The Patio

 

She woke from an uneasy dream brought on by too many beers the night before. She was still on the patio bench in her evening clothes, but had fallen sideways. Someone had placed her light shawl over her bare legs. It was already hot, and would be even hotter later on. She vaguely remembered the young couple she’d met at the bar and had invited back to her patio to have more beer. The couple were gone, of course, but had left something under the ashtray on the table. It was a few American dollars and a note. It thanked her for an enjoyable evening and the money was to pay her back for some of the beer. It also had their email address.

 

After a cold shower she felt better. She still couldn’t remember the names of the couple. She thought maybe the man’s name was Barry, but couldn’t even guess at the woman’s name. The email address didn’t give much clue. It was Jampot27Z@gmail.com. By now she couldn’t even clearly remember what they looked like. Maybe she’d go back to the bar in the evening and see if she could find them. Maybe drink less this time. Maybe even think about going home. This wasn’t the vacation she thought it would be. Four days and all she’d done was sweat through the day and drink through the night.

 

She woke the next morning in the patio again, but this time she was on the floor. At least the tiles were nice and cool. She had zero recollection of the evening. No clue as to how many beers she’d had. No memory of meeting anyone, let along the young couple. As she lay there trying to muster the energy to get up, she watched a scorpion walk across her hand. When it was on the other side of the patio, she got up, showered, and started to pack.

 

 

“The Missing Domino”

 

I wrote this Flash Fiction in 2002.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

 

The Missing Domino

(or, Spot’s Gone!)

 

She was on her hands and knees under the dining room table when he got home from work.

 

“Lose a contact again?” he joked.

 

“Very funny,” she said. “This is way more important.”

 

“What?”

 

“I’ve lost a domino.”

 

Now he understood the serious nature of the matter. His wife was totally addicted to playing dominoes. He immediately got down on the floor and joined in the search. “Which one?” he asked.

 

“The 6/1,” she replied.

 

Her favorite. This was worse than he thought. “When did you see it last?”

 

“After lunch. Jayne, Helen and Helen’s sister-in-law came over for a few games. Then we had pie. After they left and I cleared the table, I noticed I was a domino short.”

 

Personally, he’d always thought his wife was at least one domino short. He’d never known someone so in love with a game.

After an hour of futile searching they stopped for a breather. Sitting at the table she looked him in the eye. “If you want to know what I think, I think Helen’s sister-in-law took it.”

 

“Why on earth would she steal one of your dominoes?”

 

“I didn’t say steal, I said took. I expect she’ll find some way of returning it to me. She just wanted to shake me up. She knows how I feel about the game and especially about the 6/1 being my favorite. She thought it was pretty funny when Helen slipped and mentioned my little idiosyncrasy.”

 

After dinner he took the trash out to the back porch. As he raised the lid of the trash can, the yard light shone on something inside. Bending over the can, he extracted a very sticky domino. It had stuck to the bottom of a paper plate. Debating whether or not this was a good time for his wife to kick the habit, he was about to pocket the domino when she opened the back door to see what was taking him so long.

 

“You found it!” she cried. Taking the domino to the sink to wash it off, she said, “I guess I owe Helen’s sister-in-law a mental apology.”

 

“Mental’s the word,” he mumbled.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~  

                                                                

Total word count: 364 – Sudden Fiction category

 

“So What?”

 

This was a flash fiction I wrote a very long time ago when in a very strange mood. I did quite a few of these kinds of things. I would sit on the couch and just start writing random words or sentences and try to connect them later.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

 

So What?

 

A man sat in his car, reading the newspaper.

A woman walked past with a poodle on a leash.

A bird flew over them carrying a peanut in its beak.

A little boy dropped his ice cream cone and cried. 

A girl cradled a kitten in her arms.

A policeman wrote a ticket and put it under the windshield-wiper of an illegally parked car.

The sun set. The moon rose. A new day started. And nobody cared!

 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Total word count: 79, putting this in the micro fiction category.