Friday Flash Fiction
  • Home
    • Opportunities at FFF
    • About Friday Flash Fiction
    • Terms & Conditions
  • 100-Word Stories
  • Longer Stories
  • Poetry
  • Authors
    • A
    • B
    • C
    • D
    • E-F
    • G-I
    • J-L
    • M-O
    • P-R
    • S-V
    • W-Z
  • Submissions
    • 100-Word Submissions
    • 500-Word Submissions
    • Short Poetry Submissions
    • Writing Good Flash Fiction >
      • How to complete the Entry Form
    • Appeals/Feedback Request
    • Contact FFF
    • Technical Stuff >
      • Terms & Conditions
      • GDPR Compliance
      • Duotrope
    • Support FFF

Pigs, And Pigs Again, by Eric Smith

31/10/2014

0 Comments

 
Posted as two 250-worders on successive days. First of all, on the 30th October:

I: Pigs Can Really Move

As he pulled into his driveway after work, Matt saw right away something didn’t look right. He parked his truck and walked across the road. First he noticed his newspaper tube was lying on the ground. He’d had it mounted on a steel fence post—the kind you string barbed wire on. The post was now bent flat. Then he looked out into the field and saw fresh tire tracks that led about twenty yards and stopped. At the end of the tracks he saw an old wooden trailer busted up beyond repair. He started to put it together. The trailer had run over his post and newspaper tube. Four or five kids began surrounding him.

“Hey, what happened here?” Matt asked the kids.
“That trailer ran over your post, mister,” the biggest kid said.
“Yeah, I see that, but where did it come from?”
“It came unhitched from an old pickup came through here couple minutes ago.”
“And they didn’t stop to get their trailer?”
“Naw, it ain’t worth nothin’, now.”
“Well, what was in the trailer?” Matt asked
“Pigs,” the biggest kid said.
“Then what happened to the pigs?” Matt asked.
“Aw, they all took off into the woods.”

As he pulled up the post and tried to straighten it, Matt wondered where the pigs might be by this time. He knew they could run a lot faster than most people thought. But it was none of his affair.


Then on the 31st October:

II: Pigs Again


Matt read about the huge pig farms in the Midwest and the lawsuits over their odor. His first experience with pigs came when he talked to a neighbor about an easement. The neighbor was in his hog shed so Matt had to talk to him there. He got within thirty feet when it hit him—a palpable smell, like a wall. Matt choked and could barely take another breath. He stopped and waited for the guy to come out. His neighbor had about ten pigs, but he’d been cleaning the shed and had disturbed the straw on its floor. He also had manure on his boots. So Matt had a tough time talking to him. Someone had said the farms in the Midwest smelled like sulfur and ammonia. It wasn’t like either of those, though. He just associated it with pigs and would never forget it. He couldn’t imagine how a farm with tens of thousands of hogs on it would smell.

Later, another neighbor, who lived across the road, began raising fifty or sixty pigs. The smell filled up the twelve-acre field between their houses. Matt kept the windows shut tight. It made no difference. The smell insinuated itself around his windows and under his doors. Fortunately, the pig-raising neighbor lost money at it and never tried it again.

If he ever considered moving to the Midwest, Matt knew he’d have to research carefully to assure no pig farmers lived nearby—as in a nearby county. 
0 Comments

Verboten, by Len Nourse

27/10/2014

0 Comments

 
Adel, a friend’s wife was off limits, yet she caused a rousing knot in my stomach. There was something about Adel, and the way she said things that engulfed my mind and body causing a rush of blood to my face.

“What was that about?” she provokingly asked.

Hardly keeping the excitement out of my voice, I could only say, “Don’t pack too much, I’ll carry the stuff!”

Her ensuing wry smile, invoking in me clichés of crystal glass and angel voices of strong Afrikaner women, said, “Luckily with the kids on a Sunday school outing and Konrad in in Cape Town for rugby we’ll have the mountains to ourselves until nightfall?”

“Fantastic, we can roam the mountains and swim in the waterfall pools uninterrupted!”

“Take that glint out of your eyes; you should know me by now!”

“Yes, but one day I’ll change your mind, hopefully today”

After a moment of solicitous silence she picked up her day-pack saying: “Come Mister, time to get rid of all that extra energy.”

One climbing the slopes I thought, “Maybe I should write a story about women in control, and why I’m attracted to them and not playful women. Adele is out of reach of us libidinous men. Yet, is she? I can’t remove this nagging but exciting thought conjured in the back of my mind of the meaning of her pause.”

On reaching the pool Adel quietly unbuttoned her skirt saying. “Len, don’t look so startled, here we are part of nature?”

Luckily the knot in my stomach moving downwards was quelled by the cold mountain water. I frivolously broke the ensuing silence saying, “Look at those drops of water dancing on the ripples of the falling water; want to hear the physics of it?”

After another moment of silence she said, “Let’s rather just lie quietly and enjoy this moment of serenity.”

“Damn you Adele, expecting me to lie quietly with your body so close to mine.”

I broke the ensuing silence saying, “Horrible, that hawk caught the dassie as it came out from the rocks to drink.”

Turning around to look, her hand softly brushed against my skin. While still wondering whether it was an accident she said, “Horrible yes, but it’s the law of nature.”

I wanted to say, ‘Law of Nature; I would have thought you would say the will of God, ‘when I felt the softness of her breast move over my chest. Her beautiful honey coloured hair gently tickling my face while her lips, wet and soft, covertly then urgently cling to mine

Our bodies became one when the majestic mountains, the fairy-tale clouds, and rock faces reaching into heaven became non-existent. All that I was aware of was this moment – the falling water now seeming like a roar - this body - the soft enticing breasts - her soft and wanting lips. I folded my arms around her. There was no time to wonder about right or wrong after our bodies made the decision. The moment was now. When I reached into the inner parts of her being she cried out - the mountain the only witness. 
0 Comments

West Point Light, by Eric Smith

27/10/2014

 
The cross country coach ordered the team to report to school in mid-August. We’d be running 100 miles a week until the first meet of the season. Joe Rafferty drove a bunch of us out at midnight to see what everyone called the West Point Light. That's when the mysterious light supposedly made its appearance. The light was bright and about the size of a train engine head lamp; it moved along the tracks at a lonely crossroads. The light did not disappoint us that night. After a fifteen or twenty minute wait, it appeared about 100 yards down the tracks and began rushing toward us. As it reached the spot where we stood, it broke up in front of us. Then it reformed behind us. We saw it four or five times. Then it stopped re-appearing. 

One story claimed the light emanated from the lantern of a headless railway worker decapitated along the tracks. Another legend centered on a phantom train that disappeared during the Civil War while carrying wounded soldiers. I put no stock in paranormal explanations, but the light was real nonetheless. I think a lot of things in life are like that—you have no ready scientific explanation. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t one. 

The most interesting thing to me is how the light showed up at the same time each night and performed in the same way— as if something consistent was driving it. It remains a mystery to me.

Can I Have My Money Back Please? by Gordon Lawrie

26/10/2014

0 Comments

 
In 2017, a previously-unknown retired teacher called William "Bill" Adbury changed the course of journalism worldwide when he bought a copy of the "Alloa Evening Gazette". Bill's attention had been drawn to a headline which suggested that every house in his own street was to be razed to make way for a Tesco hypermarket.

The report was pure fiction.

Two days later, Bill returned to his newsagent and demanded his money back under the Sale of Goods Act which insists that all items purchased must truthfully do what they claim. When the newsagent was unwise enough to refuse to refund Bill's money, Bill engaged a solicitor to pursue a case in the courts – against the newsagent, the newspaper itself and even the reporter personally.

The newsagent and reporter settled quickly. But the newspaper proprietors, afraid of creating a precedent, fought Bill and lost, costing them just £100.00 in damages but enormous sum in legal fees. They appealed, and when that appeal failed, appealed to a higher court still. Other readers and civil rights groups funded Bill's legal costs until seven years later the case finally came to a standstill when the newspaper declared itself bankrupt. The newspaper survived only because ownership passed by agreement into Bill's hands.

On 31st March 2014, Bill Adbury attended the editorial meeting for his new newspaper's launch the following day. Determined to set new standards in journalism from the outset, he instructed that his new acquisition's first headline should read "Scientists Prove Earth Is Flat."


(250 words)
0 Comments

    Longer
    Stories

    Longer Friday Flash Fiction Stories

    Friday Flash Fiction is primarily a site for stories of 100 words or fewer, and our authors are expected to take on that challenge if they possibly can. Most stories of under 150 words can be trimmed and we do not accept submissions of 101-150 words.


    However, in response to demand, the FFF team constructed this forum for significantly longer stories of 151-500 words. Please send submissions for these using the Submissions Page.

    Stories to the 500 word thread will be posted as soon as we can mange.


    Picture
    Please feel free to comment (nicely!) on any stories – writers appreciate it.
    Just at the moment, though, we're moderating some of them so there might be a slight delat before they appear
    .

    One little further note. Posting and publishing 500-word stories takes a little time if they need to be formatted, too.
    ​Please note that we tend to post longer flash fiction exactly as we find it – wrong spacing, everything.

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014

Picture
Website by Platform 36