Flash Fiction – What Lives Under The Bridge?

Sam planned carefully. He would say the most intelligent things ever said. He would show them all his opinion carried more weight than the idiot on center stage. His comments were more important. The sword of his words would impale the other jerk and leave her bleeding.

With each new sentence he would bully the bully who had dared to contradict him. How dare her call him immature for stating his opinion. He stamped down the guilt that reared its ugly head. It didn’t matter who started it! Sam would flay her with carefully thought out vitriol. She would walk away crying. Such thoughts reigned as he pounded out the words, patting himself on the back for his cleverness.

Wait, did she just laugh at me? Bitch. Her comment shattered his argument. This could not be allowed. Quickly he changed the focus, accusing the woman of being the real drama queen. He threw out as many of her transgressions as he could remember. That would put her in her place and stop Sam from losing the argument.

He waited patiently for the response, for the detractor to slink away, tail between her legs, firmly beaten. The notification popped up. Sam nervously clicked on it and read the comment: “rolls eyes.”

With an inarticulate gargle he threw his laptop across the room. He had been out-trolled.

This story is as dumb as the internet fights that inspired it. Now I’m going to go write something about ‘real’ troll who lives under a bridge.

Photo by Ryan McGuire

Trusting Someone Enough To Fall Asleep In Their Presence Is Not Consent

Warning: This is a rant and is sure to contain foul language and strong opinions. Also, I changed the names to protect some young people’s privacy.

My fourteen year old daughter, who is an eighth grader got in the car today after school and immediate informed me “There is major drama going on in the school today.”

Assuming she meant typical teenager stuff I got ready to half listen. No offense to her but sometimes hearing about who is dating who, which friends got in a fight, and who she’s mad at aren’t really the funnest things to talk about. I do however like that she Does talk to me so I got prepared.

“There’s a girl names Kate who…”

As her story unfolded I went through many emotions and I want to apologize now for anything offensive or irrational that I say from this point on. She explained that Kate had a bunch of friends, male and female, over recently and they all stayed really late. Kate fell asleep on the floor in her living room and everyone left. A few minutes later one of the boys, Jacob, came back to get his phone charger.

The story gets a little hazy here. Something happened. Exactly what is not clear. What is known is Kate was asleep. Jacob touched her. She didn’t respond. He left. Later he sent a text to her apologizing for touching her. Today at school he told one of his friends what he had done. The friend got really angry and told everyone he knew. When people asked Kate what happened she said “I don’t know, ask Jacob.” When they asked Jacob, he didn’t really say anything.

The “drama” is that half the school is on Kate’s side and the other is on Jacobs. Some say that there is no way Kate wouldn’t have woken up and if she woke up and didn’t want it, she could have stopped him.

My daughter seemed confused so I laid it out for her. If Kate was asleep and this kid was putting his hand up her shorts to touch her, that is sexual assault. It doesn’t matter if she woke up. The fact is, no matter how this girl responded to it, the guy knew she was asleep when he started this, that’s rape. If you’re asleep, you can’t say yes or no, so the no should be assumed.

If she felt it why wouldn’t she have stopped him? What the hell was she supposed to do? She was deep asleep when this happened. She might have thought she was dreaming, she might have been scared, probably confused.

My daughter says the ‘whole school’ doesn’t understand why she won’t talk about it. WHAT? First of off the ‘whole school’ can piss off. No one gets to tell Kate how she should be reacting. She could be embarrassed, hurt, terrified, confused, angry, any number of things and it’s not for anyone else to assign a feeling or attitude to her. She may not be handling it well, but SHE’S the one that has to deal with it.

This all became such a big deal today that someone finally told a teacher and my kid told me she saw Kate and her mother going into the school (a few minutes before I got there), and the mom looked really angry.

For clarity, Jacob has basically admitted to doing this on Twitter of all places, repeatedly. He’s gone on and on about how he thinks a devil is in him and how everyone makes mistakes and people should stop judging him. He’s bitched about all his friends deserting him and he’s threatened suicide. Now I don’t want this kid to kill himself but the little bastard needs to stop acting like he’s the victim.

I spent the entire car ride home explaining what sexual assault is. I told my daughter that just because Jacob stopped, that doesn’t mean an assault didn’t happen. Just because he now feels bad doesn’t mean it’s okay. Just because he lost all his friends doesn’t mean anyone should feel sorry for him. Just because he Twitter threatened suicide doesn’t mean Kate wasn’t violated. Just because some of the kids on the school don’t think it’s a big deal doesn’t mean they are right.

I’m pretty sure that my daughter felt sorry for Jacob, at least a little until the Twitter thing. That’s part of what’s got me so worked up. Obviously I’m concerned about the girl and I’m glad it wasn’t worse but for me personally, this is a huge thing I need to make my kid understand. She seemed to think it was just drama and a crazy situation. She didn’t take it as seriously as she should have. By the end of our drive she asked me if the boy could end up going to jail. It’s scary as hell to know that serious consequences never occurred to her. That this is a big deal, beyond school drama, never crossed her mind. I guess she didn’t truly believe the guy did something so bad. What if she was the one asleep on the floor? Would she have just let him do what he wanted because she didn’t know how to handle it? I guarantee you after our talk she knows what to do!

Now for anyone that wants to jump on my case, I know there is at least some small chance that Kate isn’t telling the whole truth. I advised my kid to reserve judgement until she knew the facts. I believed that was the best course of action until I saw Jacobs Twitter account, and his admissions.

All parents need to sit down with their kids and have a frank conversation about sex, sexual assault, sexual harassment, boundaries, limits, and what to do if they find themselves in a bad situation. Maybe don’t use as many curse words as I think I did in our talk.

I apologize again for the language, but not for the opinions.

Flash Fiction – How Addie Became A Horror Author

One day Addie sat at her desk writing, or at least trying. Virtually every time she started to get a thought on paper someone interrupted. First it was her husband. It irritated her but he truly needed to speak to her before leaving so she got over it fast. Then one of her children had a very urgent request for juice.

Following on the kid’s heels was the family dog. He didn’t understand why playing fetch wasn’t more important than the chapter his master was working on. Next came a mouse, causing Addie to scream and climb on top of her desk but giving the dog something to do.

She was able to get a few unexpectedly scary scenes written while the two animals destroyed her office around her. If only she’d hadn’t been writing romance. The doorbell stopped the frightful stuff and it was the mailman delivering printer paper that Addie was praying she’d be able to use that night so it was an acceptable interruption.

The kids’ toilet overflowed, because of course it did and the doorknob to the bathroom miraculously locked itself. Half an hour later her husband came home and saved the day leaving another thirty minutes of cleanup time for his wife to handle. She was a little angry at being stuck with the messy part but was so relieved that he’d arrived before she could kick the door down that she didn’t complain.

Addie asked everyone to leave her alone for a while since she was behind at that point. They all agreed. Until her five-year old twins decided to fight over which game controller was the coolest to use. After settling that dispute there was a Lego disaster that proved painful to her feet for hours afterward.

Her least favorite neighbor stopped by saying she desperately needed to talk about the new couple down the street. Addie’s mother called, then her brother. And on and on it went until she finally gave up. She put away her laptop, packed up her notebook and put her pens, pencils, note cards and highlighters in a drawer. The journal and book on character development went on a shelf. She washed the ink stains from her hands and oddly her nose and walked into the living room.

Addie asked her husband if he wanted to watch a movie but he was in the middle of some crucial sporting event and barely shook his head. She inquired if any of the kids wanted to play a board game but they were busy with the Legos. She tried throwing the ball for the dog but he was chewing on what might have been a dead mouse.

Sighing she went back to her desk. She opened her laptop and waiting for the first person to come in and stop her. Nothing happened so she pulled out her notebook and index cards. Still silence. She pulled the drawer out slowly so no one was alerted and she grabbed a pen. Finally, she thought.

She thought for a few moments and after remembering where she left off, put the pen to paper. Her husband walked in the room stating that the game sucked and asked if she wanted to do something. A yelling match erupted from the other room. The doorbell rang. The dog started barking. Her oldest kid began screaming about bloody dead mice.

Addie slowly turned her head and…well no one will talk about what happened next, but within ten minutes the rest of her family, including the dog, was loaded up in the car and driving very fast away from the house. They seemed nervous when they came back five hours later, or so neighbors, who no longer try to visit, said. The mailman always leaves packages on the porch but doesn’t knock and her mother waits for her to call.

To this day, when it’s writing time, she is left in peace. The downside is no one she knows has the guts to read her work.

My family may or may not have inspired this piece.

The lovely art was done by my daughter.

Flash Fiction – Stanley, The Grumpy, Kid Loathing Salesperson – Flash Fiction

Stanley was destined to hate life from birth. He was supposed to have been born a boy, that’s what the doctor had assured the mother of. Stanley’s father had nearly burst with pride and his parents bought every boy related item under the sun for their impending arrival. A name was settled upon easily. Stanley Allen Stevenson. The first name for his father, the middle for his mother’s uncle.

When the big day came and the child was a girl they ditched the middle name and stubbornly kept the first. She became Stanley Margret Stevenson and she wore a lot of blue.

One would think the girl would be the victim of merciless teasing, kids can be so cruel. Not Stanley, or not for long. At first she tried to go by her middle name but the other kids said it was a grandma name. Then she tried the name Leigh but it never caught on. Finally she made the decision that all children were awful, including herself so she would act accordingly.

Stanley singled out a few of the strongest and most popular boys and beat them up. Thus began a reign of terror her small town never forgot, even after she moved to the big city. When she came home to visit her parents the mom and pop stores closed and people stayed off the streets. No one ever picked on her again.

Eventually Stanley found love and got married. She was nice, as much as she could be, to her husband but her disposition changed little.

Now some people mellow with age, not Stanley. She hated most adults too and became an expert at making everyone around her miserable. She held a special place in her black heart for kids though. Nothing made her happier than ruining some random child’s day or making a teenager feel bad about themselves.

To further her passion she got a job in the only toy store in her city. Stanley was a hard worker and quickly moved up the ranks to management. Oh the stories she could tell of meanness, entrapment and accusations she delighted in.

Her favorite tale was of the little girl she made cry over a stuffed pony. The child ran to her mother and they came back to yell at Stanley. Since she felt no remorse they left without satisfaction. However, before exiting the store the mother informed Stanley she would place a curse on her. She would pay for the way she treated her daughter and all the other children she’d heard about. Of course Stanley had a reputation by then.

A couple of months after the curse, Stanley got very sick. She could hardly eat, she threw up all the time and she was always tired. She went to the doctor and after some tests that made no sense to her she realized the curse had worked. It was the worst possible thing that could ever happen to her.

Quintuplets. The end.

I’ve said this before, sometimes you just need a silly story. This one was a great outlet after the incident my daughter had this weekend. Perhaps I’ll write more adventures for Stanley one of these days.

Teenager Discrimination

Not everyone believes that age discrimination is really a thing, at least not when applied to teenagers. I myself have practiced it when I worked retail. I might not have accused any young people of anything but I certainly kept an eye on any large group of them that came into my store and I’ve had to ask a few such groups to leave when they started damaging things. What I’m wondering today is, is that fair? Sure it’s fair to be thrown out of a store for behaving badly but what about the being prejudged part? No, probably not.

Today my fourteen year old daughter had a bad experience in a store at our local mall. It was a party supply store, yes a national chain. She went in with a large group of friends, that was the first check off the list against her. It was all girls, add another check. Ten teenage girls aren’t really capable of being quiet so I have no doubt they were being loud – check. In a group of people who large, the ones actually shopping are going to want different things but they wanted to stay together so they went down every aisle. It didn’t really take long for an employee to get so suspicious she had to say something.

Did she tell them they were being too loud or disruptive to other customers? Nope. The exact quote as repeated to me was:

“I hope you guys know this is not a playground, it’s a store and if you’re not going to buy anything we’re going to kick you out.”

A playground. Can you get any more insulting to a teenager? I think not. I know the employee had no way of knowing if these kids were paying customers or not, but isn’t that the point? As a matter of fact, five of them did make purchases, even after being humiliated.

Now as a parent of a well-behaved kid who has rarely done anything wrong in her life (she’s a people pleaser, poor thing), I’m furious with that lady. As a former retail employee I understand, to a point. I think she handled it badly and that perhaps she needs to not work weekends. I, for one, have never been into a party store on a weekend and Not seen teenagers in it.

My daughter also told me the store was actually FULL of teenagers, mostly in groups, so the party pooper in the party store probably has way less hair than she did this morning.

What would you have done in the employee’s place? For the parents out there, would you be angry?

Sidenote: I wrote for much longer than six minutes today and I’m very happy about it! What’s next for me? Why a story about a fictional grumpy, job hating, teenager loathing villain of course.

Too Much Anger In The Air Today

Any of you ever had someone confront you after they caught you shake your head at their terrible parking? It happened to me a little while ago. I was about to pull into a spot and realized there was a car taking up half of that spot and the one in front of it. I drove around and went to another spot and noticed there was a lady in the badly parked car. I shook my head and thought she was an idiot.

That was the end of the story for me. Not her. As I walked in front of her car to get to the store she partially got out and said “Why did you shake your head at me?” She was pretty agitated, and waving her phone at me. I was so surprised I only said “Excuse me?” She repeated her question, which seemed to anger her even more.

I stopped and stared at her for a second before responding. “Look at your parking job.” She turned bright red, and I continued on into the store, (I’m pretty sure I was still shaking my head). I have no idea what she said after that, but I could hear her practically yelling into her phone, bitching about me I’m sure.

So after I walked in the doors I turned back and watched as she corrected her parking issue and I laughed, which of course got me weird looks from the people near me. Did I leave out that this lady was a much older woman, like 80? She was also half my size, so I was somewhat impressed that she had to guts to confront me.

I felt a little bad, because I didn’t have to even respond but she caught me off guard. However, I think it’s ridiculous to yell at someone for noticing when you mess up. I did see her in the store and she pretended like I didn’t exist. This time I kept my head under tight control.

I feel like I should somehow turn this into a short story or flash fiction, or even a small scene. Either way I wanted to share it; this was too weird not to. Has this kind of thing ever happened to any of you? How did you handle it? I can’t be the only person that has that issue where words come out of my mouth before thoughts are completely processed.