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

Retirement Plan, by Mark Joseph Kevlock

14/9/2018

 
The two men had been friends for eighty years.

They shared the same birthday.

Today they both turned one hundred years old.

Their wives were long deceased.

Their cities were long at peace.

Now what?

To celebrate they sat upon a hover platform no wider than a dining room table and stared, each of them, at their cities in the distance.

"It's all so boring now," The Playboy said. "Fifty years ago it had character."

The Farmer nodded agreement. "You never knew when a super-villain was going to turn your day into an adventure."

"Now it's all settled," The Playboy said. "Fought for. Won. Sterile. Complacent."

"Almost makes you wish for a bad guy," The Farmer sighed. "Just to shake things up."

The Playboy was nowhere near as forgiving as his friend. "Let them all rot," he said. "They never meant anything but harm to our worlds."

The Farmer found his friend's use of the term "worlds" very telling — for they both thought of their cities that way: as individual planets, unique environments, outside of which neither of them had ever been able to accomplish very much. But within those city limits... oh, there they were gods!

"How much longer do you think we'll live?" The Farmer asked his friend.

"I'm only mortal," The Playboy replied. "I'll probably go first."

But neither of them expected to die any time soon.

That gave them years, perhaps decades, to fill up.

What with?

"Is anyone from those days still around?" The Farmer asked.

"No one I can think of," The Playboy replied.

"We've outlived them all," The Farmer said.

"And our own usefulness, too," The Playboy said.

"What we need," The Farmer said, "is a retirement plan."

"I'll entertain the notion," The Playboy replied.

So they sat and exercised their vast intellects to that end. Long moments passed. Twilight appeared.

"I can't think of a thing," The Playboy said.

"Neither can I," The Farmer said.

"Maybe we should go back to our secret identities," The Playboy said, "and live them for real."

The Farmer shook his head. "I don't think either of us would find that very amusing."

Silence came again between them.

"We could go look for other cities," The Farmer said. "Start over again with a new life."

"I have enough trouble," The Playboy said, "sustaining the old one."

The Farmer knew his friend to be nowhere near as fragile as The Playboy purported to be. They were, after all, sharing their centennial celebration.

"Maybe crime-fighting kept me young," The Playboy offered, as if reading The Farmer's thoughts.

"There is no more crime," The Farmer said, almost wistfully.

The lights of the two cities came on, one at a time, by the millions.

"How long do you figure," The Farmer said, "we should sit up here like this?"

"A while longer," The Playboy said.

And so the two men sat, companions in accomplishment. Friends for eighty years. Crime-fighters long since retired.

And without any plans.
​
DavidErdey
18/9/2018 02:26:59 pm

Brilliant!

I think its weird that nobody else have commented this.
Really, really, a good piece of writing.


Comments are closed.

    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

    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

    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