Welcome back to the home of #ThursThreads for Week 698. 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 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 Bluesky, MeWe, Discord, and Mastodon, etc.
Our Judge for Week 698:
Programmer by day, writer by night, Katheryn J. Avila.
Facebook | Bluesky | Goodreads |
And now your #ThursThreads Challenge, tying tales together.
The Prompt:
“Let me take care of [it/you/them/that].”
Any of the words in the brackets can be used this week in your prompt.
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!
Rock Around the Block Party
Covid had wrapped up…I mean, still there but apparently manageable. A few community minded neighbors decided to throw a massive post-Covid, get reconnected block party.
Seemed harmless so I signed on. They blocked off one whole street… two blocks over, and said, we’ll barbecue the weenies, you bring the fixin’s.
Slapdash, I thought but what the hey, so I said, “potato salad my thing, let me take care of that.”
There we were, a somewhat undefined neighbourhood, hundreds of pandemic weary humans wandering over to McCaulay Steet, clutching our pot luckeries, collapsible chairs, our humanity, you might say.
After plopping down my contribution, hauled over in a wee wagon I use, I sat down next to a woman clutching her baby. Cute thing, maybe a year old…and we’re sitting there watching the proceedings and she says, “do you mind…I forgot the diapers…and she hands me the kid and scurries off.”
I’m thinking, “Lady, I look harmless but I could be …” but I shut up, bounced the kid on my knee, and observed the community chaos. I even say, “Pretty darn chaotic?” to nobody in particular. I then ask the kid, “Do you know what chaos is?” smiling at my own witty ridiculousness…and the kid says, swear to god, “”Too much kissing.”
Lips hadn’t moved but the voice came from the kid.
Then the mom popped up smiling like a secret ventriloquist.
“One of my Covid projects,” she said.
Got me good,” I admitted.
249 Words
@billmelaterplea
@sterlings-son-2.bsky.social
Yup, another typo repaired
Rock Around the Block Party
Covid had wrapped up…I mean, still there but apparently manageable. A few community minded neighbors decided to throw a massive post-Covid, get reconnected block party.
Seemed harmless so I signed on. They blocked off one whole street… two blocks over, and said, we’ll barbecue the weenies, you bring the fixin’s.
Slapdash, I thought but what the hey, so I said, “potato salads my thing. Let me take care of that.”
There we were, a somewhat undefined neighbourhood, hundreds of pandemic weary humans wandering over to McCaulay Steet, clutching our pot luckeries, collapsible chairs, our humanity, you might say.
After plopping down my contribution, hauled over in a wee wagon I use, I sat down next to a woman clutching her baby. Cute thing, maybe a year old…and we’re sitting there watching the proceedings and she says, “do you mind…I forgot the diapers…and she hands me the kid and scurries off.”
I’m thinking, “Lady, I look harmless but I could be …” but I shut up, bounced the kid on my knee, and observed the community chaos. I even say, “Pretty darn chaotic?” to nobody in particular. I then ask the kid, “Do you know what chaos is?” smiling at my own witty ridiculousness…and the kid says, swear to god, “”Too much kissing.”
Lips hadn’t moved but the voice came from the kid.
Then the mom popped up smiling like a secret ventriloquist.
“One of my Covid projects,” she said.
Got me good,” I admitted.
249 Words
@billmelaterplea
@sterlings-son-2.bsky.social
“We know the Prius went to the northern station to be left, but maybe it went somewhere else in between.”
“I did that. And I found that damn Econoline, but I can’t find where it went after it left town!”
“All right, that’s enough of that. It’s time for you to get some PT.” Mo grabbed Lisa’s shoulders and squeezed.
“What? No, I gotta find Barrett.” Lisa tried to shrug her off, but Mo wouldn’t let go.
“Well, honey, you’re just spinnin’ your wheels and you need a break so your mind can find a solution. It’s time to turn it off with some physical exertion. It’s time to get out of this chair and go run around outside, Circuits.”
“What are you, my mother? I gotta find Barrett and that stupid van!”
“You let me take care of that. Right now, you’re not gonna help anyone unless you get your head on straight, and that means turnin’ off your brain. Out.” Mo yanked the chair away from the desk. “Go run around outside. Bindi, call Thunder and see if she can run Circuits ragged. Ain’t no way this woman is getting back in the chair until she’s had some PT, a shower, and brushed her teeth. Copy?”
“Roger that.” Bindi grinned at Lisa’s scowl as she pulled out the her phone to text Ann. “Go run away for a bit, Circuits. And don’t forget to eat and get some tea, too.” She winked and left the room.
248 ineligible #SirensInc words
socel.net/@SiobhanMuir (Mastodon)
“Let me take care of it.” That was my standard answer to her for the past eight weeks. “You need the rest. You’re not feeling well. I’ll handle it.”
And I’d tuck her into bed, and head to her parent’s house. Her mother couldn’t drive just yet. Hell, I wasn’t sure she should drive ever. Her mother was old. Needed a walker to get around. Couldn’t stand straight up. Was a master of the three point balance method.
But, her father was in the intermediate care hospital, in rehab, recovering from a broken leg. Her father was even older than her mother. Like her mother, he still drove a car. I worried about that every time they went anywhere.
It was one thing when they didn’t fall. But in the past few years, they’d both fallen. It didn’t always end well. Sometimes, some of their old bones broke. And it was hospital time.
He’d been in the hospital 8 weeks, and there was no end in sight.
I was dead on my feet. But I was in better shape than she was, and we both knew it. So it was up to me to deal with her parents, while she got some desperately needed rest.
Me? I’d find a way to take care of it. Even if it meant I didn’t take care of myself for a while.
It was time to take her mother to the hospital to visit him once more. Even if I wasn’t up to it.
250 Words (Per Google Word)
@mysoulstears.bsky.social
“Oh my.” Hanako laid her hand on her cheek. “Our wizard has charged the worgs.”
“Let me take care of it!”
Zee called back, the little goblin with the big sword already on Luger’s heels. The screaming orc wizard had the staff of the arcane college raised in both hands like a club as he sprinted toward the pack of monstrous beasts. Boogey glanced at Hanako, who shrugged.
Angels had whispered to Zee that Luger was destined to be the greatest hero of their generation. If he wanted to break the cover Boogey had found for them and rush the enemy, then that had to be destiny’s will as well.
“You guys hungry? Then how about you eat…” Luger stopped short of smashing his staff over a worg’s head, instead taking a hand off to punch downward. “This!”
The over-muscled wizard knocked the slavering beast senselessly to its belly. Another worg lunged from his right. Zee interposed herself, slicing the beast up the middle. Momentum carried her up and over Luger’s head, light with no apparent source twinkling behind her shoulder blades. She dropped to his left. Impaling the worg attacking him from that side.
“Hey, that was cool!”
Luger straightened to admire Zee. She hurled herself into a shoulder tackle of the next beast leaping at the wizard, the one on her sword along for the ride. Kicking the worg off her sword, Zee emerged from the ribcage of the other with a smile for her hero.
“Thanks!”
249 words
@davidaludwig.bsky.social
– Fourteen Letters –
My name is unemployed. Like an old man waiting for a bus that hasn’t run in years.
It sits on top of papers, detached now from everything that ever gave it weight.
Husband used to hang onto that name. Father used to borrow it every day.
Now it’s just ink. Fourteen letters doing nothing but drying.
Lawyer slides documents across. Former wife collects copies with the same care she once used to lift our sleeping child from the backseat of the car. Now she’ll have the children for their last years at home.
Someone talks and I nod as if I understand anything.
Looking back, my job was always easy enough. Keep the ceiling up. Drive. Open jars. Life came with a set of instructions in small friendly print.
Let me take care of it.
You.
Them.
These responsibilities were as automatic as breathing on a November morning. How did I not see?
Now all the words are floating around the room looking for a place to settle, but only finding my heart.
My name has been let go. It’s a canceled contract. It’s limited visitation hours and alternating weekends.
It’s cars that continue driving by outside. It’s clouds that continue being clouds.
And I continue standing here trying to find some seriousness. Or even some absurdity.
But all I can do is hold my left hand with my right to see if either still exists.
236 words
@krvanhorn (bluesky and x)
The orange cat lay still, blood staining its muzzle. Aisling stood over it, eyes filled with tears. “I didn’t mean to scare it.” Her voice quavered over the words. “Then that car… It just…out of nowhere…”
Ariel touched her shoulder. “Come away, love.”
“No, I can’t just…leave—” A sob swallowed her words.
“Let me take care of it.”
“You didn’t even like it!” There was heat in her voice now.
How did he explain about the cat? Carla edged up beside them. Did the witch know? He couldn’t decide. She put her arm around Aisling’s waist and eased her away from the street.
“Come with me, Aisling. Ariel’s right. Let him take care of it.” She gave him a telling look behind Aisling’s back. She knew.
“But…”
Ariel whipped out a silken handkerchief, sank to one knee and covered the cat with the soft material. “I’ll be gentle, Aisling. I promise.”
Carla, speaking in hushed tones, ushered Aisling back to the big house. Once the two women disappeared inside, he sat back on his heels.
“And just what are you up to, you big faker?”
One green eye peeked out from underneath the handkerchief. “You couldn’t let her weep over my broken body?” The cat sat up.
“Why are you spying on her?”
“I’m a pooka. I don’t need a reason.” The fae twitched its tail, uncomfortable beneath the Seelie fae’s gaze. “Fine. She’s special. We need to keep her safe.”
“From who?”
“Everyone.”
Ariel agreed. “We will.
****
250 Penumbera Papers WIP words
Silver James
https://silverjames.com
“Bit different to the last party we went to.” Thos shepherded Elena down a hallway, trying to look casual. The house was the definition of opulent and was heaving with people who wore more money on their wrist that he could spend in a year. They were everywhere and he really needed to find a quiet place.
“Is it?” Elena muttered.
He snorted, “Well you’re enjoying this one as much as you did the last one.”
“Seeing as I never wanted to come and you coerced me yet again. Guilting me into helping you.” They rounded a corner and hit a dead end.
“Try the last door, we need to find a computer somewhere.”
She tried the handle: it was locked.
“Let me take care of it.” He ushered her aside and held his hand to the lock, letting his magic magnetise the inner workings. It only took a few seconds before it clicked into place.
“Show off,” she whispered as he pushed her ahead of him. “Oh.” She halted and he stumbled into the back of her. He was about to complain when he spotted what had stopped her.
“Wow.” There was a reason this bedroom had been locked.
“I have no idea what that even is.” She pointed at a contraption that Thos was not going to explain. She blushed as she caught his expression. “I’m never coming to a party with you again.” She stomped towards a laptop on the side.
He mumbled quietly to himself. “Shame.”
250 words @Lexikonical threads and bluesky
#ThursThreads Week 698 is now CLOSED. Thanks to everyone who wrote this week and I hope to catch you next week.