Margarida Brei 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:
Dreams
by Margarida Brei
When I was a child my dreams were simple like score a goal and eat my favourite desert. In escondary school, I made my dream list- first become a professional footballer, second marry Marylou, third get dream job. While on a college football scholarship my first dream was dashed through a debilitating sport injury. After graduation MaryLou married, smashing my second dream.
Now I am a global sports photographer. Always feel unfulfilled when I work at USA national football games. Busy snapping photos of the Red Sox, when I thought it was time to rewrite my dream list.
On the drive home, I re-examined my life. Photographing extreme sports involving speed, high attitudes, physical exertion, specialised equipment, lots of danger and risk only gave me a second hand rush. No longer experiencing first hand exhilaration, my life was flat, humdrum and mundane.
Photographing the solo ice climber no longer thrilled. BASE jumping from the Sapphire Tower, Istanbull had lost its charge. The thunder and velocity of waves in bodyboarding no longer elated. Extreme ironing seemed ridiculous. Freerunning involving gymnastics, tricking and breakdancing charmless. The speed in ice yachting had no stimulation.
Volcanic surfing in Cerro Negro, Nicaragua- another unelectrifying photo shoot. Back home, I bought a meal for a homeless man. In walking away, I had a spark of excitement.
The next day, I volunteered in a shelter. My excitement was rekindled in making the dreams of others come true by putting them back on their feet.
