Welcome back to the home of #ThursThreads for Week 684. 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 Facebook and the Group on MeWe.
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 Facebook, Bluesky, MeWe, and Mastodon, etc.
Our Judge for Week 684:
Gamer, writer, and responsive connoisseur of characters and stories, David Ludwig.
And now your #ThursThreads Challenge, tying tales together.
The Prompt:
“Be ready at dark.”
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!
An Old Dick
I was now between gigs. Not music. Couldn’t carry a tune even if I had a burro. Or a camel. Smoked my lungs out in the day. Maybe I was getting past it. No one seemed all that interested in hiring a long in the tooth dick these days.
My last job was two months ago. Undercover in a retirement home. Grace Macadoo’s grandson, Michael, a young Republican, was worried that his eighty-six-year-old Grannie was being taken to the Romeo cleaners by a slightly younger masher, Hugh Hennessey.
“Talks a lot of blarney. Irish. Probably IRA, I figure,” Michael said. “Or Greenpeace. One of those terrorists groups.”
So I signed myself into the Peaceful Pastures Home for the Elegantly Retired.
It took me a couple of weeks to worm my way into Hennessey’s confidence. Talkative fellow to be sure. Younger than Grace by three years. And damned if I didn’t take to him. It was easy to see that he and Grace were sympatico. Not that I’d ever found a partner like that but I sure sensed that they were meant for each other.
And needed to be away.
“We’re breaking out,” Hugh told me one night.
“It’s a retirement home,” I reminded him. “All you need to do is walk out.”
“It’s the thrill of escape, I crave,” he said. He told Grace to be ready at dark. The Uber will be waiting.
It was and they drove away.
Grandson Mickie wasn’t happy.
Oddly, I was.
250 Words
@billmelaterplea
@sterlings-son-2.bsky.social