I was recently introduce to Flash Fiction.

Basically story telling with extreme brevity, micro-fiction. There is even a Flash Fiction Day, it’s May 16th in case you were wondering.

This image by Wayne Pollard sums it up perfectly if you ask me. I love his humor. Check out his comics over at Bo’s Cafe Life. They are tailor made for the writer in you.

David Gaffney lays out some basic rules on how to write Flash Fiction. He has a whole book dedicated to stories no longer than 150 words. Mine are short by his standards. Perhaps I’ll attempt to pad them a little more. And author Nancy Stohlman offers 30 Flash Fiction Prompts to play around with. In case you’re looking for some exercises to get the creative juices flowing.

So Here are my first two attempts in this genre.

Kevorkian

I watch the water rain a torrent upon you. Fighting with everything you have, all eight legs kicking the porcelain tub. There was no escape. There was nothing left to do I thought silent witness as you circled the drain. There would be no last minute reprieve from the grim reaper. In the flash of your last breath deep terror relieved. I realized that I should have taken a tissue and smothered you. It would have been much kinder, quicker, much more humane.

AND

Reincarnation

I had been walking with my head down, counting cracks, all day weaving among the vendeurs along the banks of the Seine. Their singsong tones calling out coaxing their juicy wedges of tangerine. Wafting between the sweetness of the summer stands slipped a familiar smell I knew but couldn’t place. It hung in the air like sentient memory of a time since past. I looked up to see him sitting nose in book by the café door. I think our paths must have crossed before. But his face I didn’t identify; deja vu aside. Above his head chalk scrolled on the cafe sign read Vous êtes au bon endroit. Ne cherchez plus.  In recognition I stopped to say hello.

English Translation: “You are in the right place. Look no further.”