55 - Abandoned

Half-hidden by wild growth, it sits abandoned. Paint peels, doors go unmended. Time wears upon this silent place until the people come, chatting of abandonment, thinking themselves alone as they gather windfall chestnuts. One of them spies a movement at a window, but no, it's just the reflection of a passing cloud...

...or is it?

About Friday Flash 55: The challenge is to write a complete story in fifty-five words. If you've written a 55-flash, go let The G-Man know!

55 - Pita

I watched them travel down the rack

So tempting…should I get a pack?

If I took them home to make a snack,

Surely someone would give me flack.

Bread is fattening – take them back!

No gluten permitted in this shack!

So I’ll buy some lettuce; stay on track

But someday soon I’ll buy a sack!

About Friday Flash 55: The challenge is to write a complete story in fifty-five words. If you've written a 55-flash, go let The G-Man know!

55 - Chaco

It was the home of the ancient ones, proud people who traveled and traded throughout the world as they knew it. 

While neighbors looked on in envy, they built cities and temples to showcase their achievements. 

Their civilization would last forever, or until the droughts came. 

Now only dry stones remain to tell the tale.

About Friday Flash 55: The challenge is to write a complete story in fifty-five words. If you've written a 55-flash, go let The G-Man know!

New ST Story!

Today's Sunday Scribblings has inspired a new Steal Tomorrow post: Creative World. This one is a stand-alone, since it doesn't lend itself to being part of any existing short story series.

55 - A Better Life

It certainly looked like a better deal than the wilderness: air conditioner, hot and cold running water, and even a door to shut out the coyotes and mountain lions! It sounded idyllic, until she realized the price.

Oh deer! Where would she find a job in this economy?

Alas, luxury was not to be hers.

About Friday Flash 55: The challenge is to write a complete story in fifty-five words. If you've written a 55-flash, go let The G-Man know!

Easy Liar

You tell your tale with ease, my friend.

It's no wonder they believe.

You say what they want to hear,

captivating all.

Not me.

If you didn't need my faith,

we could take things as they are,

spinning fables together.

A conspiracy of two.

Not so.

You must add me to your list,

and though I love your dark reality

I despise the sugared confection

of your lie.

Not you.

Go and find your easy prey,

the gullible, the charmed.

Somewhere in that wider world

is your next adherent.

Not here.

This is a Sunday Scribblings post.

55 - Unleashed

Too beautiful a day to be confined. Whose silly rule said stay on the sidewalk, stay on the leash, conform? They looked at each other: tall dark-eyed human and golden, brown-eyed dog. "To hell with it," he said. He unclipped the offending item and left it on a nearby bench. Today they would run free.

About Friday Flash 55: The challenge is to write a complete story in fifty-five words. If you've written a 55-flash, go let The G-Man know!