Prompt: six to nine | Word Count: 200 words exactly | Genre: flash fiction
May 2, 2020
The hardest hours were from 6 pm to 9 am. Oh, and weekends, too. That was when the true meaning of social isolation sank into Macy’s bones. All alone. Fixing a solitary dinner and watching the tube or reading had seemed a luxurious indulgence back in March. Now, nothing appealed to her. She’d caught up on the backlog of shows she’d meant to watch. Her usually groaning bookshelf of ‘to read’ volumes was standing bare.
From 9 am to 6 pm she was busy with work and calls and video meetings. She caught up with colleagues, lunched virtually with friends and ran her few errands. But as dusk arrived contact with others waned. Her friends were busy with their families, cooking, homework, bedtime routines. Occasionally there would be a catch call with friends, but those barely put a dent in the long lonely hours.
In an effort to forestall insanity, she began writing. She filled her nights and weekends with fictional character dreamed up for her own entertainment. Nightly she wrote her stories spinning fantastical yarns of pure escapism. When the stay home order lifted, and she resumed socializing she had a manuscript ready for polishing, titled Six to Nine.
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