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Based on a true story, or real-world

FlashNano Day 21: “We are longing…”

/ Liz H-H / 1 Comment
purple violets on a black background

A contemplative piece, part true, part fantasy, from the place where dreams slumber? Day 21 of a flash a day in the month of November. Inspiring prompts generously offered by Nancy Stohlman.

We Are Longing

The city street is deserted, trolleys on the next block down stopped, their electric hum silent in this liminal moment just before sunrise. A cat strolls liquid over cobblestones and around the edges of the shop doors, slipping away after having surveyed the trash cans and finding nothing to its liking. We sit on our black railed balcony on the third floor and drink in the desires of those who have not yet shaken the dreams from their blankets.

We are early risers and we are longing.

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FlashNano 2025: Day 9

/ Liz H-H / 6 Comments
Smashe Marlboro butt on pebbly ground

It’s the final year of FlashNano, by Nancy Stohlman, where we write a flash a day in response to a prompt, or just because. This is a quick write, but it was kinda fun. And again, I just happened to have the right image!

Day 9: “Write a story where the ending comes first!”

“I prefer door number 2,” I stated tremulously. After all it had taken to get to this point, I hoped I hadn’t chosen wrong.

###

I picked him up outside the Morningside apartments at 9 am. He stood leaning against the rusted black iron banister, arms crossed in front of him as he bent to take a final drag off his cigarette, before tossing it on the sidewalk. Tipping his head back once to indicate what? Greeting? Acknowledgement that I was there? Irritation that we were sharing the same air? Attraction?

He liked it that way. I suspected that I did too.

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Signs For a Crash

/ Liz H-H / 17 Comments
(Road signs indicating directions to various locations including the airport) © Ayr/Gray

Many thanks to Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr for their photo prompt, THE UNICORN CHALLENGE.  (06/20/2025). No more than 250 words in length.

Jenna cracked her forehead on the dashboard, and left it there for a count of ten. Side-eying the fool behind the wheel, she pounded her forehead on its sun-hot surface for a beat of five.

“Please just pull over, Gerry.” She raised her head. “We’ve driven around this circuit at least four times. We’ll run out of gas before we even leave the train station lot.”

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The Electrician

/ Liz H-H / 23 Comments

The challenge? Write a story in exactly 6 sentences based on Denise’s one word prompt: FUSE. Visit, comment, and write & post your own on SIX SENTENCE STORIES. The Café is open. Come as you are!

The pop was loud enough to wake me from my favorite dream: barefoot on a tropical moonlit deck in a shared deckchair with my current celebrity crush, the pop of the champagne cork shooting straight to regions unnamed but known well.

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Cider Press

/ Liz H-H / 19 Comments
One bad apple can tip a balanced local economy in this whimsical 248-word story. Another Unicorn Challenge
© Ayr/Gray

Many thanks to Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr for their photo prompt, THE UNICORN CHALLENGE.  (05/23/2025). No more than 250 words in length.

Me and my cargo have been waiting by the side of this road, near all day. The sun’s hot, ground’s dry, trees hard with the lack of rain, and Trevor never did show up this morning to drag us the rest of the way to the rail station, just a quarter of a mile away. The first and last train will have come and gone by now, I reckon.

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MN Jam

/ Liz H-H / 6 Comments
A refirgerator jam on making jam. Strawberries, ruhubarb, and Goddess, thou art tongue drunk!

Rhubarb from the DIL, strawberries fresh & light from the grocer. So of course, putting by jam for winter, but with a taste for right now! And refrigerator magnet poetry while the jars seal in a boiling water bath.