Mark A Morris 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 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:
Ausable
by Mark A Morris
The rainbow hung across the chasm, spanning it.
“It looks as though it’s been wrought from unobtanium; you know that metal they had on Avatar?”
“What?” Hubert wasn’t a movie buff. The last time he’d been to the cinema it had been for a revival; a re-showing of The Third Man. He’d fallen asleep during the first reel, waking up three hours later to find himself alone with only the cleaners for company.
“Or maybe you’d say it was made from gossamer? Ethereal, but still strong? A spider’s web writ large; the tangible; fashioned from a dream?”
Hubert shook his head. He wasn’t a reader either. He found the editorial section of GQ a strain, preferring to skim through the descriptions in the pictorial features. He was very well-groomed and always a la mode though, his personal styling impeccable.
“You really haven’t a clue,” I said, pitying him. “If I was you, I’d take a free step; make a leap of faith. You never know, you might actually surprise yourself.”
–
I never realised how little I’d known him. I’d always believed him to be a pragmatist, a man with more of an appreciation of the effects of his actions. I was truly surprised at how small his grasp of reality had been; he’d had no idea of the gravity of the situation. If only I’d realised that before, I might have been able to stop him. But as it stands now, I guess we’ll never know why he jumped.
Quite a delightfully unsettling tale…gravity does rule…
Thank you, Bill. Sometimes you just have to avoid that person that keeps bugging you. This is a rather extreme reaction though. But the point of view character was rather insufferable…