#FlashFridayFic #39 : The Door

The door sat across the clearing, just beyond the tree, right on the edge of the cliff. The face where the handle should have been laughed at me. “Coward!”

I’d brought my shovel to dig my way around the door. To its left and right. I’d looked for ground to dig through, but there was none. I could walk right up beside the door, to its left or right. The ground ended beside the door. There was nothing beyond the door. There was nowhere to dig too.

Beyond the door, there was nothing. No pathway. No land. No trees. No fields. No city in the clouds. Nothing. Just blue sky, clouds, and in the distance, mountains. Nothing.

The door face laughed at me. “You can’t figure me out, can you?”

“I’ve looked beyond you, you know. There’s nothing.”

“You mean, nothing you can see from this side of me.”

I got up, grabbed my shovel, walked up to the door and stepped to its left. “Watch this, you idiot!” I held the shovel by the handle, and reached to the right side of the door, grabbing the shovels blade. “See! There’s nothing there!”

“You mean, nothing you can see from this side of me.”

The door goaded me. “How is your cold, frozen, uncaring, bitter, lonely heart, human?” I glared at the door. “Do you long for more? Is there more to life? Has there got to be more to life than just your job? You dull, dreary, day-to-day life that never changes. Where there is no color?”

Then the door said the one thing I could not stand. “You’re afraid to open me, aren’t you, coward!”

I’d heard enough. I grabbed the face by its nose, and turned it upside down. I opened that door, and walked through.

And all my dreams were waiting there for me.

309 Words
@LurchMunster

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I wrote this for Rebekah Postupak‘s #FlashFriday, Week 39. Please go read all the entries in this week’s #Flash Friday. They are good reading.

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#FSF : Home

They say home is where your heart is. But what if you don’t feel anything? If your heart is frozen and lifeless, like stone, where is your home? I opened the door to my car, and stepped out, into my driveway. Knowing I had no home.

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Here’s my weekly attempt at Lillie McFerrin‘s flash fiction challenge, Five Sentence Fiction. This week, the prompt is Home.

Please, go read all the other entries to this week’s Five Sentence Fiction. It’s amazing what creative people can do with just five sentences.

#FlashFriday 22 : Dawn

I stood next to my best friend. We stood, side-by-side, holding hands, as we watched the clouds roll in, coming from the East, toward the shore, with the rising of the sun. I looked up at him, towering above me. He looked to the East, watching the clouds and sun. As he watched, I saw him smile, his eyes gleaming, like a childs, filled with joy and awe.

He didn’t speak. He kept his eyes open, watching every detail, taking it all in. He picked me up, like a father would lift his daughter. He set me on his shoulder, so I could get a better view. I knew him, how he was.

I wondered as I always did, why no one befriended him. Why everyone stayed away, shunned him, ostracized him. He was a giant, standing well over seven feet tall. His size made him ugly, his features being enlarged, his arms and legs lanky, his hands and feet huge. No one knew him. No one knew the gentle, kind, intelligent, loving, human man he was.

I knew. I found him. I talked with him. At first, I was afraid of him. Until the day he protected me from the men in the alley. The men had trapped me. I had no doubt what they would do to me. Leave me broken, bleeding, naked, in the alley.

He stopped them. He picked me up, so gently. Carried me to his home, made sure I was unharmed. Let me stay. I have stayed since that night. He is the friend I’ve always needed. As I am the friend he always longed for.

We stood on the shore that day. Watching the sun rise, and the clouds roll in. Enjoying the beauty of the world, as we wished the ugliness we saw, and endured every day, would vanish, as the darkness faded from the sky, and was replaced by the light of day.

We stood on the shore that day. And never spoke a single word. No words were needed. Each knew what the other felt, what the other thought. We embraced each moment, each breath, each heartbeat, standing there, wanting to remember the feelings of joy, excitement, and hope, the sunrise brought with it.

We both knew the light would be replace by darkness soon enough. When the sunrise was just a memory of the past, and the ugliness of the world woke from it’s nightly sleep, and ruled everything once more.

As he stood there, with me on his shoulder, I knew he cried. I knew tears fell from his eyes. I knew he prayed each day, each night, for the world to wake up and realize how cruel, how cold, how heartless it had become. I knew he understood it never would.

As I sat there, on his shoulder, knowing of so many hearts long frozen colder than any ice, harder than any stone, I cried too. And I wondered how life had gone so very wrong.

501 Disqualified Words
@LurchMunster

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I wrote this for Rebekah Postupak‘s #FlashFriday, Week 22. It’s totally disqualified, as it laughs at the 150 word limit being used this week. Please go read all the entries in this week’s #Flash Friday. They are good reading.

#5SF : Cherish

She’d asked me who I cherished, who I loved, who mattered to me. I hadn’t answered her. She’d stared into my eyes for a time, waiting for me to speak; I never did. “Please,” she asked, she begged, she pleaded. Then, she turned, and walked away, drying the tears she had begun to cry. She knew I cared for no one, I cherished no one, for long ago my heart had frozen colder than any ice and harder than any stone.

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Here’s my weekly attempt at Lillie McFerrin‘s flash fiction challenge, Five Sentence Fiction. This week, the prompt is Cherish.

Please, go read all the other entries to this week’s Five Sentence Fiction. It’s amazing what creative people can do with just five sentences.

Friday Night Write #15 : Closer Than This

I never intended to let her get so close. To let her past all my defenses. Past the image I let everyone see. But I had. I looked at her. Asleep. On the sofa. Wearing nothing but this lacy black lingerie. My pillow stuck under her head. My blanket keeping her warm.

I was both terrified and thrilled. I wanted her to stay, and I wanted to never see her again. So, I just stood there and stared at her, watching her sleep. Wishing I could remember that moment all my life.

I didn’t understand at all how she wound up on my sofa all night. She’d called me, and asked to come over. She’d done that for years. I never knew when she’d call. But I always made time for her. So, I’d told her it was OK. We’d gone to eat dinner. If you can call Subway sandwiches dinner. Then, we’d walked all over the local Wal-Mart store. All 130,000 square feet of it.

I have to admit, it was not easy to stand there while she looked at women’s lingerie. Didn’t help me any when she held up that black lace one in front of herself. “Oh, this is pretty,” she’d said. And then she’d asked me, “What do you think? Do you like this one?”
I’d frozen solid. Couldn’t blink my eyes. Couldn’t twitch my fingers. Couldn’t talk. She’d laughed, and kept it.

We’d gone to the electronics department. And she’d found a movie she wanted to watch. “I’ve never see it. I missed it when it was in theaters.” She showed it to me. Some silly love story, chick-flick movie. The kind you only watch when a girl drags you to it, and makes you. She kept that too.

When we finished shopping, we returned to my place. She put that movie on. “Watch it with me.” How could I refuse? We sat down on the sofa and before I knew what was going on, she had pulled my arm over her shoulders, and then snuggled in against me.
I don’t remember the movie. I know we watched it all. But I have no idea what happened it in.

Sometime during the movie, she got up, went to the bathroom, and changed into that black lace. She came back, put her feet up on the sofa, and stretched out, putting her head in my lap. She’d pulled my arm around her. Right under her breasts.

When the movie ended, I realized she was asleep, and I didn’t want to wake her up. So, I let her sleep. With her head in my lap. After a while, she woke up. “Can I just stay here tonight?”

She could have asked me anything. I’d have said yes.

So, there she was. On my sofa. Under my blanket. Her head on my pillow. And me, standing there, watching her, wondering how she got so close to me. And if she knew how close she was.