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On Ruby Lips, by Steve O'Brien

16/11/2018

 
Though the sun blazed as he drove along the winding country lanes that led from the city where he worked, he was oblivious to the beauty and warmth spread before him. Instead, his eyes were drawn to the deep shadows cast by the scuttling clouds, his thoughts mired in the dark landscapes of lost valleys. He was thinking of people. People in conflict or people in anguish; the only people he knew. Yet, her husband had shown a kindness hadn’t he? By phoning with the news.

In the waiting area his tired eyes skimmed his police division’s latest crime reports, brought to occupy his mind; each one unconsciously adding to his personal bag of pain.
A bell rang somewhere. A tea trolley rattled into the ward; a shiny, incongruous machine led by a drab assistant. He reckoned her last thoughts of love were surely aeons ago.
Shown to the room he sat quietly by her bed, his heart keeping pace with the monitor's bleep. At first he could find only sadness in her eyes that tracked his own, but soon a pale, feeble smile appeared.
The ageing detective took her cool, soft hand and squeezed it and held it tightly against his cheek, then pressed his mouth gently on hers and held it there. He rose and walked unsteadily away, left only with a precious, faded photograph of a pretty girl on a distant summer's day who had just been kissed on ruby lips.
​
PrettylilParadox
25/11/2018 09:24:30 pm

This is fantastic writing. Thank you. It was just that morsel of bittersweet my palate was searching for.


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    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.

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    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.

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