Tag Archives: Flash Fiction

A Source of Contention

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Story #26 for the Story A Day Challenge May 2016

26 A Source of Contention s

A Source of Contention

Stan was out of town for the weekend, so Brenda decided to work on cleaning out the garage while he was gone. It was a source of contention between them, their overstuffed garage. It’s not that Stan thought all those things were Brenda’s, he just thought all the junk was hers and the good stuff was his.

Brenda piled like things with like, ending up with several such heaps: broken flashlights, cracked Igloo coolers, busted hummingbird feeders, and paint brushes.

So all the junk is mine? Brenda scoffed as she hung all of Stan’s paint brushes from the garage ceiling.
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Ice Cream with Sprinkles

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Story #25 for Story A Day Challenge May 2016

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Ice Cream with Sprinkles

“Ice cream with sprinkles!” Jasper turned his head as his mother carried him down the sidewalk past the Magnolia trees.

“Jasper, those are flowers, not ice cream with sprinkles. Magnolia flowers. Mag-no-lia. Can you say Mag-no-lia? Here,” she said, walking across the grass. She hoisted Jasper up a little higher. “Smell them. Don’t they smell good?”

He leaned over, touching his nose to the white petals.

“Careful,” Angie cautioned, “there might be bees. Bees take the pollen and make honey.”

Before Angie could stop him, Jasper plucked a petal and started eating it. “Ice cream with sprinkles!” Jasper happily announced.
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Sunflower Forest

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Story #23 for Story A Day Challenge May 2016

14 Sunflower Tree s

Sunflower Forest

“Look, Daddy, a sunflower forest!”

“You’re right, sweet pea, it is a sunflower forest!”

“Why are they all facing that way?”

“To get as much sunshine as possible. That’s helps them grow.”

“Can we stop and see?”

“Sure, sweet pea, we have a little extra time.”

“One day, Daddy, I’m going to be as tall as a sunflower tree.” She reached up her arms, spreading them wide. “Look at me, Daddy, I’m growing!”

“Well, right you are! Why, look how much you’ve grown just since you got out of the car.”

“You, too, Daddy, you too. Don’t you want to be a sunflower tree?”

“An excellent idea, sweet pea. Anyone in their right mind would want to be a sunflower tree.”

Father and daughter smiled at each other as they stood at the edge of the sunflower forest, reaching up.
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The Edith Bunker Band

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Story #22 for Story A Day Challenge May 2016

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The Edith Bunker Band

“So what are you going to do after you graduate?” Blech. Carol hated that question. People had been asking her some version of it forever, since she was, like, five.

“What do you want to be when you grow up, little girl?” Really? She was only five years old. Her professional options were limited to characters in cartoons and on cereal boxes. She didn’t know what work was.

If she only had a dollar for each time someone asked her that silly question. Once she started college, they changed it to “What are you going to do after you graduate?” It’s still the same stupid question, from the same stupid people.

Carol refrained from rolling her eyes. “I’m going to start a band.”

“Oh,” they would say, “I didn’t know you were a musician.”

“I’m not. Can’t play any instrument.” She baited them.

“So you sing?”

“Nope. Totally tone deaf. Can’t carry a tune to save my life.”

Carol waited until they paused, unsure of what to ask her next. “But I’m not going to let that stop me. I’ll find a couple of other people who are just as bad at playing their instruments as I am at singing. A guitar player and maybe a keyboardist. We’ll call ourselves The Edith Bunker Band. We will be terrible, me singing off key, the other two out of rhythm and fat fingered. We’ll play some oldies as well as current hits, mangling them as best we can. And having fun. Because having fun is what it’s about, right?”

Uncomfortable with her responses, people started to shift their weight from foot to foot, clearing their throats, looking around for some other young person to corner with their silly questions in hopes of not getting a silly answer in return.

She didn’t let them off so easy. “We’ll play in the early time slot. We won’t keep you up late. Promise you’ll come here us play?” It was only after she extorted a promise of attendance that she let her would-be captors escape.

For the umpteenth time, Carol wondered why so many people kept asking her that one question about the rest of her life and really expecting her to have a definitive answer. In a moment of insight, she thought maybe it was because they were still trying to answer it for themselves.

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With thanks and apologies to Jean Stapleton who played Edith Bunker on All In The Family.

Jubilant: Weekly Photo Challenge

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Story #21 for Story A Day Challenge May 2016 and double duty as the Weekly Photo Challenge: Jubilant

Until further notice, celebrate everything!

Until further notice, celebrate everything!

Jubilant

“Oh, good, you’re here.” Jenny led Sarah into the kitchen. “The others will be here soon.”

“That’s a cute cake, but what is it for?” Sarah checked out the quilting notions  made of icing.

“Tonight I will finish putting the binding on my latest quilt. Time to celebrate!” Jenny opened the drawer for the forks.

“You’re celebrating finishing a quilt?”

“A little party every now and then helps the world go around, don’t you think?” Jenny looked at Sarah but didn’t wait for her to answer, as the doorbell rang and she walked back to the front door.

The rest of the group arrived, en masse. Sarah was the newest member of the quilting bee, having just moved into town recently. She sought out the nearest quilt guild and felt extremely lucky to have found a bee with an opening almost immediately. But the culture here seemed a bit different than where she’d come from. This was only her second meeting with the bee, so she guessed she’d figure it out over time.

“Oh, isn’t that just darling?” “Congratulations, you finished another quilt!” “Another one?! I am so jealous.” Everyone passing the cake oohed and aahed over it.

“I just have a little bit left to do but it’ll be done in no time tonight. And you know what that means!”

“Cake! Cake! Cake!” They all sang out, except for Sarah, who was looking on in wonder, wondering if she was right for this jubilant group.

Everyone took their places, some at the dining room table, some at the tables set up in the living room. They called themselves the Tornado Threaders because they all had sewing rooms that looked as if they had been hit by a tornado. It was the natural state of things, in their minds. They even had a motto: If everything is out in sight, we don’t have to look very long for it, right?

Everyone seems nice even if a little rambunctious, Sarah thought, so maybe it’ll work out for me.

The chatter rose and fell as they worked on their projects, a natural ebb and flow of attention to their work and to each other.

“Ta-da!” Jenny announced. “Another one hits the dust! Quilt binding finished.” Everyone clapped in appreciation. “And now for the presentation. Sarah, will you come over here, please?”

Sarah looked around only to see everyone looking at her. “Um, okay.”

“Sarah,” Jenny said, “we are so happy to have you in our group. It is our tradition to give a small quilt to each new person who joins the Tornado Threaders. This is your quilt.” Jenny handed her the quilt whose binding she just finished.

“Oh,” Sarah said, her heart starting to swell with all the love pouring in from the group, “I don’t know what to say. Thank . . . thank you.” She started to weep, and looked around for tissues, as she didn’t want to get any of her runny mascara on her new quilt.

Someone handed her a napkin. Sarah wiped her eyes and then there were hugs all around from her new quilting family.

“Here,” Jenny handed her a plate, “have the first piece of cake. Let’s celebrate.”
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