Flashing Some Fiction

A trio of vignettes

Detail of ‘Gents’ - by Patricia Ackerman

As a birthday gift to myself, I set a goal to write one 54-word micro story a day for 54 days. I think of these tiny, tiny stories more like situational or character vignettes. This wintery exercise in creative distilling, whittling, and pruning has been a fun though slightly daunting challenge to capture the essence of something specific even when I feel like there is nothing in me or out there either.

Here are three of the 17 that I have written so far.

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Seven of Hearts  

The Seven of Hearts looks younger than he is; wears V-neck sweaters; takes long walks after his dinner; loves falling both in and out of love; makes no mistakes about it; fishes for answers; craves eggs over easy when hungover the moon which he almost always is; is a lamb, is an absolute lamb. 

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Crushing

She was the kind of mother who didn’t dance, though she could. She wouldn’t hurt a house spider unless we begged her to. 

And when she did, would say, “May you fare ever well just beyond!” as she crushed its little body into a sheet of Bounty. 

I always wished she were my mother.  

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Color Wheel

“It will darken over time,” she says.  

The walls, shimmering with fresh, thick paint contain her one simple question: Are you willing to try and survive with me here? 

I don’t know.

(The light inside this slice of the spectrum—not a dare, not a promise, but—) 

What if I am afraid of myself?   

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