Flash Fiction

MLMM Photo Challenge — You Will Always Be You

Fandango12 Comments

I was your pawn and you used me for your own selfish purposes.

I didn’t nourish your haughty ways enough to satisfy you.

I didn’t lift up your ego sufficiently to make you feel good about yourself.

In your uncontrolled rage, you had no qualms about taking that knife and slashing my cheek.

In time, though my scar will heal.

But you are who you are and you will always be you.

Written for the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Photo Challenge. Photo credit: Pixabay. Also for these daily prompts: Tuesday Use It In a Sentence (pawn), Word of the Day Challenge (nourish), Your Daily Word Prompt (haughty), The Daily Spur (lift), and Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (qualms).

Liberated

Fandango8 Comments

After his wife told Harold to pack his bags, he knew that he was going to be on his own, at least for a while. He actually didn’t mind being alone for a change. He felt that his wife was always watching him like a hawk, ready to swoop down and pounce on him if he did something or said something that she didn’t approve of.

But Harold, who believed in the sanctity of marriage, decided, despite her raffish treatment of him, to continue the pretense of the happy couple. Until, of course, she tossed him out, which served as yet another reminder of how truly unhappy he was living with her.

As it turned out, Harold was much happier living apart, and he quickly learned that being alone was more liberating than staying with her and being lonely together.

Written for these daily prompts: The Daily Spur (pack), Your Daily Word Prompt (raffish), Ragtag Daily Prompt (pretense), Word of the Day Challenge (reminder), and Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (lonely).

Poison Ivy

Fandango9 Comments

Her name was Ivy and she was a sight to behold
She was quite decorous and her manner was bold

Her social calendar was always very full
And the parties she threw were not at all dull

Yet no one had ever heard Ivy utter a sound
Rumors of her strange silence were going around

The point of her silence was soon found out
The sound of voice was so guttural and loud

Soon former admirers her parties did shun
Her spell over the community was finally done

Written for these daily prompts: Word of the Day Challenge (ivy), Your Daily Word Prompt (decorous), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (calendar), The Daily Spur (point), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (guttural). Photo credit: Lee Avison at FineArtAmerica.

Three Line Tales — Graffiti Artist

Fandango2 Comments

Yeah, that’s right, I’m a graffiti artist and I don’t work in front of an audience or for tips, so please move along.

Hey, why are you still out there on the other side of the window staring at me like I’m an animal at the zoo?

Come back tomorrow when I’m done and gawk for as long as you want.

Written for Sonya’s Three Line Tales prompt. Photo credit: Victor Furtuna via Unsplash.

MLMM Double Take — The Last Will and Testament

Fandango10 Comments

The old man was having trouble keeping his horse stationary as he rode up in front of the saloon. The skin on his face visible above his scraggly white beard and below the rim of his worn hat was leathery and I could tell that the man was in a lot of pain. In a hoarse voice asked me to help him get down off his steed, and I obliged him.

Even once he was on the ground, he was unsteady. “Help me inside,” he said, nodding toward the swinging doors of the saloon, “and sit me down at a table.” Again, I obliged the old timer.

After he was situated, he said, “Now fetch me a pencil and some stationery. I’m dying and I need to write down my last will and testament, and if you hurry, I’ll give you a piece of my inheritance.”

I stepped over to the bar and asked the barkeep for a pencil and some paper and then walked over to the table where the old man was seated, only to find him slumped over dead as a doornail. I figured that I earned my inheritance, which as far as I was concerned was the old timer’s horse and whatever I found in his saddlebags. Hell, I helped the geezer out in his dying moment. It wasn’t my fault that he died intestate.

Written for the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Double Take—Saturday Mix, where we are asked to use these homophones in our post: horse/hoarse and stationary/stationery.