The pandemic over, I took Bella, my girlfriend, to meet Mike, my favorite waiter. He and I used to chat after dinner like there was no tomorrow. I knew he’d missed me.
A new waiter approached our table then veered off, looking distressed.
I patted Bella’s hand. “I’m pretty sure he wasn’t our waiter.”
When he returned with menus and a forced smile, I said, “Where’s Mike?”
“He’s… not with us anymore.”
“No! The pandemic?”
“Good news is he uploaded to the EverCloud.”
“Great! Give me his account number. He’ll love to see me!”
“Bad news is… he told us not to. It was his dying wish.”
¤ ¤ ¤
Roxana Arama
is a Romanian-American writer and a member of Codex Writers’ Group. She
has an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College, her work has been
acknowledged in several literary contests and magazines, and she
maintains the website Rewriting History: How writers turn history into story, and story into history at www.roxanaarama.com. She lives in Seattle with her family. Follow her on Twitter at @RoxanaArama.
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Bruce Bethke here. This week The Pete Wood Challenge is bringing you seven new flash fiction stories, all of which key off some slight variation on the phrase, “I’m pretty sure he wasn’t our waiter.” In an ideal world we’d like to see you express your appreciation for these stories by taking a closer look at our other magazines, chapbooks, and original novels, probably starting with STUPEFYING STORIES MAGAZINE—
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