Flash Club September Flash Club

[Emily]

For our September challenge, we are going to have some "Minisagas" (hopefully ).

Rules:
There are exactly 50 words in the story; the title can be up to 15 words. It is a complete story. There is a start, middle and a meaningful end.

There's no set theme this month.


VOTING:
The entry with the most votes on the 30th of September 2022, 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]

Just realised that I counted the title as one of the 50 words. Here it is, with an extra word added. Please delete the previous one @Emily

Sparrowhawk

Gathering blackberries from the vicious vines, I spot her mottled belly, exposed to the morning sun. Hi-Viz talons outstretched, grasping. Wings half folded.
I carry her featherlight body to the gap where the badgers push through.
One powerful being will feed another, maybe?
I’ll never know. Night-time is another world.

 

[Anonymous]

Family Values

Mama judges me as I thumb through my wallet. The tiny old man in front of us hadn't asked for a gratuity, but I give him one.

It isn't enough.

"Don't spoil the workers," Mama often says. "You work hard for your money."

So do they, I should tell her.

 

[Pamela Jo]

Just to clarify, you are looking for mini-sagas? Can you define with an example? Sagas are supposed to be the story of generations. So there needs to be one moment in a setting of events over time?

 

[Emily]

Well, a minisaga in this instance is as described above But if you can fit a multi generational saga into it, I'll definitely give you extra points

 

[Anonymous]

out eating

At a wobbly table, they hold hands.
“Lord, I pray this food’s good for our bodies.”
It’s Taco Bell.
“I pray Stephanie overcomes her demons and eats. And Mandy eats less.”
Mandy blushes. Stephanie grits her teeth.
Mom orders salad to counteract the double quart of sherbet she ate earlier.

 

[Anonymous]

The Outwalker


They saw him only in shadow, standing under the alder on the hill. Twin ravens circling.

Odin the All-Father. Grimnir. The Widow-Maker.

But what was he doing there? What did He want?

How could they know?

Their warriors dreamed of Valhalla.

But Odin aching, outcast, dreamed of the village.

 

[Dorm Ant]

Are repeats allowed? I've seen that Odin story before.

 

[Anonymous]

Wedding Photos

Framed photos propped against a dumpster. A young man in a black suit looks into the eyes of his white-gowned bride: the WWII generation. Survived, married, living a prosperous life.

They lived it, but COVID took them, their children, and grandchildren. Who can tell their story? Pictures by a dumpster.

 

[Anonymous]

A condominium collapsed in Miami.

Newspapers focused on deeds of firefighters who, god-like, still produced bodies from dust two weeks after.

Articles highlighted demography, like that changed how human the dead were. As always, fires flared over constitutional rights and immigration laws.

Drunk with time, we've forgotten.

Until another catastrophe.

 

[Anonymous]

Cycle


Denise left it, unsecured, against the garden gate. So Jack took it.

Three weeks ago, Jack chained it to the rack. He'd lived in a tent behind Winn-Dixie. Coughs battered him. He didn't return.

Now, it waits. Corrosion creeps along its frame. Rain pelts it. Who'll take the bike next?

 

[Anonymous]

Kneel


One man kneeled on a throat. Lawyers dredged up records. Counterfeiter. Drug abuse. As if anything permitted murder.

Another man kneeled on a field. They despised him. Canceled him.

What did we do? We chanted. Now, Facebook banners are gone. Thoughts and prayers sent. Until it happens again.

It will.

 

[Anonymous]

Road Trip

Buzzing on choc chip cookies, we nicked a tractor. Let’s drive to Mexico!
Charged extra on the CalMac ferry. Barry laugh!
Atlantic crossing was gonna take a week; we changed plan to Southern France.
Refuelled at Largs. The beast did 5mpg.
Budget blown.
Left it in a layby.
Hitched home.

 

[Anonymous]

On the Horns of Teenage Pride

Whisky fuelled Ali's first street fight. He and Crazy Mark watched each others' backs.
Mum hated it when he came home bloody knuckled and stinking. He straightened up, eventually.
Mark was knifed, fighting on his own.
Brokenhearted Ali didn't fight again.
Mum held him close. Then proudly let him go.

 

[Anonymous]

Best Friends Forever and Ever


Her head rests on Amber's shoulder.

"I'm cursed," she sobs.

Amber rubs her arm. "Nah."

The new kid's in the hospital, his shin shattered. He'd been interested in her, Amber knew.

"I'll always be your friend." Amber's cheek brushes her hair.

"You're not afraid?"

Amber restrains a grin. "No. Never."

 

[Anonymous]

On Her Majesty's Service


At last the bees hear, "Your mistress's gone. Your new master will be kind."

Bells peal. Everywhere the scent of dying flowers cloys.

As the casket passes, swarms rise from black-beribboned hives.

Their keeper translates,

" Goodbye. Tell the boy our duty's done. The Queen is dead. Long live our Queens."

 

[Anonymous]

Safe


"Has your father ever touched you? Made you uncomfortable?"

Had he? "No." The best answer.

When Jenna was thirteen, Dad told her to drop her pants and underwear for a spanking. Jenna refused. Her period.

Mom discovered the counselor's questions. Sessions stopped. Jenna wasn't better, but the family was safe.

 

[Anonymous]

I hid one shoe behind the radiator, the other in grandma's greenhouse growbag. I said they wouldn't take me from grandma's if I had no shoes. And they didn't. They left me behind.
Grandma's frown shrinks my hoorah to nothing. I don't think she likes me loving her the most.

 

[Anonymous]

Creation at it's finest

You were formed by the hands of a master craftsman. So much contained in your small frame. Even from the beginning of time, there has never been so much wonder encapsulated. The birth of stars, the dying of suns, none of this compares to you. The whole universe anticipates you.

 

[Anonymous]

She married badly . . .

like many did in those days, but he died doing something foolish, so she got his fortune. Two children die in the first war, one in the second, sitting in the wrong pub. Her grandchildren buy iphones with their inheritance and use them to find husbands, wives, to marry badly.

 

[Anonymous]

no pulse


49 extinguished in a heartbeat, some at the bar, some dancing in lovers' arms, some hiding in bathrooms, praying for deliverance. They were delivered to the fury of a semi-automatic.

At the table, Uncle shakes his head. "It's tragic. It really is. But the Bible does use the word 'abomination'."

 

[Anonymous]

Fly over

The fly is on the wall. Swatter in her hand.
She raises her arm. A flash of guilt. She wouldn’t hurt a flea, except…
It takes off. She waits. It lights again.
Dirty things.
Splat!
Sorry, she says, to smashed fly guts.
Its cousin arrives on the scene.
Cannibals too.

 

[Emily]

Congratulations to @Izuku Midoriya for winning this month's Flash Fiction... with not one but TWO top-marking minisagas, HERE and HERE

WELL DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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