flash fiction for the purposeful practitioner

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FLASH FICTION FOR THE PURPOSEFUL PRACTITIONER- June 28, 2018

The challenge for Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner will open early Wednesday morning, June 27th. Allow the prompt to take you anywhere you want to go! (Limit your stories to 200 words.)

This challenge is open until 11:00 pm Thursday night, July 5th, 2018.

 

pexels-photo-626164 shadowPedro Fogueras pexels-photo-626164 shadow

 

Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner

It was the nightmare again, always the nightmare, trapped in a gauzy world of nothing on nothing on nothing.  The Notherworld, he called it. A nothing world. Full of nothing. For nothing. For nowhere.

Only for the dream.

As always, he called. Searching. “Maria! Maria!Maria!”

Always answered by the strange silence hung in that land, a silence made of nothing.

Stumbling through a white eternity. The Notherworld wastes. No Santa Claus. Not in the nightmare.

When he woke up in the morning, he was still clutching her teddy bear. Knew she was gone forever.

 

 

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FLASH FICTION FOR THE PURPOSEFUL PRACTITIONER- June 27, 2018

The challenge for Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner will open early Wednesday morning, June 20th. Allow the prompt to take you anywhere you want to go! (Limit your stories to 200 words.)

This challenge is open until 11:00 pm Thursday night, June 28, 2018.

pexels-photo-462867

Kai Pilger pexels-photo-462867 Taxi

 

Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner

 

Taxi wasn’t his preferred method of travel, but it would do in a pinch. And this was the pinch of all pinches. If he didn’t get there in time, he’d be on the couch for the rest of his natural life.

The taxi driver glanced in the rear-view mirror, but he ignored the look.  Too bad if the man felt threatened. Everybody had a gun these days and most would use them just for the fun of it. He didn’t have time to explain he wasn’t one of those nor did he even own a gun. Let the man sweat. Might get him there faster.

As the cab screeched to the cub, he leapt out, tossing two fifties to the driver. Rushed into the building, collapsing into a chair just as she walked in.

“Almond coconut or chocolate chip?” he asked breathlessly.

To his relief, she smiled.

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FLASH FICTION FOR THE PURPOSEFUL PRACTITIONER- June 12, 2018

Another of my favorite writing prompts is back!

The challenge for Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner will open early Wednesday morning, June 6th. Allow the prompt to take you anywhere you want to go! (Limit your stories to 200 words.)

This challenge is open until 11:00 pm Thursday night, June 14th, 2018.

untitled

 

He stood just off stage, waiting to go on, heart pounding like he’d already run a marathon. The dull roar of the fans sounded like a hurricane, ready for him to blow them away. Lift them up and away into the magical world inside his head.

He was ready. More than ready. Sweat tinting his hair-line, slicking his back, his upper lip. Already feeling the keys beneath his fingers.

A tech bustled around, adjusting his battery pack, checking the charge. The Sound Manager doing one final check. Pyrotechnics ready. The other band members milling around, cyclones of their own nervous energy.

“And now, welcome to the stage, the band everybody has been waiting for….”

The rest lost in a tsunami of noise; lights flashing like shooting stars.

Rudy tapped the rim of the snare, counting out the beat towards heaven.

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FLASH FICTION FOR THE PURPOSEFUL PRACTITIONER- 5-2-2018

Flash Fiction for the Practical Practitionerimg_2091

The challenge for Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner will open early Wednesday morning, May 2nd. Allow the prompt to take you anywhere you want to go! (Limit your stories to 200 words.)

This challenge is open until 11:00 pm Thursday night, May 10th, 2018.

 

Tommy knelt beside the drying frame, one hand touching the leathering skin. Soon, it would be ready, but for what? Nothing was made from real things any more, not in the white man’s world nor in the world he’d left behind when his parent’s moved them from the reservation to Bradford, MA.

His parents wanted him to be white. He wasn’t white; would never be white; heart longing for two hundred years ago when his people were great, when their land, their lives, were their own, not cast-off from government.

If nothing else, he could make a rabbit-fur hat for his little sister. She wouldn’t wear it to school, but she might at home. She wanted to be white. Have white friends, play white games, go to white schools.

He wanted to hunt buffalo across the plains, count coup, dance the Sun Dance, ride his pony like the wind, sleep under stars and sky.

Hands dangling between his knees, he hunkered by the frame for a long time, listening for far-off sounds he knew he would never hear.

 

(184)

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Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner 9-27-2017

The challenge for Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner opens early Thursday morning, September 21st. Allow the prompt to take you anywhere you want to go! (Limit your stories to 200 words.) This challenge is open until 11:00 pm Friday night, September 29th, 2017.

Flash Fiction for the Practical Practitioner

 

He leaned back in the taxi, ignoring the glitterati of the city around him.  It had been a long day, dawn to dusk, full of horns and exhaust and the low, steady, rumble in the heart of the city.

Beethoven sounded loud in the cab – Dun Dun Dun Da – and he pulled out his cell.

“Yes?”

“The vote came in about fifteen minutes ago, Mr. Dunbar.”

“And?”

“Sandy Thompson won.”

“I see.”

There was a long pause. “What did you wish me to do, sir?”

“Nothing at all.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, Mrs. Jones, I am.”

He clicked off the phone.  “Nothing at all,” he repeated to himself. He had Ms. Thompson right where he wanted her.

The sounds of the city were music to his ears.

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Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner 9-8-2017

Rusty Gate

Flash Fiction for the Practical Practitioner

 

Tom pulled himself up and over the wall, dropping into the overgrown courtyard beyond. “Come on, dude.”

Danny dropped beside him. “This is stupid.”

“Which room?”

“On the left.”

Tom ran across the courtyard, followed by Danny.  They peered into the darkness, seeing a broken table, a blanket of leaves and trash scattered into the corners.

“Who was killed?”

“A hooker.”

“How?”

“Like Jack the Ripper!”

Tom’s eyes widened. “Truth?”

“Yeah.”

A clatter sounded from across the courtyard.

They turned to stare; saw nothing.

“Let’s go.”

Ignoring him, Tom crept into the murder room, foot kicking something under the leaves. He pulled up a rusted knife.

“Is that blood?”

“No.”

“Yes!”

Another clatter.

“Someones coming!”

“Hide!”

“Run!”

The sound of footsteps approaching.

“Run! Run! Run!”

They tumbled out of the room, pounding across the courtyard.  Up and over the wall. Neither stopped running until they reached Tom’s house.

Behind them, in the shadows, something chuckled.

 

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FLASH FICTION FOR THE PURPOSEFUL PRACTITIONER 8-26-2017

makesbike

JulyMorgueFile file581316132183

The challenge for Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner will open early Thursday morning, August 24th. Allow the prompt to take you anywhere you want to go! (Limit your stories to 200 words.)

This challenge is open until 11:00 pm Friday night, August 31st, 2017.

Flash Fiction for the Practical Practitioner

 

“It’s there again!” he said, peering out beyond the window shade.

“What?”

“The green bicycle.” Whispered.

“Oh for God’s sake, Sam, grow up.”

“But it’s a spy bike,” he assured his mother. “Really.”

“It’s a bike, nothing more.”  She swished back into the kitchen.

“It’s not,” he whispered, still watching.

A window above the bike opened and a boy dropped to the sidewalk. He jumped on the bike and pedaled quickly away.

Sam ran to the door. He was just about to step outside, when his mother called.

“Sam! Come back and finish your supper!”

“But MOMMMMM!”

“No!”

Sulking, he slunk back to the table. “Spies don’t eat peas.”

“Of course they do, Sam. That’s what makes them so sneaky!”

 

 

 

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FLASH FICTION FOR THE PURPOSEFUL PRACTITIONER 8-26-2017

bird

JulyMorgueFile file3771234848491

Flash Fiction for the Practical Practitioner

 

“Do you think it would be good to eat?”

She cuffed him. “Birds aren’t for eating!”

“Of course they are! I know they are!”

“You are nothing but a silly boy. You just wanting to kill everything.”

The bird’s tail feathers twitched and both were instantly mesmerized, eyes taking in every detail. Bo-Bo flicked his tail, making silent meowing sounds.

Princess curled her tail, cuffing him again on the ear with one paw. “Stop that. You’ll scare it away. It’s pretty.”

“Pretty? Pretty? Who cares about pretty?”

She sniffed, just enough to show her disdain.  “Killer.”

“Fluff-head.”

“Take that back!” she hissed.

“You take it back!”

They tumbled together, teeth and claws. Neither realized the bird was gone until too late.

Both hissed, glaring at each other.

“What mother would name her kitten Bo Bo?”

“Better than Princess.”

“No it’s not! Princess is a great name.”

“Is not!”

“Is!”

“Isn’t!”

Another bird settled on the fence.

“Shuuush!”

“Pretty.”

“Good to eat.”

“Shuuuush……..”

 

 

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Flash Fiction for the Practical Practitioner 8-12-2017

bus

JulyMorgueFile file6681324364046

Flash Fiction for the Practical Practitioner

She watched the red-haired boy from the back of the bus, excited to be on the way to Hogwarts with Ron Weasley.

Paul McCartney had written “Eleanor Rigby” for her. They’d had a torrid affair, but, devastated when Linda died, he’d pulled away.

She’d tried an affair with Tom Cruise, but he was too short.

Harrison Ford, but he was too old.

Hamlet, but really, who needed that?

So, she’d started an affair with Chris Crenshaw, rock-n-roll and sex god all wrapped in one. They were going to get married as soon as he dumped the latest ‘it’ girl on his arm.

She hated ‘it’ girls. So pretty. So stupid. So vapid.

The bus stopped and Ron-who-wasn’t-Ron disembarked. She like Harry better, anyway,

At the next stop, she stepped into the drizzle, heading to H&H Accounting.

“Morning,” the first H said as she walked in.

The second H called, “I need these figures yesterday!”

She sat down to enter them into the computer.

“I’m going to lunch with Chris, today,” she told them.  “I have to leave by eleven.”

She never even saw the bus coming.

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FLASH FICTION FOR THE PURPOSEFUL PRACTITIONER 7-29-2017

blue chair

https://pixabay.com/en/retro-vintage-istanbul-love-1872888/

Flash Fiction for the Practical Practitioner

The Lost Moment

He lingered at the entrance to the small cafe, transfixed by the grey-blue chair. She’d been sitting there the last time he’d seen her. Dark hair. Grey eyes. Slim neck. Long legs.

His heart jumped at the memory, the feel of her hand in his. They’d spent so many magical days together, exploring the nooks and crannies of the city. Picnics on the Seine. Crying at Notre Dame. Sneaking up the Eiffel Tower. The Louvre. The Pere Lachaise Cemetery, searching for the distant possibility of ancestors..

They’d met in a quaint little town in the west of France, each reaching for the same item in the market. Had ended up laughing and having dinner. A year later they married. Three children, a dog, and several houses later, retiring, looking forward  to peaceful days and romantic nights.

With a sigh, he moved on. If only he’d had the courage to talk to her that first day.