“You here because of the war?”
The stranger tossed coins in my hat, glanced at my army jacket, the missing arm.
I nodded. It wasn’t technically a lie.
“Where did you fight?”
“Greece.” My voice was hoarse from disuse.
He looked puzzled, dug out a fiver anyway. “What’s your name?”
“Atlas.”
Sympathy was being replaced by skepticism across his face.
He glanced at my sign. “The sky will fall, eh?”
He shook his head and left. Didn’t take his money back, though. Not that it really mattered, but it was nice not having to starve while I was standing here.
I wanted to yell after him, mention the cracks forming above him. But he was too far gone, and I had a responsibility to all of humanity.
Tobias Backman is Danish science fiction and fantasy author. He dreams of writing a novel one day, but so far, his attention span has limited him to writing flash fiction. His stories have previously appeared in magazines such as Daily Science Fiction and Grievous Angel. This is his third story to be published by Stupefying Stories. You can find out more about him over at https://tobybackman.com/.
The Pete Wood Challenge is an informal ad hoc story-writing competition. Once a month Pete Wood
spots writers the idea for a story, usually in the form of a phrase or a
few key words, along with some restrictions on what can be submitted,
usually in terms of length. Pete then collects the resulting entries,
determines who has best met the challenge, and sends the winners over to
Bruce Bethke, who arranges for them to be published on the Stupefying Stories web site.
You can find all the previous winners of the Pete Wood Challenge at this link.
This
time the challenge was to write a flash fiction story of no more than
125 words in length that played off the keyword:
“homeless.”
REMINDER: There is another Pete Wood Challenge that is open for submissions right now. For details and how to enter, click this link.
Nano/micro fiction works well when it’s built on an existing premise or broader cultural knowledge. You get to do more with those scant few words. Often I find the chosen ideas a bit tired - but not this one! This was a clever, fresh and really entertaining piece. I really liked this one!
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