flash fiction – beckycochrane.com

Thanksgiving Eve

Happy birthday today to Lynne! Always love sharing this photo I took at Cheaha State Park on a visit to our favorite lookout point during one of the decades we’ve been friends (who’s counting?!?).

We aren’t doing our Thanksgiving tomorrow as planned. Timothy had a couple of other clients in need of him, and his first real break when he can relax and hang out for a few consecutive hours will happen on Sunday. We’ll do our Thanksgiving meal then. In the meantime, I’ll be coloring and writing. I’d done another coloring page (shown below) from the Village Charm coloring book even before the bookstore drawing I recently shared. Below it is more flash fiction I hope you’ll enjoy (I went a bit over the thousand-word count, even after editing. This should surprise no one who reads me.).

I.J. drove his beat-up Civic to Amanda’s place with the windows down and his most recent tape playing. His car was so old it still had its original cassette player. One of his Sunday tasks while he did laundry was to create a weekly mix tape. He drew from half a lifetime’s accumulation of songs on computer, album, and CD collections to make a mix he could enjoy during a week’s worth of drives to and from work.

He was running late because Amanda had asked him to stop at the bakery to pick up three dozen mini chocolate cupcakes. She said they’d be perfect for an abundance of vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce she wanted to use up. Amanda believed most people had a superpower they didn’t recognize. I.J. thought Amanda’s was her ability to throw things together quickly and create the perfect meal, outfit, party, excursion, or event. Her life was like Mary Poppins’ carpetbag: whatever was needed was in it. I.J. wondered if her creativity and spontaneity were a reaction to the precise mathematical and technical demands of her work as a draftsman.

The six who’d be at Amanda’s tonight evolved into a group over several years, when their original connections moved on because of graduations, breakups, jobs, and family crises. As they aged into their thirties, their lives stabilized. Though they had other friends and sometimes romances, changed jobs, and pursued diverse interests, their group stayed solid. Maybe the secret to their longevity was not gathering as a group too often. None of them had ever dated any of the others, so there were no messy memories or grudges among them.

The six consisted of two straight women, one bisexual woman, two straight men, and one asexual man. I.J. had spent much of his young adulthood trying to figure out why he was never sexually attracted to anyone. Counseling had finally given him an identity he could understand. He valued friendships and even deep emotional and spiritual connections; asexuality simply meant he wasn’t interested in physical relationships. That truth felt like a huge weight being lifted, especially when he learned there were plenty of people who were like him.

He thought of his other friends and their superpowers. Craig could fix anything. A weird noise coming from under the hood, anything broken or malfunctioning in a house or apartment, Craig was your guy. And he never wanted anything in return except maybe a pizza and a six-pack. He did all right financially as a landscaper but could probably be a millionaire as a fix-it guy. He liked keeping it a hobby, though, and refused payment.

Nora’s superpower was photography. She still used cameras that shot with actual film and spent weekends, holidays, and vacations capturing stunning images of nature and wildlife. She provided her own chemicals and paper to process them in the photo lab at the college where she taught history. Her colleagues knew her as Elnora; she thought it made her sound more professorial. I.J. thought it was strange that she didn’t teach photography or any other visual art.

Jess was their storyteller. He shared anecdotes about unnamed colleagues and customers, often making them all laugh to the point of tears. I.J. was never sure what parts of Jess’s stories were true or outright fiction. He had no idea how many retailers Jess had worked for over the years, most of them at the big mall thirty miles away. They were surprised when his most recent position managing the local bookstore had lasted two years, and held their breath when a new owner took over. The owner had no retail experience herself, but when Nora found out she’d been a teacher, she said they could stop worrying. A former high school teacher could whip any business into shape. A bookstore, even one that employed quirky Jess, would barely make her blink.

Liz countered that she wished the new owner would take over the hospital, too. Liz worked as a lab tech in every department–except the morgue, as she liked to say. They all worried about the emotional toll of her job. I.J. thought it was Liz’s superpower that saved her. She was a harpist, so gifted that the videos she posted of herself on social media garnered hundreds of thousands of views and likes. Liz never monetized her performances. She wouldn’t do endorsements; she gave no options for donations to her; and she left her comments turned off. The only statement in her bio was that anyone who enjoyed her music, Be good humans and donate your time or money to organizations that assist others.

There was no parking on Amanda’s street, so I.J. pulled into an open space on the nearest block. He ejected the tape, put it in its case, jammed it inside his pocket, grabbed the cupcakes, and left his car unlocked. There was nothing to steal except the car itself, and he doubted anyone would want it.

He spied Amanda’s dog Honey lying near the doorway of No. 9 (he always heard that repeated in the unnamed engineer’s voice from the Beatles’ song “Revolution 9”). Honey liked napping on the sidewalk since there was no parking or through traffic on the street. The front door was left open when the superpowers gathered there.

I.J. stopped walking, struck by a sudden thought. If the others had superpowers, why didn’t he? Without great wealth or the magical skills of a ninja or shapeshifter, with no talent to speak of–he didn’t think asexuality counted–if he was just an ordinary mortal, how did he fit into their group? He resumed walking slowly toward No. 9, and sat on the curb, cupcakes next to him, so he could pet Honey. He could clearly hear his friends’ voices through the open window.

Nora: He’s not answering his cell.

(I.J. suddenly realized he’d left his phone at home.)

Jess: He’s never late.

Liz: I hope he didn’t have an accident.

Craig: More likely that car of his crapped out. I need to give that thing a checkup.

Amanda: He has to come! Otherwise, we’ll have no music!

Liz: We need to find him. Those tapes he puts together are my coping mechanism.

Jess: They’re my emotional support music.

Liz: Do you know how many of his choices inspire what I perform and share on my social media?

Amanda: His tapes remind me of decades of music I’ve loved and can put on my office playlists.

Nora: You do that, too? I listen to mine in the darkroom. My students want them playing in class while they take exams.

I.J. realized he was smiling like an idiot, cleared his throat, and said loudly, “Sorry, Honey, the cupcakes are chocolate. Pretty sure I can talk Amanda out of a safer treat for you.”

He and Honey both stood and walked toward the open door of No. 9.

©Becky Cochrane

When worlds collide

Take a page from the coloring book Village Charm and a page from Complete the Story, and what might I get? The idea to finish this prompt:

along with the page I colored:

Here’s a tale for anyone who wants to read where imagination took me while I colored today.

Pauline felt empty and full at the same time. She was mentally and physically exhausted, but her spirit buzzed with energy it hadn’t felt in a long time. Finally she was ready to open the bookstore–as soon as the clock on the city hall tower struck ten.

She sat on a bench across the street from Little Village Books and realized that technically, the store was open. At least the front door was. Memphis the cat sat in the doorway, pausing his grooming ritual to watch her. He’d been her constant companion the last few weeks, and she’d grown to appreciate the company. She could understand why Grandpa let Memphis stay when he’d first walked into the store as a stray.

She smiled and pulled a rumpled letter from the pocket of her denim jacket and began to read it, as she had many times before.

“Sweet Pauline, I’ve always wished one of my grandchildren would want the bookstore. For years, your grandmother was my partner. She was the reasonable one of us, always reminding me, ‘Richard, remember that store doesn’t own you. You own the store.’ When our only child, your mother, married your father and moved away, we almost sold Little Village Books. We didn’t. Then Jenny died. As a widower, I again considered selling out and moving close to your parents and their growing family. I didn’t. When Calico Jane died three years ago, I knew I was too old to get another cat and probably too old to continue running the store. Two buyers offered good deals, a surprise in an era of declining independent bookstores. I worried that the property was more appealing than a bookstore. I didn’t accept either offer.

Your mother and I had a long conversation about all of you. I told her what qualities I thought the store needed in an owner and manager: intelligence, a sense of humor, a love of books, people skills, and financial acumen. She told me that all of you love books and reading, but also: Ricky’s brilliant but completely lacking a sense of humor. Elaine’s loaded with personality but has filed bankruptcy for the second time. Barry has people skills, but his sense of humor skews toward daredevil antics and frequent trips to the emergency room. ‘But Pauline,’ she said, ‘is smart, has a sense of humor, does great with people, and has burned out from pouring herself heart and soul into teaching. Little Village Books would be in capable hands with her, but I can’t imagine her leaving her students.’

I assume if you’re reading this letter, maybe you’re considering a career change. The shop is in the black and won’t be a financial burden to you. In addition, I sold the house and have lived in the apartment above the store for the last couple of years, where you could live. The money from the house sale would come to you with the store. The town’s small, the property taxes are manageable with the apartment and shop bundled together, and when Memphis walked in the front door last year, I somehow knew a future was going to work out for him, me, and a new owner. The cat was good luck. He can be good luck for you, too.

In the large locked drawer of my desk in the apartment, I’ve compiled years of stories about the store, its customers, and the townspeople. It’s a big advantage to know your customers’ tastes, but also who you can count on and who to be wary of. It’s not a perfect town. It’s a real one. Consider those journals the kind of education you got while earning your teaching degree.

Before I close, I advise that if you decide to take the store, even before it opens, do one outrageous thing to communicate to the world, or at least to one little village, there’s a new bookseller in town. After that, I hope, like me, you have the adventure of a lifetime in a store that you own–but honestly, it will own you, too.

Much love,
Grandpa

Pauline returned the letter to her pocket and looked again at Little Village Books. When she’d first seen it, the store signs, the door, and the signs that went to the sidewalk for bargain books and to advertise events, had all been painted a dignified blue and gold. She’d refreshed some of those with new colors, particularly the front door, now bright pink and green. The plaster on the lower exterior wall was the same bright green. Yesterday, she’d heard a child say to her mother, “But I want to go in the melon door store!” She couldn’t hear the mother’s answer as they kept walking, but she knew from that moment, her “outrageous” choice of color had fulfilled Grandpa’s directive.

The “Melon Door” Book Store now officially belonged to her. Or to her and Memphis.

©Becky Cochrane

Tiny Tuesday!

Lynne has collected tins most of her life, including vintage/antique, favorite products, fun ones, pretty ones, etc. I’ve often contributed to her collection, and the “diner” tin above is one I found in my favorite antique mall (it relocated recently, and now it’s not close to me anymore, sad face) and gave her a couple of Christmases back. Diners/restaurants/cafés figure in a lot of our personal history together, and maybe that’s why I used one in a book (unpublished) in the Neverending Saga when two characters just getting to know each other swap stories. This is one The Musician shares.

“I was traveling one time, and I ended up in a town in Tennessee. Really small…. It was a poor town. I had to be there for a while—”

“Were you incarcerated?” she asked.

“It makes me happy that you assume the worst about me. I could have been something noble like a Freedom Rider. I wasn’t. Nor was I in jail. I was visiting a friend. There was a woman there, Maudie, who owned and ran the town’s only café. I usually was there during the day, but one night I went inside and there was a man as old as she was, which is to say in their seventies, sitting on an old kitchen chair in the corner. He had an electric guitar and an amp.

“She sat across the counter from me while we listened to him play. Finally, she said, ‘That man been making love to me with that guitar for more than fifty years now.’ I said, ‘Is he your husband?’ She shook her head and said, ‘Sometimes it’s best to stay friends.’ Then she shrugged and left me with a lot more questions than answers.”

©BeckyCochrane

Pet Prose: Harper

“The summer between her second and third grade years, she decided she’d rather be a tree. Every day she’d take a bucket of water to the woods behind the house, pour the water on the ground, and carefully place her bare feet into the muddy soil. She’d stand still for what felt like the entire afternoon, and when she could no longer endure standing still, would examine her feet for any sign of roots.

Disappointed after a couple of weeks, she was struck by a conversation between her uncle and aunt when they talked about growing roses and what they called ‘grafting.’ She stopped taking water to the woods. Instead, she took books from her uncle and aunt’s library to read while she pressed her back, or an arm, or her feet, against a tree trunk. The grafting process never worked and she remained fully human, but she did read a lot of good books that summer.”

I take photos. I write. My volunteer job is taking photos of rescued dogs and cats transported by the rescue group whose records I manage. Since working and volunteering don’t leave me a lot of time to write, I’m spending 2017 borrowing from what these dogs and cats are writing. They said it’s okay.

Pet Prose: Patrick

“He worked for a branch of government security so secret sometimes even he wasn’t sure where it fit into the chain, and he’d been an agent for thirteen years. Internally, they were known as Wolf Pack, though an agent usually worked in the field as a Lone Wolf, making contact with local enforcement agencies as directed. On each mission, an agent was tagged with a name from the NATO alphabet combined with the mission location.

This time, he was Hotel Cairo. It sounded exotic, but he was actually stuck in Cairo, Illinois, a once-thriving town that now was underpopulated, undereducated, and underserviced. Worse, he had a partner, November Cairo, and he preferred working alone. At least she wasn’t inclined to chatter, but she had a way of leveling a stare at him that made him feel almost like he didn’t have more than a decade of experience or that he wasn’t a few years older than she was.

For three days, they’d had to stretch the bounds of credibility by pretending to be tourists in a place where he felt sure few vacationers came. It had been her idea to bring a couple of digital cameras along and give one to him.

‘Photographers are usually ecstatic over places most people wouldn’t spit on,’ she said drily on their first day out. ‘A camera gives you a good reason to size up things, stare at them.’

‘Yeah, right, I know that,’ he’d answered. ‘Sometimes a camera also catches something the human eye doesn’t register.’

‘Maybe not yours,’ she said.

That had pretty much set the tone from the outset, and it hadn’t gotten better. Now they were stuck at midnight watching a road that no one traveled, waiting for anything that looked suspicious. They’d seen nothing, not even an appearance by a deer or raccoon.

‘You know,’ November said, breaking a near two-hour silence, ‘there’s almost zero possibility of the motorcade coming through here anytime in the next three days.’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ he said, staring through the windshield at nothing. ‘It’s the assignment.’

‘How long has it been since you’ve done anything…’ she trailed off. When he remained silent, she finally continued, ‘…that you considered really relevant? Do you ever think we’re just some lawmaker’s pet project with no real mission or bearing on national security? Or even an experiment in how long someone who thinks they’re relevant will continue to do a job with no real purpose or function?’

‘Nope,’ he said. He’d liked her better when she was quiet.

‘What’s your name? Where do you come from? Who are you?’

‘Maybe this is an experiment, and they want to see how long I can resist your questions. Hotel Cairo, Wolf Pack, United States of America.’

He heard the sound that meant she was blowing her bangs out of her eyes, then she said, ‘I’m easy.’

He was sure she couldn’t see his perplexed expression as he turned his head toward her. Was this some kind of seduction?

‘That’s my name. EZ, the letters. Not easy, the word. And before you ask, the initials don’t stand for anything. My parents named me EZ because my mother was in labor about ten minutes before I made a graceful and nearly pain-free entrance into the world.’

‘I guess they didn’t consider the ramifications the name might have on a teenage girl?’

‘I survived,’ she said. ‘I grew up in South Carolina, graduated from a military academy then Boston College. Did some time in the Bureau and was moved to Wolf Pack.’

He was quiet a few minutes and finally said, ‘Code.’

‘No, it’s all true–’

‘It’s my name. Code. Old family surname that my parents made my first name.’

‘I guess they didn’t consider the ramifications the name might have on a future special agent of the United States of America?’

‘I’ve survived so far,’ he said.

Even in the dark, he was sure her smile mirrored his.”

From Patrick’s suspense novel of espionage Code in Cairo.

Patrick named his characters in honor of donors to my Saving Pets fundraiser. Thank you!

Pet Prose: Pollywag

“I don’t know why I have the dreams I do. Once for two weeks in a row I dreamed about actor Eric Roberts every night. I’ve honestly never given much thought to actor Eric Roberts, but there he was anyway. Each night the dream was a variation on a falling out we’d had and how he no longer wanted to have anything to do with me. I searched my brain for anyone in my life who looked like actor Eric Roberts or was named Eric or Robert or Rob or Robby or even Bob with whom I might have unresolved issues, but there was no one. Just as quickly as he arrived, actor Eric Roberts left my dreams without ever explaining his anger. To this day, I still can’t see him on TV or in a movie without feeling a little bitter. Couldn’t he at least have said goodbye?

There were more dream series of that nature, but recently, my dreams had been about Rocky, the squirrel from the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, only he spoke French and I was his English-speaking nanny who didn’t understand a word he said. I woke up every morning exhausted by the frustrations of my job.

‘Now, Gail,’ my friend Darla said, ‘I know you’re not a believer in better living through pharmaceuticals, but these dreams you have sound like Vicodin dreams. Are you hiding a little opioid problem?’

‘I don’t even take aspirin!’ I protested.

Darla cackled and said, ‘At least it’s the squirrel. Imagine if you were a moose nanny.’

‘It would be fine if the moose and I spoke the same language,’ I said with a sniff.”

From Pollywag’s short story “Now Back to Moose and Squirrel.”

Pollywag named her characters Darla and Gail in tribute to a dog and her wonderful person who contributed to my Saving Pets fundraiser.

Pet Prose: Spyro

“Some days it felt like she had to work hard not to be cynical. It could be that she was tired to the bone. It could be that she never felt surprised by people any more. She’d had many years to see the best and worst of them, but it was their predictability, finally, that had worn her down.

Still, every night around dusk, she took the tools of her profession to the same spot outside the fenced park where the vendors gathered to wait for the tourists. She set up her table and covered it with the beautiful cloth a friend had brought from her travels in India decades before. The colors had dimmed, but in the light cast by the period street lamps and her candles, that didn’t matter. The fabric was just exotic enough to lend authenticity to the service she offered.

She placed her crystals and wands strategically on the table and took her cards from their scrap of silk. A stick of nag champa and a cleansing ritual, and she was ready for business. Until the first clients came, she could observe at leisure. She noticed the skateboarder, whose name she didn’t know, and his dog Milly. Some of the others didn’t like the skateboarders, but she’d long ago stopped being quite so precious about the marketplace. Skateboarders, musicians, beggars, shamans, or charlatans–there was room for all of them. Besides, Milly was a beautifully behaved dog and her young man was always polite. His eyes were intelligent and had a bit of mischief. As far as she was concerned, the world needed a little less meanness and a little more mischief.

Behind her, on the other side of the little park, she heard the cellist and the violinist begin. She closed her eyes for just a moment, breathing in whatever good energy there was, and then heard a sound she’d never thought to hear again, certainly not in the middle of the city. She tried to process the clamor of people’s reactions to what they’d heard, then opened her eyes just as the skateboarder and Milly hurried by. He tossed her a pouch and said, ‘Hold on to that until I find you again.’

She felt a moment of confusion and then, magnificently, wonder. The night was suddenly full of surprise.”

From Spyro’s novel Scorpio’s Deck.

Pet Prose: Mr. Cookie

“It was October of my senior year in high school when my grandpa died. I already wasn’t having a good year and taking a road trip with my parents and my kid sister to rural South Dakota–isn’t all of South Dakota rural?–was not my preferred method of ditching a week of school. Plus I’d loved my grandpa. We didn’t get to see him a lot, but he had a knack for making a kid feel like what he said and thought mattered.

The rest of the family lived closer than us, so they’d made it to his old farmhouse a day or two before we did. It was easy to see that most everybody had reached a point where they’d eaten and drunk too much and gotten all their nostalgia out of the way. They were ready to rehash old battles, argue over who should get what stuff, and generally be jerks. Nobody was talking about Grandpa.

After a couple of hours of listening to them and eating yet another scoop of another casserole brought by basically the entire population of South Dakota, I slipped into Grandpa’s room, sat on his bed–way too soft–and stared at the floor for a while. I was considering taking a nap when I noticed his old work boots tucked under his dresser. They couldn’t possibly be the same ones he’d worn when I was a kid, but they looked the same. They reminded me of times when he and I walked around the property before he’d gotten too old to farm and sold most of it off. Or when we’d slosh through the muddy ground that led to the pond where he taught me to fish. I thought of rides on the tractor, feeding the cows, and trying to make the mules let me ride them–they never did. I thought of the year he bought goats and the goats decided they wanted to live in the house. His goat stories had made my sister and me laugh so hard she’d peed her pants, but Grandpa just did some laundry and kept her secret.

I slid out of my Chucks and stuffed them into the oversized pockets of my army surplus field jacket that my mother hated. Then I slipped into Grandpa’s boots, laced them up, and stood. They were a perfect fit. I was pretty sure nobody was going to notice the battered old boots as long as I didn’t call attention to them, but I still tried to make myself invisible as I walked through the scattered groups of quarrelsome family members and outside to our car, where I hid my sneakers under the driver’s seat.

I turned to go back inside and almost stumbled when my feet suddenly decided to take a sharp left. I shook my head and again tried to turn toward the house, but my feet were not cooperating.

Or maybe it wasn’t my feet. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I considered that Grandpa’s boots just might have their own plan for where I was going next.”

From Mr. Cookie’s work in progress These Boots.

Pet Prose: Herbie

“I knew I wasn’t going anywhere that New Year’s Eve when I woke up with chills and a strong desire to borrow my girlfriend’s neti pot, which is about the grossest inclination I’ve ever had and after years of teasing her so mercilessly about it, only my sense that death was imminent could have prompted it.

‘Yep,’ Ceecee said, shaking the thermometer, ‘you have a fever.’

‘What do you think is wrong? The flu? Swine flu? Ebola? West Nile virus? What’s that other one everybody was supposed to get in South America? Zika? We ate at Bogotá three days ago. How do we know someone in the kitchen isn’t a carrier?’

‘Because there are no mosquitos in Kansas in December. What you have is a man cold. You’ll be okay.’

‘You’re not a doctor.’

‘Fine. I’ll call Patrick. Maybe he can give you a shot of something.’

I closed my eyes and willed myself not to remind her I was deathly afraid of shots. From there, my fevered brain was off and running. I was so afraid of shots that I’d never been shot through the heart. Had a double shot of my baby’s love. Then again, my baby never shot me down (bang bang). I never shot the sheriff or the deputy. Never shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. Never hit anybody with my best shot. I was not a hot shot, a long shot, or a big shot.

Why the hell were there so many popular songs about shots? And why did we have a thermometer with mercury in it instead of one of those digital kind? Maybe I had mercury poisoning.”

From Herbie’s short story Fever Dreams.

Pet Prose: Daisy

“I was pretty sure saying yes to Eddie’s proposal was a mistake the night I met his family. Or maybe I mean The Family. Or maybe I just mean his mother. I saw her watching as we approached. She was wearing a sparking white dress and though she had to have been in her late forties, she had a killer body. Or do I mean a Killer’s body?

When we finally reached her, I barely heard Eddie’s introduction because my eyes were mesmerized by the necklace that covered almost all of her décolletage. Small, sparking rubies were set in a web of fragile, almost invisible gold, so that they looked like drops of blood across her chest.

She broke an awkward silence by making it even more awkward when she said in a husky voice, ‘My eyes are up here.’

My gaze flew to her face, trying to see whether I should laugh, but her eyes, as if another part of her necklace, were spiderlike, assessing what had stumbled into her web. Eddie had turned away, either looking for the quickest exit or someone carrying a tray of cocktails.

‘I was admiring your necklace,’ I admitted.

Her lips twitched a little at the corners when she said, ‘I like to think of the rubies as little drops of blood from all the unsuitable companions I’ve been forced to eradicate from my children’s lives.’

Yes, I would definitely tell Eddie I’d changed my mind about getting married. Only then I heard myself saying, ‘How precious you are. Eddie didn’t tell me about your macabre sense of humor.'”

From Daisy’s first novel Mob-in-Law.