Tag Archives: flash fiction

November 27, 2013

5200 Words – Friday Fictioneers

Today is my 52nd straight week of doing the Friday Fictioneers, ever since Amy from the Bumble Files suggested I give it a try. I’m very glad I did. One year of stories and pictures (each one exactly 100 words, since I’m obsessive that way) is an accomplishment but more important are all the people I have met and the relationships that I have made in the Friday Fictioneers community. And so, I have decided to dedicate this story to that idea. (I toyed with the idea of mentioning people by name, but 100 words is not at all enough room to mention everyone and I didn’t want to leave anyone out.)

5200 Words

Hundreds streamed through the cafe, but Gloria chose one soul a week to get to know, then wrote 100 words about them.

Soon leather jacket—table 4 became Mike, grabbing a breather from the crying new angel at home. Lunch special—table 8 was Miles, heading off to adventure in Australia. Smiling eyes turned into Carmelita, stopping in to get her usual whenever she was in town. After one year, the notebook in Gloria’s desk held 5200 words of real lives.

Then one day:

Where’s Gloria?

Collapsed suddenly.

Stable condition.

The number of kind words that awaited her were countless.

59 Comments | tags: blogging, diner, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, illness, relationships, waitress | posted in Friday Fictioneers

November 20, 2013

Ain’t No Sunshine… – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

This story had a double inspiration for me, the picture below and the song that gives this story its title.

Ain’t No Sunshine…

She always made me laugh, my cloudy-eyed Eleanor. Light and airy, she flitted from project to scheme like an aether sprite.

But her anger struck as sudden and violently as Odin’s wrath. Her incisive fury could cut me to pieces with a single sentence.

But I loved her. I still do.

She lived on the restless wind and one day it blew her away from me, leaving only a note with many words but no explanation.

I would have given her my heart, but instead she cut it out and left it in her final farewell. My lovely, cloudy-eyed Eleanor.

47 Comments | tags: Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone, farewell, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, heartbreak, Odin, romance, weather, woman | posted in Friday Fictioneers

November 13, 2013

Back Alley Charm – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

Back Alley Charm

“Exclusivity builds value,” my father always said. That’s why he opened his restaurant on an alley with no name and no address. “Word of mouth is the best advertising. We don’t even need a sign if people like what they eat and tell their friends.”

So, no sign. For the first month, no one but friends of my father visited the restaurant. Until one night when the president’s personal secretary took a wrong turn and knocked to ask directions.

He liked what he ate and the rest is history.

“You also need a lot of luck,” my father finally admitted.

48 Comments | tags: Alley, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, restaurant, word of mouth | posted in Friday Fictioneers

November 6, 2013

Achievement Unlocked – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

Achievement Unlocked

Splat!

“Ugh, I got divebombed by a bird!” The girl reached up to her hair but the liquid was clear. Spit? No one was up there, just the stone head above the door.

* * *

The statue saw a light start flashing in front of its unmoving eyes. “50 direct hits! Achievement unlocked!” Slowly, he blinked his eyes for the first time.

“Next goal: wink at 60 girls and make them blush.”

It was slow, but this was an awesome way to become human. And to think, that fairy had given him the option of paying 200 gold to do it immediately.

53 Comments | tags: achievement, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, funny, metamorphosis, quirky, video game | posted in Light

November 3, 2013

Mug Party – Alastair’s Photo Fiction

By David Stewart

Mug Party

I went to my first Mug Party last night. I thought it was about coffee and I even brought my own mug. That wasn’t what it was about.

The invitation said it was a costume party. I came as Pikachu. Everyone else wore fancy dresses and ornate opera masks.

Someone really should have told me.

Everyone was given a small bag of coins and a rubber hammer and it soon became apparent that a Mug Party was where people flitted around, politely knocking each other on the head and stealing their money.

I quickly lost all my money. Half an hour into the party, I had a splitting headache and was handing out IOUs to my muggers. I was so easy to mug, they were queuing up. By the end of the night, I was $182 in the hole.

That is the last time I let my mad Uncle Kent plan my birthday party.

10 Comments | tags: Alastair's Photo Fiction, birthday party, Costume, fiction, flash fiction, mug, party, Pikachu, theft, theme | posted in Light

October 30, 2013

Fish Feeder – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

(I think this is the most alliterative post title I’ve ever had. )

Fish Feeder

“And this is the koi pond,” Lady Phram said. “You will be responsible for feeding the fish.”

“They look well-fed,” Ali said. He was still surprised a street urchin like him had been suddenly given a job in a mansion.

Lady Phram’s eyebrows arched. “Oh, quite.”

Ali put his hand in the water and the fish swarmed. “Ouch!” He yanked back his hand, bleeding.

“These aren’t normal koi.” She walked through a wooden door, shutting him in.

“What do I do now?” he called.

“You feed the fish,” she called through the door.

Water began to pour into the courtyard.

77 Comments | tags: creepy, fiction, Fish, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, horror, Koi pond, mansion, murder | posted in Friday Fictioneers

October 27, 2013

A Face Only a Wife Could Love – Alastair’s Photo Fiction

By David Stewart

A Face Only a Wife Could Love

“Dang, I’m hideous,” Alex thought as he glanced down at his reflection in a puddle. He avoided reflective surfaces and envied vampires for their inability to see themselves in mirrors.

A woman’s face appeared next to his in the reflection. Now there was real beauty.

“What are you looking at?”

“Just myself.”

“Narcissist.” She laughed and kissed his cheek.

“Does it bother you that I’m ugly?” he asked.

“I don’t think you’re ugly.”

“Do you think I have a face only a wife could love?”

“You’d better. You don’t get to have a girlfriend now.”

He smiled and took her hand. “Perhaps you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right. Now can we finish crossing the street? We’re holding up traffic.”

15 Comments | tags: Alastair's Photo Fiction, beauty, fiction, flash fiction, marriage, reflection, ugly, wife | posted in Light

October 23, 2013

Broken Piano – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

Broken Piano

The casket was empty as far as I was concerned. I had come to pay my respects to my former teacher, the piano virtuoso Horace Thornhill, but as I approached, all I saw in the satin-lined box was a dead body.

I looked at the hands that had drawn exquisite aural elixirs from ivory vessels and the face that had worn an expression of such concentration and sublimity in the midst of his performances. They were empty—as cold and silent as a marble statue.

There was nothing more than a broken piano now; the music had flown far away.

46 Comments | tags: death, fiction, flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, funeral, music, Piano | posted in Friday Fictioneers

October 20, 2013

Guardian – Alastair’s Photo Fiction

By David Stewart

I’m back in the blogging world again. I’ve been quite busy/tired/distracted for the last few weeks, but I hope to do more blog writing and reading in the future. This story is rather dark, but I meant it to have a glimmer of hope at the end. I hope that is how you take it.

Guardian

“What’s that?” I asked my father, when I was five.

“Our family crest.” His deep voice echoed through the long passageway.

“No, above it.”

“The guardian,” he said, turning quickly and starting to walk away.

“It’s scary.”

“Quiet!” He turned so forcefully on me that I bit back a cry.

From that day on, I never asked again; never told when the thing lurking over our shield began appearing in my dreams.

I tried to take it down as a teenager. My father caught me and beat me. I saw then that he was afraid, and there was fawning obeisance in his touch as he carefully replaced it on the wall.

I did nothing when my mother died, when my sister went insane, when my father drank himself to death, but I felt that dark presence looming more and more over the now quiet house.

The night my younger brother died—falling down the stairs—I tried to smash our precious guardian, but my courage failed and I fled.

A friend once told me that if the devil exists, then God must exist as well.

I hope he is right: my search becomes more and more desperate as I feel the darkness growing around me once more.

15 Comments | tags: Alastair's Photo Fiction, creepy, Demon, fantasy, fiction, flash fiction, guardian, monster, spirit | posted in Dark

October 17, 2013

Cartman – Friday Fictioneers

By David Stewart

Cartman

Ross polished the bars of the shopping cart until they shone. He had status now and he had to act accordingly.

After Boom-day, when gasoline ran out, bicycles were big. But as tires cracked and chains broke, they were discarded. Now, the man with a shopping cart was king.

Ross overtook Jenks on Broadway, carrying a huge load on his back. Ross nodded officiously; Jenks sneered.

“So high and mighty with your cart, aren’t you? But that front wheel is wobbling pretty bad. How long until you’re like me?”

Never, Ross thought. He was somebody now. He couldn’t go back.