Sunday, June 7, 2015

The Perfect Escape

by Michael Seese

Another 11th hour effort for a flash fiction contest this week. This time, it was for Janet Reid's contest. We had to incorporate the words

stage
actor
crane
chorus
ghost


in our 100-word effort. I started writing it on the plane home. My first thoughts were having it be about an aging starlet who "didn't stand a ghost of a chance of starring again." I scrapped that idea, and came up with the first two lines. Then contemplating it in bed this morning, I finished "The Great Escape."



A crane swoops down to the lake and finds his dinner. A chorus of crickets serenades the evening star.

"A penny for your thoughts," my wife says.

What should I say? That I'm sad to think at this stage we've been reduced to ghosts in our children's lives? That when you factor out the dependent-care years, our lives are basically over?

"I was thinking I could die happy here."

"I could, too," she says, taking my hand, her grip already slightly weaker.

"Another glass of wine?" I ask, grateful that the Cabernet's peppery flavor masks the bitterness of the poison.


Let me know what you think. 

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