Tag: flash fiction

Game age

English teachers at the Mount High School stared at each other. “Methinks,” a student had opened her essay. She wasn’t the only one.

Although they mixed up thou and thee, all of a sudden students were making conscious, albeit tardy, efforts to converse in the ancient tongue. As if a great wave of archaism had swept over the school.

Perplexed, sixty-year-old Professor Henry questioned Timothy.

“Oh, we’re practising for this game—Speak like Socrates. Whoever speaks the longest wins an iPhone.”

Socrates was Greek, Henry wondered. But Tim had left. It wasn’t about the language. ‘Twas all about the game.

Job requirements

“How can I help you?”

“Hi… Geoff. I’ll be your colleague from today.”

Silence. How can a handicapped man be a sales person at a multi-facility enterprise, Geoff wondered. His job involved running around all the time, and climbing up and down thousands of stairwells a day. This new person wouldn’t stand a chance, more so since he couldn’t even stand. He was skeptical of this man who leaned on a tattered stick, sporting a determined expression.

That was five years ago.

“How can I help you?”

It was Rick, the infamous handicapped salesman.

Awkwardness is a lack of experience.

Rite of passage

Sawyer tried console himself as he looked around his home. Scattered all around were leaves, twigs, and damp sand. Avoiding his eyes, his wife swept the trash away, mumbling to herself as she did so.

She was too afraid of saying anything that’d ruffle him. He’d had a rough time as it is, and coming from her, even the undeniable truth would only irritate him further.

Unable to bear the ringing silence, “I’m so sorry!” he cried breaking down. “I thought it was time.”

His wife sighed in silence. “Maybe it’s a rite of passage to farming. Cultivating premature crop.”

Hardworking

“Large. Extra frothy almond milk with cocoa, cinnamon, and brown sugar.”

It wasn’t the first time that Ben bought, and Jenny handed him his boss’s beverage. In her four years as barista, countless Bens had rushed in with profuse requests.

As the afternoon rolled in, their bosses called them aside.

“What’s up?”

“You need to work harder. Unless you show some real progress, I may have to cut down on your pay.”

She’d missed her break, and he his. It wasn’t new—they’d skip meals just to ensure others didn’t. And they knew better than to slight each other’s work.

Lost in the midst

Forest

Intense density pressed upon her face. From the clearing she stood at, she saw towering barks rise overhead. As she sat on a cold stone bench, she observed walkers and bikers disappear into clusters of thickets that surrounded her. Afraid of getting lost in the wilderness, she remained put, hoping her colleagues would rescue her.

She’d made a huge mistake going off alone on the first day of work. This new life had overwhelmed the simple country girl that she was. In her search for fresh air, she’d found herself, instead, in a forest of buildings.

IT parks were unfamiliar.