Janet Flash: Games

by Michael Seese

I had a bit of trouble with this week's entry in the Janet Reid flash fiction. I came to realize that the challenge came from the words:

pinch
nick
lift
rob
filch 
They're all basically synonyms.

The rules allow us to "expand" the clue words; so "rob" could be corroborate. And I tried that. But there's not much you can do with "filch." Once I embraced that they all meant the same thing, the idea came from that. And here is "Games."

“I need a synonym for rob.”

“Lift. Nick.”

“Five letters.”

“Filch. Pinch.”

“Pinch. Perfect.”

As long as I've known Maddie, she's been a crossword fiend, though recently she's been cuckoo for Sudoku too. Unfortunately, of late it seems the games have had a monopoly on her attention. Every trivial pursuit, honestly And when she's not busy ignoring me, she's moody. I’ve been preparing my speech.

I'm sorry it's come to this... 

“How about a synonym for pregnant? Two letters.”

“Two letters? Hmmm. That's…”

“M-E,” she said, placing my hand on her belly.

A game changer, if there ever was one.


It didn't win. But she like my line about Sudoku. (I was pretty proud of that one.)

Oh well. Please let me know what you think of "Games."