I've decided
to try an experiment of flash fiction here on my blog. This statement
defines what that is:
Wikipedia
Flash
fiction is
a style of fictional literature of extreme brevity. There is no
widely accepted definition of
the length of the category. Some self-described markets for flash
fiction impose
caps as low as fifty three words, while others consider stories as
long as a thousand words to be flash
fiction.
I
hope you will enjoy the stories in this series. Your comments are
always appreciated.
Sherry
The Sound
Of Thunder
By Sherry
Louise Stoll
(All
Rights Reserved)
She liked to write.
She wanted to write. She sat down at the computer and stared at the
blinking cursor. In boredom, she got up and put a pocket sandwich in
the microwave and turned on the radio. The local college station was
starting a play by play of a women's basketball game. “Poor
girls.” she thought. They had endured a year and a half of a
losing coach who blamed the team for every loss they had by always
saying in radio interviews, “They didn't come to play.” She
guessed he didn't want to play either because he quit without notice
several games ago.
“Not my circus, not
my monkeys.” she thought as she spit out the the first bite of her
pocket sandwich. Her pop didn't do much to combat the flaming hot
lava burning her mouth.
A sound and
reverberation similar to thunder drew her attention to the back porch
of her little farm house. The hair on the back of her neck prickled
up a bit. It was about 12 degrees in the middle of winter without
much hope of a thunderstorm. She listened quietly and hoped no one
was out there. She wondered if one of her outdoor cats had body
slammed the storm door. She turned up the radio and went back to
staring at the daunting cursor.
Inwardly, she smiled
because she knew no one who knew her would believe that she sat home
alone all dressed up in her jewelry and bright lipstick while
listening to a pair of basketball games. They might expect her to
squeeze out a poem or something, but not to enjoy sports.
A fan at the game on
the radio was beginning to irritate her. He was like a toddler
learning that his voice carries in a gym.
“Whoa............................................................,”
until he ran out of breath was all he could do no matter what either
team did. She had no idea who he was rooting for. Maybe she would
write about him. But, the porch drew her attention again.
More thunder? Really?
She thought not. She crept from her desk in the dining room and
through her kitchen. She pulled a small portion of her curtain to
the side in anticipation of something to debunk this sound.
Nothing.
She clicked off the
kitchen light. It was getting harder to breathe as she was realizing
that there had to be someone or something on the porch. Standing in
the dark by her kitchen door leading to the door to her porch, the
floor rumbled with the next sound of thunder. She really wished it
actually was thunder. Her stomach was starting to roll because she
was losing hope of that.
Where was her
cellphone? She felt her pocket and only found her lipstick and a
crumpled tissue.
Her mind raced with
what she should do. Should she run to the front door with the keys
to the car? She thought she wasn't fast enough because she would
have to go near the back porch, leap in and drive away. She would
reveal herself if she opened the door to the porch. Where was her
phone? She had turned off the lights in the house and now didn't
have the guts to turn them back on. She was near a panic attack.
Tears rolled down her
face as she felt and heard more of this mysterious thunder. This
time it was accompanied by the click of a vehicle door. She thought
she heard voices but she really wasn't sure.
She braced herself with
her back against the kitchen door and tried to calm herself with
prayer. “Dear Lord, please protect me and my animals.” She
clenched her eyes closed as she prayed.
Next thing she knew,
she heard what sounded to her, like a strong electrical device being
turned on. She opened her eyes and promptly fainted. Standing in
front of her in her kitchen were two little green men. The electrical
sound she heard was light moving toward her to beam her inside a
spinning airship waiting for her.
She woke up to the
sound of her cellphone dinging because it needed to be put on the
charger. She vaguely remembered misplacing it. Sitting at her desk
with that silly cursor still blinking at her, she figured it really had to be thunder that she had heard. Her banging head sure
felt like there was moisture in the air. She thought she must have
fallen asleep in her chair because the basketball games were over and
the radio was deep into its next section of programming.
She still hadn't
written a word.
The Sound
Of Thunder
By Sherry
Louise Stoll
(All
Rights Reserved)
Author's Bio
Sherry Louise Stoll is
the author of I Am Blessed. A Collection Of Faith Based Prayers
and Affirmations. Sherry enjoys life with her husband on a 160 acre cattle ranch near
Maryville, Missouri.
