I’m delighted to be taking a course entitled “Writing Fiction” from our local community college… it’s my first official creative writing class! Although I’ve been scribbling all sorts of stuff for years, I figure I can only improve through opportunities such as these, right?
Our first assignment was to write a flash fiction piece of about 250 words centered around the theme “Tiny Objects”. Here’s mine – please let me know what you think!
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The Test – 252 words
She stared at the pink line. Oh God. Closing her eyes didn’t make the truth go away.
“How did this happen?” She grabbed the round case off the counter and opened it. “Two days. I only missed two days.”
Sitting on the toilet, she clutched the pregnancy test in one hand and her abdomen with the other. The pill case lay abandoned on the counter.
Even now, she remembered from biology class, cells were forming and dividing, creating new life.
Such tiny things. Pills. Lines. Babies.
“Honey, you O.K.?” A knock followed his question. “You’ve been in there forever.”
When she didn’t answer, he flung the door open. It took him a moment to notice the stick in her hand.
“Does that mean what I think it means?”
She nodded mutely. He raced out of the room.
Great. Guess I know how he feels about this.
A minute later, he ran back in, black box in hand. “I was going to ask on our anniversary. But this…” He put a hand over hers across her stomach. “…This seems like the perfect time.”
He opened the box to reveal a ring housing a small but brilliant diamond. She gasped, staring at the stone.
“I’m sorry it’s so tiny,” he offered, a nervous hitch in his voice.
“It’s perfect,” she said. “Yes. Yes!”
She looked again at the pink line, at the ring, at their hands clasped together over her belly, over their baby.
The littlest things really do make the biggest difference.