Week 650 of #ThursThreads was a success, and y’all never disappoint. Thank you to everyone who writes each week. You are why we’re still doing this, and why we’ve made it more than 12 YEARS!
If you’ve just found us, welcome to the crew! May you come back again and write more great flash. A thousand thanks to Bill Engleson for judging this week. Follow Siobhan Muir on Bluesky or check out the #ThursThreads #flashfiction group on Facebook or the #ThursThreads Group on MeWe to keep up with news, etc.
Entries:
- Sheilagh Lee
- Siobhan Muir
- Silver James
- K.R. Van Horn
- Kelly Heinen
- Mark Ethridge
- Mark A. Morris
- Alex Minns
- David A. Ludwig
Bill says: Here I am, a lowly Canadian scribbler, aging rapidly in place, adjudicating Thursday Threads on the first week of the explosive Tariff War that trifling Donnie Trump has inflicted on Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, and likely the rest of the world.
Except Russians. As far as we know.
Interestingly, at least for me, the prompt is: “All of us travelers in time and space.” I wrote that line last week and this week I get the pleasure of seeing others incorporate one of my few philosophical, slightly sci-fi bon mots into stories.
A distinct pleasure.
I dove into a wealth of finely crafted TT stories this evening, alas seeking but three to fill my quota, two honorable mentions and the winner of the week.
Honorable Mentions
Alex Minns | Website
Bill says: Alex had me at, “And then she said, I hate snakes!” No matter what she wanted me to think about “the poster boy,” Belvedere, I wanted to arrive fifteen or twenty minutes earlier and listen to the fun speech.
And, shallow guffawing guy that I am, I’m a sucker for the name, Belvedere. Decades ago, a favourite actor, Clifton Webb, made a series of films with a smart, sharp, caustic and incredibly quirky character, (also a vegetarian) Lynn Belvedere. I feel obliged to leave a YouTube link to the first of that series, 1948’s Sitting Pretty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgcNdOHZW6I
Kelly Heinen | Website
Bill says: Last year, I awarded Kel J. Heinen an honorable mention and damned if I’m not finding myself in the same situation again. Same theme. Death. Funnier than last year, I think. This go-around, he satirizes University English professors, well, one at least, who obliviously announces, when advised that it is time to depart her mortal coil, that, “Afterlife? I’m only 50! I have to teach in the morning!”
I was also amused by what I have to assume was a slight skewering, a humorous poke at the prompt: ““We are all of us travelers in time and space,” she mutters, sitting on the side of the bed. I don’t catch the reference but have never been good with classic literature.“
It’s a droll piece and digs into the bureaucratic humdrum world of soul departure technicians.
winner announcement
Week 650 Winner
Bill says: I thoroughly enjoyed this story, this parable, this “Novel.” In 220 words, the reader is taken on a lifetime journey. We age, we learn, we teach, we unlearn, we compromise, we eventually become “curled, dusty.”
The message of the old man, that “Knowing is temporary…unknowing is constant…” falls on the deft ears of the most recent generation, a population that should be listening and appreciating the wisdom of those who came before.
Although many in my generation failed to follow the path of our predecessors.
Which was an exciting departure.
Nevertheless, each generation begins the search anew, reinventing the wheel of knowledge and then letting it roll down a hill and hurdle over a cliff. At least that was my take. The take of a curled, and no doubt slightly dusty old feller…
“Novel”
A young man picked up a book, a title we’ve all heard. He sat in the park and read the book cover to cover. Suddenly the world made sense. The systems, the patterns, the hidden machinery. He felt a great urgency, a need to explain, to correct, to lift the veil. He told people what he knew. He watched their faces. They didn’t understand. Wouldn’t even try.
Years passed. He read the book again. The book had changed. Or maybe he had. Maybe the world had softened him, made him careful. He listened more, sought meaning in the words of both young and old. He surrounded himself with people who thought deeply, who spoke in slow, deliberate sentences. He wanted to be one of them.
More years passed. He found the book on a shelf, pages curled, dusty. He opened it. Every word unraveled him. There was no grand understanding, no certainty. The book was new again, the way the world was new when he was a child, strange and shifting.
He told his grandson what he had learned. “Knowing is temporary,” he explained. “Unknowing is constant. We are all of us travelers in time and space, grasping at light. Understand?”
The young man nodded and left the room thinking how the old man knew nothing of the modern world.
~~~~~~~
Congratulations Four Time Winner K.R., and Honorable Mentions Kelly, and Alex! Don’t forget to claim your badges and display them with pride. You certainly earned it!
Pass on the great news on Facebook, MeWe, Bluesky, Mastodon, shiny mirrors, Morse Code, and signal flags. Check out all the original tales HERE. Thanks for stopping by and happy reading! 🙂
