Some places can only be found when you run out of gas.
Melanie locks the car and leaves the road, red container swinging.
§
Like unnumbered travelers before her, Melanie discovers a memento on the path. A tattered bunny that summons memories of her long-dead sister, Paige.
§
Solilee appears differently to everyone. For Melanie, it’s ramshackle buildings, vacant streets, a playground.
She pushes a swing.
Recalls her last interaction with Paige twenty-five years ago—guilt, still heavy as an anchor.
§
Paige, materializing on the merry-go-round, skips toward her.
“I’m sorry I let go,” Melanie says.
“You haven’t let anything go.” Paige, wearing her favorite carnation-pink overalls, remains unaged. “Let go.”
§
Each encounter ends the same, with Solilee dissipating.
But do you continue grieving?
Or do you move on?
§
Casting a final glance over her shoulder, Melanie picks up the gas can and walks back to the main road.
________________________________________
A native Floridian, C. L. Sidell grew up playing with toads in the rain and indulging in speculative fiction. Her work appears in The Cosmic Background, Dark Moments, Dread Machine, Factor Four Magazine, Impossible Worlds, Martian Magazine, Stupefying Stories, and others. You can find her on various social media platforms @sidellwrites
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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 150 words in length, inspired by and using the phrase, “out of gas.”
Special Thanks to Paul Celmer: for going above and beyond to help with this challenge
1 comments:
Subtle and beautiful! I love the multiple meanings of “letting go.” Delicately handled!
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