Let me tell you the account of trying to bring light to a Friday Fictioneers story this week. I had an idea I liked and wrote the story this evening. It came out to 119 words and I couldn’t reduce it without sacrificing vital parts of the story. So I wrote another one, which I liked even better. That one came out at 128 words and again, I didn’t want to sacrifice any of it. So I wrote a third story, which luckily came out to 100 words. That’s the one below, but if you want to read the other two, I’m going to post them on my blog tomorrow and Saturday. This week’s picture is thanks to Claire Fuller, the author of the award-winning novel, Our Endless Numbered Days.
copyright Claire Fuller
The Submariner’s Dream
I dream the alarms sounded. I ran to battle stations, shoving past fear-sweating men in claustrophobic hallways.
I dream they waited for me at the missile room door. I had the keys. Buttons were pushed, codes entered, access granted: all perfect protocol.
I dream the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” lilted around us as we shot our world-ending payload out into the frosty Arctic night, leaving us empty, spent.
I awake, feeling hollow. I go to the bridge.
“Any contact yet?”
The captain shakes his head, despair in his eyes.
I take two more pills and sleep.
I dream the alarms sounded . . .
The Green-Walled Tower 