Use the photograph above as the inspiration for your flash fiction story. Write whatever comes to mind (no sexual, political, or religious stories, jokes, or commentary, please) and after you PROOFREAD it, submit it as your entry in the comments section below.
Welcome to the Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge. In 250 words or less, write a story incorporating the elements in the picture at left. The 250 word limit will be strictly enforced.
Please keep language and subject matter to a PG-13 level.
Use the comment section below to submit your entry. Entries will be accepted until Tuesday at 5:00 PM Pacific Time. No political or religious entries, please. Need help getting started? Read this article on how to write flash fiction.
On Wednesday, we will open voting to the public with an online poll so they may choose the winner. Voting will be open until 5:00 PM Thursday. On Saturday morning, the winner will be recognized as we post the winning entry along with the picture as a feature.
Once a month, the admins will announce the Editors’ Choice winners. Those stories will be featured in an anthology like this one. Best of luck to you all in your writing!
Entries only in the comment section. Other comments will be deleted. See HERE for additional information and terms. Please note the rule changes for 2018.
Spatial Thoughts
Neighbours, eh. God knows what you might end up with. There’s a risk in moving to a new place. Me, I move every couple of years. It’s a rule. Don’t get comfortable. Don’t stand out. I work at being bland. A bit of a past master at that by now.
Remember what I said about neighbours. Blend in, I said, or meant to.
It doesn’t always work out the way you planned.
This last time, I moved to charming Fayetteville.
Small town.
Ten thousand souls.
Manageable, I figured.
Small enough to get to know a few people in my standoffish way.
Large enough to blend in, bland in.
Be a cypher.
Good for my type of business.
I’m an accountant.
I’m rather good at numbers.
New neighbourhood seemed innocuous.
Then I met Leo.
Leo Pinsky.
Widower, he said, the day I moved in. Also said, “She was a good woman, Margie was. Kept me grounded.”
We met up again my second morning.
I was having coffee in the back yard.
Leo leaned over the fence separating our two properties.
Clutching this critter all foiled up.
Seemed to be a cat.
The critter.
So was Leo.
Also foiled up.
First thing he said was, “Hi again new neighbour. You ever notice how SPCA almost spells space?”
I gave that a mental tumble.
Saw his linguistic point.
“I don’t say they’re coming for us…” he added.
I smiled.
Didn’t have the heart to tell him they were already here.
ELIGIBLE FOR EDITORS’ CHOICE ONLY
You can’t see me. I’m not here. I’m protected from the effects of reality by the improbability of Heisenberg.
Heisenberg’s my cat. Although, he might not be.
I’m betting that you can’t see him, either.
We’ve come here on a mission, having travelled from a future you’ll never know.
You might think time’s immutable and that the past is defined. That’s what most people think – if they think at all.
But even Heisenberg knows that’s a lie.
Heisenberg’s a traveller. He’s experienced every future.
He was the one who brought me today. He’s developed a liking for maple syrup and catnip.
We spend a lot of time in Canada. Sniffing cannabis oil and poutine.
Heisenberg’s got a dodgy nose. I blame it on all the intertemporal travelling we do. They say that memories are linked to certain nexuses. Scent trails, catastrophes, alignments of the planets.
Syzygies and sausages. Although, it was Laika who loved a saveloy. She was a traveller too. We encountered her in a low earth orbit, geosynchronous over Durban.
I never worked out why she was there. She was phlegmatic, reserved, low-maintenance and hardly any trouble at all.
Her Sputnik was crammed up to bursting point with hot dogs and wieners. You couldn’t open the hatches because there were so many of them. Low-grade ground pork; encased in animal intestines. It was remarkable; the smell of it all – we teleported inside, trying to rescue the dog.
But she wasn’t there.
I blame Heisenberg for that.
Time Traveller
While The Twins changed out of their wet clothes and hopefully mulled over making better choices, survivors gathered for a writing lesson. The teacher, always one of surprises, emerged wearing a homemade silver costume. To her students’ delight she had even placed an aluminium hat on the cat. He barely tolerated this humiliation, purring defiantly.
What was the teacher wearing? Alien, Time Traveller, outfit to prevent mind control or hazmat suit costume?
Angry hissy fits erupted from the cat as he escaped.
Melodramatically, the teacher began, “Years ago to relieve tension, we decided to frolic with a costume party. I was Star Woman and outshone the sun in my silvery costume. As a Time Traveller, I came to make suggestions on Earth saving itself from self-destruction. It was not as simple as me having magic powers. Humans had made the mess and were responsible for the clean up. I did provide ideas for recycling the rubbish in The Great Garbage Patch. I suggested more efficient use of sustainable energy like the sun, bioenergy, wind and waves and moving away from fossil fuel. As a Time-Traveller I supported cleaning the air, land and water. I did not win the costume contest and sadly I felt that Earth was not ready to accept my advice. Shameful!”
In silence, we all thought about the destruction man had taken on our planet. My mind wandered and I thought as a Time Traveller, I would visit a time of well-being long after the Apocalypse.
The essay contest topic was “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, else what is Heaven for?”
The obvious approach would be to research the quotation and write a discussion of the philosophy behind it. But our debate team advisor was always telling us the best responses went beyond the obvious to offer a unique insight on the assigned topic.
As I pondered it, my thoughts went back to fifth grade. I’d been so proud of being in middle school and therefore a Big Kid. That year I would make my own Halloween costume, all by myself.
In my mind’s eye was this magnificent robot costume, like the segmented armor worn by one of the fighters at a Society for Creative Anachronism demonstration down at the park, but silvery instead of matte black. I had no idea what material it had been made of, but we had plenty of cardboard boxes around the house, so I started cutting them into pieces and fastening them together with duct tape.
It worked about as well as you’d expect – it fell apart the first time I tried to put it on. At least it happened there in the basement, not at school in front of everyone. Try as I might, I couldn’t get it to hold together, so I finally ended up cutting holes in one of the remaining boxes and covering it with foil, just to have a costume.
LATE ENTRY
Time Traveler
It wasn’t Halloween. Heck, it wasn’t even Autumn yet. That didn’t stop Briana from her creativity. The costume was fashioned with both herself and Tibets the cat in mind. A spacesuit made out of mom’s discarded cardboard box and foil taken from the kitchen.
“I’m going to be the first woman to set foot on the moon!” She exclaimed.
John, the pesty neighbor boy overhead her. “When pigs fly!” he laughed running off.
Briana wasn’t easily hurt. “One day, you’ll see John.” She mumbled under her breath.
Late that evening, just before bedtime, Briana sat at her bedroom window looking up at the stars while Tibets was curled up on the bed. That’s when a strange glow suddenly came over her. She couldn’t move. Her heart was racing. She was elevated up and out the window. Tibets leapt onto her just as she cleared the window.
Everything went dark.
The next day, Briana couldn’t be found. Her mother called the police. A search party was organized. They searched the area and down through the nearby canyon.
In the canyon, Tibets jumped out at an officer from under a bush. He recognized the cat as belonging to Briana from a photo that her mother shared with him.
“Over here!” yelled the officer. Briana stirred from under the bush. She was found, safe and sound.
When brought back home, her mother hugged her and asked, “What happened? Where did you go?”
Briana replied, “I’m not sure but it felt like I was on the moon.”