Friday, August 18, 2017

Flash Fiction Contest #34





Summer will be over before we know it. So why don't we have some fun with some trendy summer 'it' items: Flamingos and cactuses!! Cacti...? (Whatev.) You can write about one or the other, or both. Entry due by noon EST on Sunday, 08/20. Winner will be announced later that evening. Rules can be found here.

4 comments:

Liz said...

This was a fun contest. Thanks for posting.

Cactus Eggs
Dorothy's wailing honk shattered the peace of the pond.
I dropped the still running hose and shuffled in my orthopedics. Dorothy was my favorite. Kept her fallen feathers in a bedside cup for good luck. I found her egg crushed by a palm frond.
Dorothy butted a fist-sized cactus, spines jabbing into her pink head with each roll.
“Honey, you want a new egg?” My belly lurched. I'd lost so many babies. Each one earlier than the last until I bled inside so long my skin faded to bleached-sheet white.
Dorothy helplessly knocked the cactus.
I lifted the spiky thing. “You sure?”
Her dinosaur yellow eye dared me to understand, but my chest still aches when a mother caresses her baby's tiny fist.
I nestled her shattered egg beneath an orange firebush.
Dorothy nodded.
And placed the pot sideways in the nest like a baby swaddled in a clay blanket.
Like an angry lawn ornament, Dorothy stabbed her bill at the firebush.
So, I moved that cactus before her egg. Dorothy calmed.
“Well I'll be.” I cherished lost babies and mamas that afternoon with Dorothy at her baby's grave.

Leandra Wallace said...

Aw, poor Dorothy!! And narrator. :( Great job!

Liz said...

Thanks! 200 words was a challenge.

vaiybora said...

Very helpful suggestions that help in the optimizing topic,Thanks for your sharing.

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