Flash Fiction

Flash fiction is a little new to me but I have had a lot of fun with it recently.  If you know me you know I enjoy writing short stories.  I think short stories are an amazing way to explore a new writing style, a new perspective, or even a way to write stories about a character from a novel in a way that you weren't able to explore before.

A way to explain flash fiction in comparison to novels and short stories is this:

A novel explores the whole house, a short story looks through the window, and flash fiction is a peep through the key hole.  -Unknown

There is no precise word count for either three, all have a very wide range but, a novel is typically around 50,000 words, a short story is about 2,500 words and flash fiction ranges from only a couple of words to 1,000.

I wanted to share a flash fiction story that I wrote with all of you.  This story is about 500 words.

Where the Rainbow Takes You

She dashed out the front door, flew through the dip in the path, and landed at the mailbox.  She found what she was looking for and what she dreaded.  She tore open the letter. She didn’t read it, she didn’t need to.  Scanning the page, she found the word she was looking for.  Sold.  Something like sadness or anger sieged through her whole body, she felt it all the way to her toes.  She dragged her feet all the way back to the front door and tripped over a root. She made it inside just as it started to rain.  

The letters fell through her fingers onto the marble island and landed next to some leftover chocolate cake.  She would miss this.  They always had chocolate cake on Friday nights.  She wondered if they would continue in their new house.  She grabbed a piece, not bothering with a plate, took a bite, and set it back down. It was rich and sticky in her mouth, she wanted to spit it out for a moment but she swallowed and left the room with a brown hand hanging at her side.  

She dragged her feet all the way to the cellar.  She loved the dim light bulbs that waved hello and goodbye from above and she loved the spiders.  She found a box to sit on and a daddy long legs spider to play with.  She let it crawl across her hand.  Forever moving, as she placed one hand in front of another.  Soon she stepped back up the creaky stairs and left the cellar with her hands cupped.  A new friend was coming with her.  She plopped down on her belly on a window seat, rested her cheek against the window, and listened to the rain.  It felt cool against her face and she could almost smell its sweet scent.  She opened her hands and let the spider crawl around the space in front of her.   She would miss this.  She looked at the little spider.  She wanted to kiss its head but didn’t.  What if the next people who live here spray for bugs and all of them die?  Her heart beat faster.  She watched the rain beat down on the window less and less and soon she was standing outside.  

As she was looking away from her house towards the plains, empty of all but grass and wind, she noticed a rainbow stretching across the blue sky.   She wanted to run - run across the dewy grass - but didn’t.  She turned toward the house.  A gust of wind blew her hair over her face.  She would miss this wind.  Now she knew where a rainbow would take her if she could find where it stood.  It would take her back here.  

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