Month: May 2020

Prompt: tart | Word Count: 200 words exactly | Genre: flash fiction

May 5, 2020

Casey’s lockdown goal was to perfect her baking. In the previous seven weeks, she’d been able to nail bread and cakes. She could make a crispy or soft cookie. She turned her attention to fruit. Yeast was scarce so today her focus was a classic French tarte tatin. The difficult part was the homemade puff pastry. She made a lean dough of flour, salt and water. She pounded and pounded the butter and layered it again and again, chilling as necessary to keep it cold. Then she wrapped the butter block in the dough and rolled and turned over and over to create the flaky layers. She peeled and quartered the tart, crisp apples, then sautéed them in butter with sugar, cinnamon, and just a touch of nutmeg until they caramelized a deep, syrupy brown. She used an apple disk for the center, then arranged the quarters in a ringed pattern. She layered the pastry atop the apples in the skillet and baked everything to a lovely golden brown. When she was ready to serve, she turned the tart out of the pan, fruit side up with the caramel syrup dripping down and served the slices with thick heavy cream.

Prompt: Modern | Word Count: 85 words exactly | Genre: flash fiction

May 4, 2020

Our first winter away, we sit in our mid-century modern rental waiting out our confinement. Dad is hospitalized. The bright colors that had once seemed quirky and cheerful are a constant reminder that we are trapped away, unable to get home. We substitute long walks on the closed golf course, stand in long lines for groceries, feeling unconnected to this borrowed community. So we venture out, asking how to assist, the reply is a terse and pointed, “Go home Snowbird!” If only we could.

Prompt: calibrate | Word Count: 150 words exactly | Genre: flash fiction

May 3, 2020

Remember when peace, love and kindness were virtues? When divisiveness was folly?

Envision existence where we recreate the world we want.

Come friends, it’s time for us all to traverse the contours of the global plane of interconnected life.

And take a journey to a reality, where we are aware of and support one another.

Let us use this moment of isolation to join together to beat this, our common menace.

It’s time! Let our best humanity flourish in common cause, for the common good.

Be brave! Step boldly into a new life. Dare yourself to change.

Radically alter long-held prejudice to stifle ignorance,

Assumptions jettisoned in service of science and knowledge.

Truth must triumph—a renewed mandate that will show us how best to recalibrate life together.

Enjoy each other and savor the simple things with the unstinting gratitude that cherishes every life as the wonder it is.

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.

Prompt: Purple | Word Count: 120 words exactly | Genre: flash fiction

May 1, 2020

Still isolated, we look for beauty in small things. Today, noticing purple:

Hyacinths and hydrangeas blooming under sunlit skies

Plump grapes glistening with rinse water

A child’s metallic violet bike abandoned beside the sidewalk

Purple-gloved hands, administering care

The WiFi signal promising connection to others

Iris and lilacs scenting the warming breeze

A paint-tipped brush rendering pansies on canvas

Blinking Twitch logo on my son’s mobile

A daughter’s ombré hairstyle, nails to match

The hoax of an ultraviolet cure, gone viral

States wavering between political beliefs once unshakeable

Looming mountains reflected in the deep evening sky

Purple-stained lips from drinking more wine

Lavender bath salts calming the day away

The leading edge of another night in quarantine

Prompt: June | Word Count: 300 words exactly | Genre: flash fiction

April 30, 2020

It still a month before her namesake birthday month and June despaired that she would not have the fiftieth birthday celebration she’d been planning for nearly a year. It was meant to be a big party, with all her friends dancing to live music, enjoying her favorite margaritas and Mexican food. She’d secretly wondered if she’d had been born a month too late, as Cinco de Mayo was her favorite holiday.

Even as she’d watched several other communities cautiously exit lockdown, she could that requirements of self-distancing, masks, and limited size gatherings that the party was not to be. She cancelled all her plans and resigned herself to celebrating with just her family. Sure enough as June began, shelter in place was still the order of the day. Though some additional work was permitted, gatherings were still forbidden.

Her friends rallied as best they could. On her birthday, they drove by with hats and blowers and large happy birthday signs in a huge caravan parade.

Then mysterious parcels appeared on her doorstep: a bag of tortilla chips, with salsa and guacamole were delivered with a note to please open at 6 pm. Next, all the fixings for a perfect margarita were dropped off. Around 5:45, a tray of her favorite tacos arrived with a card directing her to log onto a zoom call at 6 pm.

When she came downstairs her family greeted her wearing sombreros and handed her a freshly squeezed lime margarita. She joined the zoom call and was serenaded with a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday by friends from around the world, including many she wouldn’t have seen otherwise. She promised a party to end all parties when gatherings could resume and signed off happier than she been in months at her special birthday celebration.