Week 537 of #ThursThreads, and y’all never disappoint. We’re in Year 10 and that’s an accomplishment in itself! Thank you to all y’all for coming back to write for all these years. I couldn’t have done it without you. If you’ve just found us, welcome to the crew! You’re in good company. May you come back again and write more great flash. A thousand thanks to David A. Ludwig for judging this week. Check out the #ThursThreads #flashfiction group on Facebook or the new #ThursThreads server on Discord to keep up with news, etc.
Entries:
- Joseph P. Garland | @JPGarlandAuthor
- Mark Ethridge | @mysoulstears
- Bill Engleson | @billmelaterplea
- Silver James | @SilverJames_
- Mark A. Morris
- Siobhan Muir | @SiobhanMuir
- Eric Martell | @drmag00
- David A. Ludwig | @DavidALudwig
Honorable Mention
Silver James | @SilverJames_
David says: Something about the levity of the inconvenienced morning in such a difficult situation just did it for me. In particular, the structure of bookending the flash with the importance of the hot bath was excellent.
winner announcement
Week 537 Winner
David says: I love that you opened with the prompt, that the story hinged on what it referred to, and ended on it again. I especially love handling such a heavy topic without ever explicitly spelling it out. Something about knowing (suspecting?) what was being discussed without ever stating it felt just right for this story. Well done.
“Then explain this to me.”
She stood there, stone-faced, the evidence in her hand. I couldn’t explain it away. I couldn’t pretend it wasn’t real.
“Explain that this isn’t exactly what I think it is.”
I couldn’t, and she knew it. This was what she’d been wondering about for a long time now, what she’d flat-out asked me about, and what I’d bald-faced lied about.
She turned away and walked back to what was – or what had been up until this moment – our bedroom. I stood there and waited to see if she was going to throw me out or grab her stuff and leave.
Mostly, I was in shock. There’s times where you don’t really think about what you’ve done until you’re forced to, mostly because you don’t want to think about what it said about you.
The back door slammed, and I realized that not only was she the one heading out, but she wasn’t even going to return to the living room to yell at me.
I moved to the sofa and sat down. She’d dropped the evidence on the coffee table, and I made myself look down at it. The last time I’d seen it, it was hiding in the back of my underwear drawer, but there it was, big as life, no longer a secret.
I brought it to my face, hoping to take comfort in the scent that still lingered from that night.
But there was nothing. All of it was gone.
~~~~~~~
Congratulations TWENTY TIME WINNER Eric, and Honorable Mention Silver! Don’t forget to claim your badges and display them with pride. You certainly earned it!
Pass on the great news on Twitter, Discord, Facebook, MeWe, shiny mirrors, Morse Code, and signal flags. Check out all the original tales HERE. Thanks for stopping by and happy reading! 🙂
