Flash Friday Fiction: Home Fires Burning

Oak Alley Plantation. CC2.0 photo by Corey Balazowich.
Oak Alley Plantation. CC2.0 photo by Corey Balazowich.

Home Fires Burning
146 words

Home is where the heart is. That’s what they say, at least.

Never has a sight been so welcome as the house before me. I am home. I have survived years of war, of suffering, of agony. I have survived the end of innocence.

As I walk down the familiar path, the time-worn bricks covering what used to be gravel, and before that, dirt, I think of my father. My grandfather. His father. And generations back, all of us fighting. Some of us coming home.

My knees buckle and I sink to the ground, kissing it, thanking it for one more day on earth, one more day with you.

Then I see you, between the columns, your face turning towards me, your body in the arms of another man.

And I know it’s true, what they say. You can’t go home again.

I raise my gun.


From our fearless Flash Friday! Fiction leader, Rebekah Postupak:

Winding down our novel prompts (just four more after today!), it’s Gone With the Wind, of course: Margaret Mitchell’s sweeping American Civil War drama starring a proud and rather snotty plantation owner’s daughter who does everything in her power to survive the war and hold on to her family home.

Story elements (base your 150 [+/-10] word story on any TWO of these elements; be sure to tell us which two you chose. Reminder: please remember the Flash! Friday guidelines with regard to content; and remember please do not use copyrighted characters).

* Conflict: man v man, man v society (not gender specific)
Character (choose at least one): a plantation owner’s daughter, a racketeer, a beautiful woman who never does anything wrong, a noble soldier, a hot-tempered child, a slave whose cruel situation is never acknowledged, a pair of mischief-making twins
Theme (choose one): desperation, determination, slavery, society/class, women’s rights
Setting (choose one): the American South during the Civil War, a war-torn city


What do you think? I chose the noble soldier, and the themes of desperation/determination. I’m actually surprised at my own ending, considering how anti-gun I am, but there it was. Now the question is, at whom do you think he was aiming that gun?

Wanna read the other selections? Here you go!

 

I Am Sisyphus, and Sugar Is My Boulder

sisyphusIt’s confession time. I’ve been struggling with sugar again.

It’s been a year since I decided to axe sugary stuff from my diet, but in truth, the last six months have been a series of ups and downs – getting off of sugar and being off for a while, then falling face-first into the stuff. And the times off between binges have been shrinking.

Not good.

I feel so much better when I’m off sugar, both physically and emotionally. I can concentrate better. I feel better about myself because I’m not being a slave to a substance. I feel less jittery, irritable, fuzzy, angry.

With all of those bonuses, why on EARTH would I ever go back to the stuff?

Because it tastes darn good. And because sugar is eight times more addictive than cocaine.

Sigh.

I am Sisyphus, and sugar is my boulder. I’m at the bottom of the hill again, right now.

I’ll get back on the wagon. I don’t want to lose this war, even if I concede battles.

I just wish I didn’t have to fight so hard to begin with.