

 

[Mel L]

Hilariously oops or not, the end of February and start of March completely bypassed me…

So, apologies for the delay in announcing that @Mel L is our February winner!! Mel's winning entry can be found HERE.

Congratulations and well done!

Thank you, @Emily! Time does have a way of 'Marching' on...
The piece is in memory of my late mother, Gladys. She was born on the first day of spring and died on 31st of March back in 1989.

 

[Pamela Jo]

Thank you, @Emily! Time does have a way of 'Marching' on...
The piece is in memory of my late mother, Gladys. She was born on the first day of spring and died on 31st of March back in 1989.

Congrats Mel. It sounds like she was a real in like a lamb, out like a lion kind of woman. I liked your piece very much.

 

[Mel L]

Congrats Mel. It sounds like she was a real in like a lamb, out like a lion kind of woman. I liked your piece very much.

Thank you! Coming from you, it means a lot.