Janet Flash: Tilted **

by Michael Seese

Another week, another contest.

After two unsuccessful attempts to foil the brilliant Steve Forti, Janet is crying uncle, throwing in the towel, going belly up, and giving us a "normal" contest, the "slightly uneven, off kilter, write your way back to normal flash fiction contest."

She challenged us to use:

kilter
tilt
lean
list
roll


in a 100-word story. Wishing to do something fun with "kilter," I came up with Tilted**

“Hey, MacLeod! Your balls are showing. You ought to get a better slip.”

“Dobber!”

Kilters always hate it when you insult their tartans. 

Sure, my trolling bordered on juvenile. But I needed him off his game. Rumor had it a buyer was coming. 

Then she walked in. I nearly flipped. A definite A-lister.

“Nice,” she cooed, touching me, pressing all the right buttons, ringing my bells. “Very clean. I'll...”

She saw him and lit up. Like we did, once.

“Funhouse may be a classic. But Highlander was my favorite. I spent hours playing it. Sold.”

Story of my life.

Tilt!
 

** the reason I added asterisks is, much like last week, all too late I realized I goofed. Last week was a missing dash, which she forgave me (and others) for. This week, I didn't quite nail the ending. The now all-too-obvious last line should have been "Tilted again," a play on "Jilted Again."

D'oh!

We'll see what happens tomorrow.