Welcome back to the home of #ThursThreads for Week 724. Year Lucky 13! The last year of the cycle, the Moon Year. To those who keep coming back, I’m delighted to see you again!
Today is Thursday and that means it’s time to start flashing on #ThursThreads, the challenge that ties tales together. Want to keep up each week? Check out the #ThursThreads #flashfiction group on Discord and the group on Facebook.
Need the rules? Read on.
Here’s how it works:
- The prompt is a line from the previous week’s winning tale.
- The prompt can appear ANYWHERE in your story and is included in your word count.
- The prompt must be used as is. It can be split, but no intervening words can be inserted or tenses changed.
Rules to the Game:
- This is a Flash Fiction challenge, which means your story must be a minimum of 100 words, maximum of 250.
- The story must be new writing, not a snippet from something published elsewhere with the prompt added.
- Incorporate the prompt anywhere into your story (included in your word count).
- Post your story in the comments section of this post
- Include your word count in the post (or be excluded from judging)
- Include your social media handle or email in the post (so we easily notify you)
- The challenge is open 7 AM to 8 PM Mountain Time US.
- The winner will be announced on Friday, depending on how early the judge gets up.
How it benefits you:
- You get a nifty cool badge to display on your blog or site (because we’re all about promotion – you know you are!)
- You get instant recognition of your writing prowess on this blog!
- Your writing colleagues shall announce and proclaim your greatness on Bluesky, MeWe, Discord, and Mastodon, etc.
Our Judge for Week 724:
Scientist, Dad, and flash fiction author, Eric Martell.
And now your #ThursThreads Challenge, tying tales together.
The Prompt:
“We’ll get right on it.”
All stories written herein are the property (both intellectual and physical) of the authors. Comments do not represent the views of the host and the host reserves the right to remove any content. Now, away with you, Flash Fiction Fanatics, and show us your #ThursThreads in the Moon Year. Good luck!
Flight of Antsy
Leroy Lemster had never flown. While billions of people had been flying off to vacation paradises, distant locales, he had always grounded himself.
When asked, he told the unvarnished truth. “When I was twelve, I went to see a Jimmy Stewart movie. The FBI Story. After ten minutes, I walked out.”
As most people hadn’t ever seen the film, or not really remembered it, they usually had to ask, “Why?”
Leroy would then tell them. “A plane is blown up in the sky. All those people killed by a mother murderer…for the insurance.”
And there it was, and because of that cinematically traumatic childhood experience, Leroy had never flown.
But now, Muriel, his hard done, put-upon wife of forty-five years had laid the law down.
“I’ve had a lifetime of this stupidity, Leroy. Here they are. The tickets. Two tickets to fly to Hawaii. No more boats. We are going to fly. We’re going to march right down to the airport, stand in line, get all checked in, get to the plane where we’ll get right on it, find our seats, sit down, buckle up and fly to Honolulu. Where we will have a great time.”
Leroy had never seen Muriel so insistent. He could feel his rubbery knees buckle onto their thirty-year-old shag carpet.
Maybe it was time, he thought.
He’d had a good life.
The children were well-off.
And when the plane did crash, he would be vindicated.
That would be almost worth dying.
250 words
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