Tag: #FridayFictioneers

Posted in Challenges

The Children of Birch Branch

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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“Come look,” Maxine called to her cousins. “Look what I’ve found.”

Maxine and five of her cousins were at their homeplace on Birch Branch. They had been given a day by the attorney to come get whatever belonged to their family. Maxine was cleaning out the shed and found these ancient toys.

Kevin said, “I feel like we’re looking at our parents’ lives. I guess in some ways we are looking at their childhood here.”

The cousins finished up with a last look at the house and the property on Birch Branch. They knew they would never be back again.

Posted in Challenges

The Estate

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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She sat down at the end of the counter in her favorite diner. She knew she had to eat while someone else was with her very sick mother. Ruby, the waitress, came and took her order.

Her cousin, Mac, suddenly walked into the diner and sat down beside her.

“Ally, we have to talk about her estate,” he said. “She wanted the cousins to share in the estate.”

“What do you want me to do, Mac? There is no will.”

“Make a fair distribution, Ally.”

“If she wanted you to have anything, she would have made a will,” Ally said.

Posted in Challenges

The Accident

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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Sasha drove home from town. As she passed a driveway, she almost crashed her car as something hit her in the driver’s side door. She knew instantly it was a deer. She pulled over and jumped out. There she was, by the car. She had hit hard, destroyed the door, but she was still alive. Sasha loved the deer and fed them daily. She knew she couldn’t move her and she called her neighbor to help. She seemed to have a bad chest injury.

John knew she couldn’t be saved and humanely shot her. Sasha felt her heart break.

Posted in Challenges, Flash Fiction, Uncategorized

The Train

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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“Do you think you can meet me at the town square,” Albert asked quietly.

Juliet replied, “I will have the driver ready to take me to town as soon as he leaves. He is my friend and sometimes my confidant.”

“We will just run away, darling! It doesn’t matter if we’re married,” Albert said.

“Can we go far away? I’m afraid he’ll find me?”

Albert said, “Yes. I will keep you safe.”

Juliet and Albert met in town to leave her abusive husband. When they tried to catch the train, there he stood. Albert knocked him down with one blow.

Posted in Finance, Flash Fiction

Grace

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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He didn’t dare go home. He had worked all day, but he and his buddies had slipped out to the car and had one too many snorts of Old Crowe. He didn’t want to incur Pansy’s wrath, and he didn’t want to scare his sweet daughter.

That bike had been sitting there all day. Everyone was gone. He jumped on it and headed to the bar. He’d have another drink or two. Gus would let him sleep it off in the back room.

Sitting on the bar stool, he turned around and there stood Pansy. She offered him her arm.

 

Photo Credit @ Jellico’s Stationhouse

Posted in Flash Fiction

The Great Escape

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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“What is it, Mama?” the boy asked as they walked down the sidewalk with the great wheel looming in front of them.

“We don’t know, son. Some say it’s our Great Escape to another world since we can’t drink our water here anymore. More people are sick from poisoning from pollution.”

The citizens were gathering around the wheel, which seemed to be slightly vibrating. Some were afraid. Most seemed relieved. They had received leaflets dropped from the sky.

“But where are we going?” the boy asked.

His mother told him she didn’t know. She hoped to a safe, clean place.

 

Photo credit to Jennifer Pendergast

Posted in Flash Fiction

Morphed

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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“My God, Nathan, let’s stay out of that old house,” Karen said.

Nathan and Karen were college students doing a field study on water pollution in the Everglades in South Florida. They had spent most of the morning taking water samples from the swamp. South of Everglades City, they had happened on an old, deserted house.

Nathan went into the house, wanting to explore. Karen followed.

Nathan reached to grab the banister and Karen screamed no. On the post, there was an otherworldly green lizard-like creature.

“Polluted water isn’t all there is here,” he thought, jumping away.

 

Photo credit by Shaktiki Sharma

Posted in Flash Fiction

Siblings of the Heart

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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Mary lived in the country, outside a small town. Ben’s family moved next door. She was ten and he was six. Ben’s sister, Dina, was one year old.

In the summer, they played outside. Boy games. Baseball. They camped in a tent in Mary’s backyard. They were imaginative like kids are. They would have been lonely without each other.

They would lie on a blanket on a hill in the yard and watch the clouds overhead and name their shapes.

They grew up and drifted apart. Much later in life, they all found each other again. Siblings of the heart.

Posted in Flash Fiction

Snowball Fight

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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“Daniel, this the first snow in five years. It’s beautiful, but I wonder what it means?”

“Yes, Kate. Since that very warm winter we had in 2017, the weather during the last five years has been unheard of across the U.S. as well as right here in Kentucky.”

“Daniel, when were growing up, and even as young adults, we had big snows and brutal cold here. Now that type of weather is only in northern Canada.”

“Kate, let’s just go take a walk in the snow and enjoy it. We still have coats, don’t we?”

“Snowball fight!”

Posted in Flash Fiction

Dolly

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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“Caroline, you have disobeyed me,” her mother said, slurring her words, as she stepped toward her daughter. “Give me that doll you have behind your back.”

Caroline sobbed. Her favorite aunt gave her Dolly. Her aunt that was so nice to her. She would not give it to her mother.

“No,” she shouted. “I didn’t disobey.”

Her mother staggered toward her and grabbed Dolly from behind her back. She was drinking and she dropped Dolly on the hard floor. When Caroline looked, Dolly’s stuffing was all over the floor.

“You killed her,” she screamed at her mother. “My only doll.”