Pat Mills is the Readers’ Choice in this week’s Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge. The winning entry is decided by the popular vote and rewarded with a special feature here today. (In the case of a tie, the writer who submitted an entry first is the winner per our rules.) Without further ado, here’s the winning story:
Apples
by Pat Mills
Twenty-two-year-old Issac looked over at his second cousin by marriage, Lilly. She was three years younger, and would have been married if it wasn’t for the plague that ravished the country. He had left his advanced studies, at Cambridge, to come home to the safety of the family farm.
He watched Lilly flit from picnic basket to blanket.
“Lilly, you are such a distraction to my mathematical studies and writing,” he said, laughing.
“But Issac, we are young, we should be distracted.” She smiled coyly.
Lilly prepared a scrumptious plate of food for him, and sat close.
“Mmm…very nice, Lilly,” he murmured, but his mind raced with concepts and theories.
As Issac relaxed, he noticed the apples that fell from the tree in the breeze.
“I must get after our workers. Why aren’t these apples being picked!”
Another apple fell onto the blanket.
“Why does it always fall like that?” Issac thought aloud.
“What, dear cousin?” Lilly cooed.
Then, another – falling straight down.
“Why don’t they fall sideways, or up?”
“What?”
“It’s been happening all my life, and I’ve never realized the significance!” he said, excited.
“What’s wrong?”
“Lilly, do you know what this means to my research…?”
“No…”
“There is a force that we cannot see, that is equally strong to all objects,” he said grabbing her by the arms, “I have to go to my study!”
“I guess the picnic is over…” she said, frowning, and looking down at the blanket… hating those apples!
Congratulations!
Thanks, Dale! I really enjoyed writing this story- even with the added research.